The 2000 CD InfoBase from Thaddeus Computing, Inc., is a two-CD set. The unique feature for this year's edition of this popular product is a complete archive of all 55 issues of The HP Palmtop Paper in HTML format. This is something that has been requested by many users. Here it is, courtesy of Ed Keefe and a team of ten volunteer users who pulled it all together. The information is the same as that contained in the HyperReader version of the articles but now you can load the information on your Palmtop and read it with the HyperViewer (HV) reader. If you like a touch of color, you can use your desktop Web browser to read the information and look at the black and white (and some colored) graphics.
The "Bonanza" section of the CD has an additional 115MB all told -- almost 7000 files in 500 directories. The new files include 12MB of files that deal with Lotus 1-2-3. Therein you'll find documentation and tutorials for beginners as well as an 800 page book, in HTML format, all about using macros in 1-2-3. For more details about this section of the CD, see the "Through the Looking Glass" column in this issue of The HP Palmtop Paper.
There are almost 30 programs dealing with Artificial Intelligence, 50 programs that deal with math, from simple calculators to statistical programs and electronic CAD, along with all the files from the Ubasic collection.
Games? You bet! As many of the old Spectrum games that we could find along with several DOS games. We've also tried to squeeze in some emulators for Apple computers as well as the complete set of files that will let experimenters get the Digital Research GEM desktop running on their Palmtop.
In the EdChoice directory, there are 23MB of files for Bible scholars, bartenders, chemists, programmers, project managers, and Word Perfect users.
We've also included some more software that was formerly commercial but is now copyrighted freeware, e.g., MS Word 5.5 for DOS, Think Tank and Visicalc.
All in all, there's enough here to keep you up late every night. The only sleep you'll get is when you send us your Palmtop for a 64MB upgrade just so you can keep these files handy at all times.
Users of the Buddy program like one feature above all else: Buddy's SmartCaps. It lets you press a key twice to convert the onscreen character to uppercase. However, this one feature comes at the price of loading the whole Buddy program into memory.
AutoCaps occupies significantly less space, gives you the same SmartCaps feature as Buddy and allows me to type non-English characters.
AUTOCAPS is a TSR to speed up typing of capital letters on a keyboard. It automatically capitalizes the first letter of a sentence. In addition, double clicking a character at the beginning of any word also capitalizes the beginning of this word. It works with national characters and also runs on desktops. It uses about 900 bytes of memory. It's available directly from http://peichl.hplx.net.
For anyone interested in the VDE editor, version 1.9 is now available. According to the documentation it can now handle large (~600K) files. It's at:
www.punky.com/vde
Peniel Romanelli, peniel@WEB2000.NET
Version 2.0 of LXTCP (LXTCP 2000) has been uploaded to http://rwhit by.hplx.net. Both the binary and source distributions are freely available.
There are some major changes from versions 1.X, so please read the lxtcp.doc file carefully when upgrading. A summary of changes follows:
1. LXTCP is now linked against the latest version of WatTCP.
2. The default configuration file name has been changed to "tcp.cfg".
3. DHCP support is now compiled (thanks to Steve Lawson) but it is not documented yet, so try it out at your own risk.
4. The functionality of LXPOP and LXNNTP have been combined into a single executable called LXMTA (MTA = Mail Transport Agent).
5. Support for IMAP has been included in LXMTA.
6. Many configuration options have changed and new options have been added -- read the documentation carefully so you can update your configuration file.
7. LXDNS has been added to enable forward and reverse nameserver queries.
For the minor changes, please see the documentation.
For those who don't know what LXTCP is, here's an excerpt from the documentation:
LXTCP is a collection of freeware software programs for the HP 200LX Palmtop that provides clients (and sometimes servers) for various TCP/IP protocols (such as SMTP, POP, IMAP, NNTP, FTP, TELNET, etc). Connectivity to the corresponding TCP/IP protocol servers or from the corresponding TCP/IP protocol clients is via one of the following mechanisms:
a) a PPP connection via a serial cable. b) a PPP connection via a PCMCIA or external modem. c) a direct Ethernet connection via a PCMCIA ethernet card.
At the present time, seven LXTCP programs are available.
The LXTCPCFG program checks your configuration file, and (if you are using BOOTP) the response of your BOOTP server.
The LXPING program checks your connectivity to other computers.
The LXDNS program checks the response of your nameserver, and allows you to resolve a fully qualified domain name into an IP address.
The LXMTA program allows you to transfer mail from your HP 200LX to your SMTP server, transfer mail from your POP or IMAP server to your HP 200LX (ready for an offline reader such as the Palmtop News Reader), and transfer news between your NNTP server and your HP 200LX (ready for an offline reader such as the Palmtop News Reader).
The LXFTP program is an FTP client for the HP 200LX with quite versatile scripting capabilities.
The LXTELNET program is a TELNET client for the HP 200LX with multiple session capability, and also serves as an FTP server.
The LXRSH program allows you to run commands on a remote host.
Note that the source distribution also includes a preliminary version of an INETD implementation for the HP 200LX, including support for the "echo", "discard", "daytime", "chargen", "time" services, and a simple virtual web server.
Rod Whitby, rwhitby@hplx.net,
URL: http://rwhitby.hplx.net
If you're a cribbage player, you'll be interested in the download at http://sdl.continent.com/~support/ crib.zip. It's the famous BSD cribbage game ported to the HP Palmtop using Curtis Cameron's graphics functions for card games. It's also available on this issue of The HP Palmtop Paper on Disk.
There is a LotusScript program that synchronizes the HP 200LX Appointment Book with the Notes calendar. The synchronization is one-way (the HP is the master, the Notes calendar the slave). You need to have the HP Connectivity Pack and it is at least a two-step process. Also, you need a designer license for Lotus Notes (a desktop license will not do) to install the agent.
The procedure doesn't synchronize the Palmtop's PhoneBook with Lotus Notes. However, if you're still interested, you can get what the author, Russell Lewis, has accomplished so far and, perhaps, build on his solution. Send an e-mail to the address below and ask for a copy of the procedure.
russelllewis@delphi.com
The latest version of LXTeX 2e (LaTeX 2e for the Palmtop) version 1.2. is now available at http:// daniel.hplx.net/palmtop.html
Read the HISTORY.TXT file for the improvements in this version.
Daniel Hertrich, d.hertrich@GMX.DE
The TELEPROMPTER program VPROM2.ZIP is now available on the SUPER site. The program works quite well on the HP 200LX. It is shareware. Registration of the program is noted as CALL. Contact author for details:
Russell Holloway
CIS 72144,1376
AOL (!) RUSSELL660
PHONE + 1 800 815 6578
VPROM works on CGA, EGA, and VGA with 22 chars per line displayed in this shareware version with 22 or 32 in the registered version. It can be run from FILER with 347k of available RAM and the documentation states that it can run on 256k. The shareware version is limited to 70 lines of parsed text. The registered version supports up to 5000 lines of parsed text. For American users there is a toll-free phone order number. The program also includes its own built-in editor for on-the-fly alterations.
These two utility programs will let you export comma-separated values (CSV) text data out of a WorldTime file and import CSV data into one. It seems to work, but if you have modified your WDB file be sure to back it up before trying WDBLOAD. Note fields are included in the import/export. The package comes with a sample CSV file that contains WorldTime data for all the cities in the U.S. with population over 15,000. The programs are available directly at:
http://cameron.hplx.net (alias)
http://members.aol.com/freewhL44/lxgames.html
ftp://members.aol.com/freewhL44/wdbio.zip
Curtis Cameron
http://games.hplx.net has been updated with a new game to download. It's a Centipede clone (for those who can remember that far back!) called Megapede.
The site also includes a discussion forum dedicated to Palmtop-related games -- surely a world first. There is also a discussion group for all other (less mobile!) games, if you feel so inclined. You can get to the forum either from http://games.hplx.net, or by going straight to http:// www.delphi.com/lxgames. The one slight caveat is that to reply or post a new message, you need to sign yourself up. Fortunately, this is a very quick and painless process
Mike Wagstaff, aj93@DIAL.PIPEX.COM Mike [games.hplx.net]
By the time you read this, the latest version of LXCIC should be available on the S.U.P.E.R. site (www. palmtop.net).
LXCIC is a replacement for the Palmtop's built-in CIC100 program. It extends the usefulness of that program with some new ethernet features. The new version supports Accton Network Card (ACCTON EN2216). You can now disable LXCIC by running the program with a /D switch and enable it with a /E switch. You can also save battery life by running LXCIC /DE when you are no longer online. The program now generates errorlevel type reports when you try to load the TSR program.
The new disable switch is equal to switching the Palmtop off and on again with LXCIC loaded passive. That is, it no longer configures cards, but still stays resident. You may now load another driver for your card. After removing the intermediate driver from memory, you may enable LXCIC again with the new /E switch.
If you combine the disable and enable switch (LXCIC/DE), this should act like switching the Palmtop off and on again with LXCIC active.
LXCIC now reports card-type errorlevels also after loading resident. No more need to call LXCIC/S again to check for a card-type errorlevel.
The new source already includes a code fragment for parallel card support. Anyone with parallel card knowledge is welcome to complete the source.
Stefan Peichl
The latest version of this program is available directly at (http://rwhitby.hplx.net/download.html). For more details about the program see http:// pnr.hplx.net.
The DOS executables (PNR.EXE and PNRTI.EXE) are now compiled in large mode, which effectively removes the memory limits that were present in version 3.1 and earlier. The capacity of the DOS version of PNR is now limited by the amount of free disk space to store the messages (unless you've got lots of really small messages). Note that the System Manager-compatible PNR.EXM still has the limits present in version 3.1 (the memory limit is due to the 64k data limit imposed on EXM programs), so if you wish to use PNR.EXM, you should limit the number of articles per folder to about 400 (you can still have lots of folders with 400 articles each).
PNRTI now properly threads mail and news instead of sorting alphabetically. This means that the order in which the articles were received is retained, except that articles with the same subject (excluding a single "Re:" prefix) are grouped together. The nomailsort and nonewssort configuration options have been renamed to nomailthread and nonewsthread, and will turn off the default threading behavior. Note that the threading is only based on the subject line, and does not take the References header into account.
Rod Whitby rwhitby@hplx.net
Version 3 of this fine program has finally been released, thanks to all the registered users who participated in the beta test period! The disk space required for version 3 has only increased about 20k. However it's full of new features:
Reads and writes MIME-compliant messages (Base64, Quoted-printable).
Maps between DOS codepage and ISO-8859-1 character set. Address book is no longer limited to 17 entries.
Two different modem profiles may be stored (handy for cellular use).
Skipped messages may be hidden from directory. Screen output while online may be reduced for faster transfer.
Swap to disk option for large editors or PGP (registered users only).
Can explode message digests for individual replies (registered users only).
Edit fields now support insert mode (toggle off/on with Insert key).
Faster transition between online and offline modes.
PGP no longer requires editing of GP.BAT nor prepending of editor/reader.
Directly supports Nokia phone on 700LX (no more editing GP.BAT). The ESC key backs out of screens and menus. New 200LX-style icon courtesy of Jimmy Kim jimmykim@canada. com).
The BROWSE.COM viewer (from SimTel) is now the default reader (only 1k!).
Better handling of messages containing PGP (including PGPGP changes).
Blank status on read messages for easier identification of new messages.
The Japanese Palmtop user community is building a new PDA, which has GPLed hardware design with the same form factor as the HP Palmtops and the same keyboard layout. It will use an AMD elan (486SX) 66MHz processor and will come with 32MB memory. Plans are to support a CF Type II PC Card and a CGA monochrome (640x200) screen. Future plans include backlighting. You'll be able to boot to DOS or Linux from a PC Card or Compact Flash disk.
The Morphy One should have a battery life of 10-20 hours. The group plans to release it in Feb 2000.
ITSUMI ken-ichi amt@ITSUMI.KEN.ORG
For all those interested, the official Morphy One site at www.morphy one.org now appears to be up and running. Sadly, it is virtually all in Japanese. A second source for information is:
http://games.hplx.net/morphy one.htm
If you read Japanese, check out:
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/toy ozou/palmpc/release.html
http://www.mobilenews.ne.jp/news/1999/11/0101pda.html