This page is designed as a space
where people can post messages, ask questions, get answers, express opinions....... in
short communicate!
As we don't have a Geofox Newsgroup I hope that by using email
it will be possible to get an exchange of ideas and information going.
To post a message here just email me at liddell@rsc.co.uk and head your message Fox
Forum.
Subject U.S. Distribution 30/09/98
Do I understand correctly that Geofox has closed its U.S. distribution facility?
Mark I. Wolk
All I know is that I was asked to remove all reference
to the USA branch - but only told it was part of "restructuring" .......
Does anyone else know what is going on ? Elisabeth
Tom Stoneham 18/09/98
How come Stan Robins can only open one Word file at a time? I
personally had six open this morning. I guess that he has not set his System
Preferences to Open Multiple Files on Enter (as opposed to the default Shift+Enter).
Has anyone else been reduced to such ploys!
If you lose the connection between you PC and your Fox, and have
information you need to transfer, with the new Message Suite you can always email it to
yourself as an attachment! It works fine with screenshots and graphics..... a Word file
needs to be pasted into the email or sent as text, otherwise I'm not sure that you can
open the file on the PC!
Elisabeth Liddell 18/09/98
A plea from a Geofox user in the USA
16/09/98
Hi, I am a G1 user in the US. I love
my G1 too. I have a problem, but no solution yet from G1 support. Several US area codes
are not recognized yet so smart dialling does not work!, I seem to work, travel or live in
them all!
Laurie Jane Kern, MCSD
A response to Mark Wolk's comments of yesterday from Stan
Robins
" Mark Wolk’s comments are sort of correct, but
not entirely accurate. He is
right that there does not appear to be a competent text-only editor for Epoc32. It
would be nice if Word could meet his needs. The features of such an editor typically would
be, among others, the ability to open text files of any size (subject usually, but not
necessarily, to available RAM), to show, find and replace non-printing characters, to
maintain multiple open files, to insert or concatenate text files, to do line-numbering,
and to count lines and characters. It should incorporate a basic macro capability and a
reasonably powerful pattern-matching find and replace utility. I think you can transfer
files directly to a Geofox (or Psion 5) using a flashcard disk.
Word does have some limitations that make it clumsy as a text editor. (Not to mention
as a word processor.) The lack of a ruler almost disqualifies it for serious word
processing right out of the gate. For some reason, the Word Open Dialog does not have any
mechanism to "see" files that are not of type Word. This is just poor design
planning. The result is that the user has to have a Word file open in order to import a
text file. In this light, the text file viewer in Message Suite can be seen as a necessary
workaround. If the user receives a text file as an attachment, there is no way to open it
directly with any of the native applications. A more sophisticated solution would have
been to reengineer Word to open text files directly and to enable the Message Suite
emailer to launch Word as a text file attachment viewer.
The limitation in Word that only 1 document can be open at a time is a serious
drawback, as is the inability to find and replace paragraph/line breaks. (And, to be a
real text editor it has to be able to display, find and replace all non-printing
characters.) Word makes it clumsy to show paragraph/line breaks, and has no macro
capability.
I wouldn’t agree that EPOC32 is too "proprietary." That word is usually
used to mean either that the OS (1) has severe limitations on 3rd party access to
programming tools or essential code; or (2) that the OS is hardware platform specific.
While I have seen some criticism of Psion/Symbion regarding availability of low-level code
information, there is an EPOC32 Software Development Kit, and a lot of third-party
development activity. Obviously, the existence of the Geofox demonstrates the willingness
of Psion to license the OS for other hardware platforms that use the appropriate cpu. I
think that with certain applications, particularly editors, spreadsheet software, and
databases, the inability, in the alternative to open more than one file or run multiple
instances of a particular application, could be a fatal flaw in the longer-term
competitive outlook for the platform. I don’t know if this is an architectural
limitation in EPOC32, or the result of some other limitation.
There is this rationale that handheld devices need to stay basic, simple, and focused
on a essential functions. The trouble with this premise is that the greatest volume of
users, regardless of what users like to say, always gravitate toward the most powerful
device in any category. Moving data between documents, and toggling between open files in
the same application is now a standard of usability for any sort of personal computing.
WinCE/PalmPC is moving in the direction of reaching desktop PC functionality. There are
degrees of such functionality, but EPOC32 is pretty far behind the curve."
Stan Robins. 9 am 15/09/98
Mark - replying to the replies so
far 6 pm Tuesday 15/09/98
Do I understand correctly that Message Suite 1.5 is a
file transfer system which would copy files from the Geofox to a PC via cable (or
infrared)? If so, it defeats my purpose of using the compact flash card for all transfers
(which, in my case, are confined to text files).
If my understanding is not correct and Message Suite 1.5 is
a program which is used within the Geofox, then am I to understand that the text viewer
(referred to in Tom Stoneham's post) is only that - a viewer, and not enabling of writing
to text files?
Mark I. Wolk
Geofox or WinCE?
Mark I. Wolk emailed the following on the Geofox
and WinCE machines - any comments?
"The Geofox is a beautiful piece of equipment.
However, both the Psion 5 and the Geofox have a deficiency
which renders them impractical for my use. I have settled on WinCE machines for the
following reason.
I use the devices exclusively for the writing and reading of
plain vanilla text files.
It has the advantage that I can work directly off of compact
flash cards and transfer files simply by inserting the compact flash card into my notebook
computer and transfer files with a simple file transfer protocol. No wires from the
notebook to the palm top, no transfer and conversion necessity, etc. The system has the
virtue of simplicity and has worked for me for a long time.
Using and EPOC machine, however, does not facilitate this
system for the reason that files must be created and read in the built in WORD program
then to be exported/imported to/from text files. The result is that, before I can transfer
the text files to the notebook computer, I have to go through the drill of exporting the
WORD files to text files - an inconvenience not necessary on WinCE machines.
The problem with EPOC machines is that they are too
complicated, too idiosyncratic and too proprietary. The history of the computer industry
reveals that systems which are too proprietary have failed. Radio Shack computers are a
perfect example of this. It was only after Radio Shack adopted IBM clones that they became
a serious factor in the computer sales industry.
I have searched high and low for a third party text editor
software package which could be used on my EPOC machines but have found none other than
one which limits file size to 32K (too small - most of my files exceed 300K) and one which
is not straight forward enough.
If you have any thoughts as to how to circumvent the problem
which I have described, I would be interested in knowing about them.
Thanks and good luck with your new web site,"
Mark I. Wolk 14/09/98
From Tom Stoneham
14/09/98
Thank-you for creating the web-site. The Geofox certainly needs an online 'first port
of call'.
. Here are two Hotkeys which are not to the best of my knowledge in
the Geofox literature:
Ctrl+System will show the task list *from any view in any application*
- which means that one does not need to have the toolbar visible for that purpose.
Shift+System will take you to the system screen - this is VERY useful
for anyone using Purple Navigator who has set the System button to return to
Navigator.
On the subject of Navigator, the file management commands in the
System screen contain two bugs: if you try to copy or delete an open file (maybe it was in
a sub-folder) it results in a soft reset, and if you try the same on a read only file, it
will not allow you to. Since so much shareware has read only files, the latter is a real
nuisance if one is uninstalling.
Navigator has neither of these problems: it offers the opportunity to switch to open
files mid-operation, close them and then continue, and it prompts for confirmation before
performing an operation on a read only file.
On Mark Wolk's problem, Message Suite 1.5 has a TXT file viewer, which
makes things a little easier. It also has a Word 6/97 viewer, if he is interested.
Your question about the back-up battery compartment.
You can buy a set of screwdrivers which includes sufficiently small cross heads from my
local Homebase and just about any other DIY store. Alternatively use a spectacle
screwdriver with great care.
Two questions from me ....
 | Has anyone found out where to find the tiny screwdriver we need
to access the backup battery? I have tried a couple of jewellers with no success.
|
| Has anyone else discovered that you don't always need to turn
the Remote link off in order to use the modem? It doesn't seem to harm anything, at
least not so far!
|
 The next section I am
planning is about 3rd party shareware and freeware - if you have any ideas, or even better
articles which you would like to see included in the website, do contact me.
|
