ZDOC is my initiative to create a GNU based (essentially freeware) Aportis DOC handler program for the PalmPilot. THE SOFTWARE ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED UNDER THE TERMS OF THE GPL. GO TO WWW.LINUX.ORG.UK/GPL.html TO READ THE LICENSE. The following are the proposed version numbers for ZDOC :- 0.0.x - Basic development versions. No functionality other than Database detection and classification. 1.0.x - Basic reader capable of handling uncompressed DOC files. 2.0.x - As 1.0.x but capable of reading compressed DOC files. 3.0.x - As 2.0.x but capable of writing to uncompressed DOC files. 4.0.x - As 3.0.x but capable of writing to compressed DOC files. 5.0.x - As 4.0.x but capable of encrypting text written/read to/from DOC files. 6.0.x - As 5.0.x but capable of Serial port receive/transmit of DOC files. If you are going to create your own versions I suggest you keep your version numbers the same as mine. If you have additional functionality please add version numbers while keeping the basic numbers constant. For example if i include XYZ functionality to Version 2.0.0 my version number should be 2.1.0. I will be incrementing 2.0.0 to 2.0.1 when a major bug is fixed and for nothing else. Bug fixes are appreciated! If you fix it i'll increment the version number and acknowledge you. This website is updated weekly. Check back for more info. Notes :- 14/6/98 - Beginning work on ZDOC -- Finally! Reading all the masses of dox. 15/6/98 - Finally got the basic Hello World to compile and run properly. 16/6/98 - Managed to get Version 0.0.0a running. 17/6/98 - Ver 0.0.0 stable. released on website. 18/6/98 - Ver 1.0.2a running. Not released due to bugs in the scrolling function. 19/6/98 - Work beginning on Ver 2.x due to the fact the compression/decompression was easier than i thought. Ver 2.0.0a running. Not released due to improvements reqd in memory handling. 20/6/98 - Argh. no access to public terminal. 21/6/98 - Did some work in memory improvement. No access to public terminal. *sigh* 22/6/98 - Couldnt compile Ver 2.0.0b. Public access to terminal denied. dammit. Hopefully should get something up by tomorrow. *double_sigh* 23/6/98 - Compiled in support for compression. Problems with fields to arrays conversions. Released 2.0.0a and found a major bug with memory handling. 2.0.1a now released with bits of the bug removed. 26/6/98 - Solved the horrible memory bug with help from 3COMs tech support !! Looks like their developer support is equally good compared to their customer support -- thanks guys!! ZDOC updated...
Below is the messages i recvd which solved the problem :- > >the emulator...said that my application had written to low memory... > >I found it to be the DmWrite() call... > >Are we allowed to continue using DmWrite() to databases ? > > Absolutely; DmWrite is the only way to write to a block in the storage > heap. There must be something else going wrong in your app. > > Have you verified that the handle returned to you is non-zero? And are > you really passing a zero as the second parameter to DmNewRecord? (It > isn't allowed to be null; it needs to point to a local variable.) > > I bet that your handle is invalid. Check it out in the debugger. > > -David Fedor > Palm Developer Support Anyway, theres still a small bug left which i'll clean out sooner or later. Weekend coming up so i think i'll leave it til monday. You can download Ver 2.0.1b in the meantime.
26/6/98 ok..ok. i had some time so i removed the bug. no more bugs left (i think).Mail me if you find any bugs left over. i'm releasing this for beta testing.
29/6/98 Worked over the weekend for the ZDOC manual + did the compressed
and uncompressed
saving. Released ver3.x alpha and ver 4.x alpha. Note the alpha
releases corrupt files and
will do so for some time until i get the bug out. Beta testing
program should hopefully
throw some bugs out which can be corrected in all the versions.
Development work is currently
going on full steam ahead and will continue to do so until a critical
level is reached.
Then i'll begin on the debugging/glitch tidying portions. Do not
use alpha releases on anything
other than debug roms + emulator.
30/6/98 bugs..bugs and more bugs. mainly related to memory handlers.
good news is compression
routines have been validated and work nicely. bad news is that
at least 3 MAJOR bugs have been
found all leading to severe and permanent database corruption.
all are in the saving routines
and no others (whew! relief) but all cause corruption in currently
opened databases. development
work is now halted while i try to combat the spread of the bugs
and limit memory loss. ZDOC_Tech.txt
is now included with the alpha files which details the bugs discovered
and removed in (mainly)
non technical terms.
1/7/98 ok..i seem to have removed (most) of the bugs...the alpha
release is proving to be more
stable than the beta right now (gulp!)..anyway, at the request
of plenty of testers ive removed
the pause while it displays file information...i was using it for
debugging, but i guess no one
else wanted to so i've removed it in both the beta and alpha releases.
i spent most of today
trying to whack my personal java security system into shape, so
not much progress was made on
ZDOC excepting the bug fixes. i also found that Aportisdoc (mobile
edition) crashed! with an
invalid low memory write when i tested it under the gremlins (3.0
debug rom)...guess you cant
trust commercial software for lack of bugs either. theres still
2 bugs that i know of in ZDOC
but both of them are minor and only occur if you fiddle with it
excessively (or run a gremlin
on it). get rid of em when time permits..tommorrow i go full steam
ahead on the creating new
files routines and the deleting and renaming ones (time permitting).
back to development!
2/7/98 Slight amount of housekeeping on ZDOC to make the code slightly
(very slightly) tidier.
Alphas now a helluva lot more stable than the beta and i cant seem
to decide to do anything about
the beta *sigh*. ZDOC 4.0.5a now has an improved menu with the
ability to create compressed and
uncompressed DOC databases, with a user specified name. I'll spend
another day fixing 4.x before
moving on to 5.x with encryption/decryption (encrypted DOCs)..encryption
will prolly be weak
at this stage. I'll try and put in 512-bit PGP-style encryption
using the SSLeay/Pilot port..if
its GNUable. Also finally start work on the version i really really
want..ver 6.x with serial i/o.
3/7/98 More debugging and fixing of Ver4.x..also fixed the create
new DOC file (compressed &
uncompressed), improved field memory handling, activated the Close
and reload database from the
menu, fixed the famous OS 3.x form bug (Bad Form Handler) documented
on 3COMs pages, improved the
create New record function. Fixed the CloseAllForms() bug too.
Still got some problems with gremlins
and underlocked field handlers...which i'll probably keep for a
while since i'll start work on
encryption & serial i/o next. Maybe switch 5.x and 6.x around
since serial i/o is more fun(?)
to work on. Any case, i'll leave all this til monday.
7/7/98 Fixed one more bug. Added Serial Rx/Tx (untested..waiting
for sufficient hardware
availability). Added weak encryption/decryption. Incremented version
no. to 5.0.0a.
8/7/98 Ok..finally tested the serial i/o and fixed a few problems.
Finally installed it on my pilot.
Serial I/O works ok except for the following :- Serial Output only
works if you have no flow control,
and your file is terminated with a few carriage returns. Also allow
CR translation to CR/LF.
Serial Input works with only one 4K chunk at a time. You need to
have an open doc file when recieving
but not when transmitting. Bit of a pain, but i'll keep the version
number to 5.x which is not supposed
to have serial i/o until i can get some hardware for testing it
properly. Encryption seems to work ok,
but its weak (8 bits). i'll play with the encryption and see if
i can assign passwords or something.
9/7/98 Minor changes and bugfixes. Also updated the manual page
and improved the encryption. Its still
weak but can now allow the user to assign a password (max 8 bytes)
and uses the usual 64-bit rotating
XOR one time pad type algorithm. Note that it can be cracked..but
now it requires some effort (128^8 possible combinations). Very difficult
to crack on a palm, should be able to be cracked on a PC. Its still compatible
with files generated with the old one (i.e. if you dont enter a
password into the password field, it will
decrypt the old algorithm) Note that i could not post up this version
because of tripods FTP service being
disabled for some hardware problem. i'll push it up in a day or
two after they fix the FTP service. I'm
switching into bug fixing stage since there doesnt seem to be any
major development work to do. As a temporary
backup (while tripod is down ONLY) download 5.0.0b from here.
10/7/98 Pending further notification ZDOC is now to be downloaded
from geocities. I've lost patience with
tripod. Please update your links :- http://www.geocities.com/Area51/7689/zdoc.zip
11/7/98 This is it folks. The end of the line for ZDOC development
(at least by me). Now work on this software will
proceed only to the bug fixing stage. ZDOC is destined to remain
in beta for a loong time now. It's reasonably
stable enough for me, and it does everything i need...so thats
where it'll remain. Some development work is being
carried out in france to extend it with searching capabilities
at this time, but this is where i'm stopping. Ver5.0.0b
is IT. I'll continue posting bug fixes up sloowly..if you find
a bug, please fix it. I have very limited computer
access here and the official ZDOC development areas are deleted
off the public machine i was developing on. ZDOC is
now installed on my personal palmpro, where its working happily
at this stage..few problems encountered with the keyboard..
remember to scroll to the top of the record and click the pen at
the top line just before saving after using the builtin kbd..
other than that its fine. Anyway, i've got one more project which
needed development for some time and i'm starting
work on that (ZSecure/Java). Any enhancements/improvements etc.
that anyone would like to put up...post em to me. I
have enough resources to work with HTML, so i can change/update
these pages easily.
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(This will be integrated into the mainstream distributions as soon as I can evalate the code.) |
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If you want to contribute to this GPLised project please let me
know.
Send mail to me at : zurk@geocities.com telling me which version
(i prefer you do the versions entirely than just a few addons)
you want
to work on and how long it will take. I work at a rapid pace and
would
expect you to keep your time frame, so unless you are really sure
of your
capabilities I suggest you simply try and work on the second
version after
the currently released version. i.e. if the current release is
1.x you start work
on 3.x. Once you have completed it you can simply mail me the sources
and assuming that I will have finished ver 2.x by that time, i
can simply
progress at a faster pace. If I have finished 3.x by that time,
theres no real
harm done as you will have got some programming practice. If youre
implementation is better than mine, i'll simply switch the two.
Note that [a] is a buggy alpha release, [b] is the stable beta
and no suffix
attached indicates a full public version.