PsiCode

PsiCode v1.2 ============ About PsiCode ------------- PsiCode is a UUencode/UUdecode utility for the Psion 3a/3c. UUencode/decode (UNIX-UNIX encode/decode) is one of the 'industry standards' for attaching files to e-mails, and is found in all common e-mail programs. UUencode/decode, also called UUcode, was developed initially for UNIX machines, where system administrators needed to send files to each other via e-mail. The files are 'UUencoded' by the sender, sent via e- mail, and then 'UUdecoded' by the recipient. PsiCode now brings you the flexibility of UUencode to your Psion. You can easily encode and attach files to an e-mail file in one simple step. PsiCode also lets you UUdecode and detach files from any UUencoded e-mail you may receive (after all, what good is encode without decode?!), and removes the embedded UUencoded data after a Detach to help save precious Psion memory space. PsiCode can also automatically launch Unzip (or PsiZip) if the decoded file is a zip file. If you use your Psion for e-mail, then a UUencode/decode utility is a must! Licence Agreement - IMPORTANT ----------------------------- Before using PsiCode, you must read and agree with the terms of the accompanying file LICENCE.TXT. Features -------- * Very fast. Main encode/decode functions are written in C. * Compatible with most existing UUencode programs. Tested with UNIX UUencode/decode (Sun release 4.1), UUlite for MAC, WinCode v2.7.2g, WinZip v6.2, Netscape v3.0. * Fully automatic decode. UUdecodes files from any source (Psion, MS-DOS, UNIX, MAC), and even decodes files encoded with the older Psion UUcode program. Any invalid Psion filenames (ie: from UNIX systems) are automatically renamed. * Launches any .APP or .OPA application when a zip file is found. Can be used with Unzip or PsiZip to streamline the unzipping of files received by PsiCode. * Finds up to 50 embedded UUencoded files and allows individual files to be extracted. * Ignores all UNIX directories and always tries to recover the proper file name when decoding. * User-selectable en- and decode filenames. You are prompted to enter a new filename or you can accept the proposed name. * Attaches files to ReadCIS MAILxx.OUT files, automatically UUencoding them in the process. A great feature for sending files with ReadCIS. * Detaches files from ReadCIS *.CIS files (ie: MAIL!.CIS), automatically removing the embedded UUencoded data in the process. A great feature for receiving files with ReadCIS. * Can append any two text files together, regardless of file size. * Selectable maximum encode line length. * Selectable Psion/MS-DOS, UNIX or MAC UUencode file types. Useful when you know what platform the recipient has. * Selectable removal of UUencoded data after a successful Detach. Ensures that precious Psion memory space is not wasted. * All preferences and last directory accessed are memorised between use. * Psion-compliant menus and dialogs. Uses standard hotkeys and menu layout for easy intuitive usage. * Context-sensitive online help (optional) for all menus and dialogs. * Small program size (only ~8 k). Archive Contents ---------------- When you unpacked the archive you should have found these files... LICENCE.TXT User licence agreement README.TXT This documentation file PSICODE.OPA Main application file PSICODE.DYL Library file PSICODE.HLP Help file (optional) Installation ------------ PsiCode will install and run on the Psion series 3a and 3c. 1. Create a new directory on any disk to hold the PsiCode files - I recommend an \APP\PSICODE\ directory. 2. Copy 'PSICODE.OPA' and 'PSICODE.DYL' to the PsiCode directory. 3. If you want to install online help, copy 'PSICODE.HLP' to the PsiCode directory. 4. Install PsiCode from the System screen with Psion-I or select "Apps | Install" (on English Psions) from the menu. Using PsiCode ------------- File | Encode file ****************** This will UUencode any file of any size. You are prompted to enter a filename for the UUencoded file. The initial directory displayed is "\" and the prompted filename for the UUencoded file is the same disk/dir/filename as the source file but with a .UUE extension. File | Decode file ****************** This searches through the chosen source file for the first or all embedded UUencoded files - up to 50 files can be found. A dialog then appears allowing you to select an individual file to decode. If no embedded files are detected, the message "No files found" appears. If a file encountered during the search has an invalid Psion filename then the file will be renamed to BADNAME.xxx, (where xxx is a number from 001 to 050, assigned sequentially). The preference "Search until" can select whether the source file should be searched through until either "All files found" (all embedded UUencoded files are detected, search goes right to the end of the source file), or "First file found" in which case PsiCode will stop searching as soon as an embedded UUencoded file is detected. You can also open a received zip file automatically after it has been decoded. First set the preference "Open zip file if found" to "Yes" and select an application to "Open zip file with". At the time of writing, there are only two known applications that can open zip files on a Psion: Unzip, and PsiZip. However, the Psicode sends a standard command-line argument to the application file, and so it should work with any application. File | Append file ****************** You can append any two text files of any size together. The Append feature is designed to allow you to append existing UUencoded files to MAILxx.OUT files. If the file selected is not a text file then a "Wrong file type" error message is displayed. Mail | Attach file ****************** This can attach any file to a ReadCIS e- mail file. The file to Attach is UUencoded and appended to the selected MAILxx.OUT file. NOTE: You do NOT need to first UUencode and then Attach. CompuServe will allow up to 2MB per e-mail, so the only constraint with attaching a file is the available memory space on your Psion. NOTE: You can only attach to text files - if you use Word to write your e-mails then the resultant MAILxx.OUT file will be a Word file. If you try to attach a file to a Word file then PsiCode will show an error message. Use ReadCIS to change the Word file to Text and then try again. NOTE: The attachment will increase the size of the e-mail file by 1.33 * <source file size>. If you do not have enough free memory during the attachment process then the Attach will fail, however the e-mail file will not be damaged. CAUTION: viewing or editing a MAILxx.OUT file after you have attached a UUencoded file to it *may* cause the UUencoded data to be word-wrapped and thus corrupted (the format of the data is crucial to be able to UUdecode the file). Try not to edit/view the MAILxx.OUT file after an Attach process. Mail | Detach file ****************** This is similar to "Decode file", but is specifically designed to work with ReadCIS, and allows you to easily select the MAIL!.CIS file to Detach from. If you choose to "Remove data after Detach" then the embedded UUencoded data from the mail file will be deleted after a successful Detach. This reduces the size of the e-mail file dramatically, and saves precious Psion memory space. A note is inserted into the e-mail file to remind you where the embedded file was detached to. The preference "File detection" and the ability to open a zip file directly applies exactly the same way as in Decode. Using With ReadCIS ------------------ If a ReadCIS WRAP80.ON switch is set, CompuServe will format mail messages received by ReadCIS to a maximum line length of 80 characters, which is fine for PsiCode. However, if no WRAP80.ON switch is set then ReadCIS instructs CompuServe to format mail with a maximum line length of 40 characters, which can result in corrupted UUencoded files due to CIS trying to wrap lines whenever it encounters a space character. Selecting a UUencode maximum line length of less than 40 characters helps to prevent word-wrap from occurring when the e-mail is received by a ReadCIS user. Although PsiCode has been specifically designed to prevent word-wrap problems, you may receive UUencoded files generated by other UUencode programs (such as UNIX, WinCode or WinZip). To ensure that all UUencoded files from all sources are correctly received, you should permanently set a WRAP80.ON switch. Setting a UUencode maximum line length of less than 40 characters will work with all e-mail systems and all UUdecoders, and will guarantee that CompuServe will not word- wrap the UUencoded data. If you encounter problems with file corruption, then set the UUencode maximum line length to 37. Limitations ----------- * Maximum number of text lines that can be read when searching for embedded files = 32,767. If the lines average 80 characters this results in a maximum file size of 32,767 * 80 = 2,621,360 bytes. Considering Psion memory size this limitation should not be a problem. * Maximum detectable files when decoding = 50. This limitation is forced by the dCHOICE maximum length of 255 characters. The amount of filenames that can be detected in practice is somewhat less as it is dependent upon the total length of all of the embedded filenames. * Maximum CompuServe e-mail message size is 2MB (for text messages). Considering typical file size and also memory storage constraints of the Psion, this should never be a problem. Change history -------------- v1.2 06 Dec 1996 * Added ability to remove embedded data after a Detach. This removes the data from the e-mail file only after the embedded file has been successfully UUdecoded, thus saving a lot of storage memory space on the Psion, especially when the e-mail file will be archived afterwards. * Added ability to open an app if a zip file is found. You can select any .OPA or .APP app to launch, the app must accept the 'O' (open file) command line argument. Needless to say, it works with Unzip.opa v1.4 <g>. * Added file checking to Append. Append will only work on text files, and any non- text file will now cause a "Wrong file type" error. * Added context-sensitive help, and updated help file. The correct help screen automatically appears when you press <Help>. <Control + <Help> now works correctly. * Changed Decode dialog so that uuencoded files (*.UUE) automatically appear in the file selector. You can always use <Tab> to select any other file. * Improved menu and dialog layouts * Changed code so that it works correctly with the 3c 'Files' app and also JBLaunch. * Fixed 'String too long' and 'Record too long' errors when decoding UUE files with long lines of text inserted in the middle of the UUE data. * Reduced code size considerably by rewriting a lot of the code and using some new tricks learnt in Palmtop Issue 9. Great little journal!!. Temporary files are now no longer used, this results in large memory savings. * Less system memory used as DYL is now only loaded when required, and unloaded afterwards. * Dramatically increased speed when seeking the start of the UUencoded data after having found all embedded files. It makes a huge difference when dealing with large MAIL!.CIS files. * New icon courtesy of Fred Luck [100675,3647]. Thanks Fred :-) v1.1 05 Nov 1996 * DYL upgrade from v1.0 to v1.1 The new DYL uses the grave-accent instead of a space character to prevent word-wrapping by CIS, JBCIS and Word. v1.1 03 Nov 1996 * Fixed bug that caused an 'Invalid arguments' error when decoding. * Fixed bug that allowed the entry of an empty filename in the decode/encode confirmation dialog. * Changed default UUencode 'Maximum line length' to 36 characters, and corrected documentation, as ReadCIS sets line length to 40 characters (not 50) when no WRAP80.ON switch is set. * Added check of MAILxx.OUT file when attaching. Attach is only allowed if the MAILxx.OUT is a text file. * Reduced OPA code size by 17 bytes through optimising IF...ELSE...ENDIF code. * Changed 'No begin line' error message to 'No files found' to make it easier for new users to understand. * Improved 'end' detection. Now both 'end' and '`' will stop the decode, and any other invalid line is ignored. v1.0 28 Oct 1996 * Initial release. To Do ----- * Handling of UUencoded files split across multiple or single files, especially with. ReadCIS and ftpmail. * MIME (base64) format encode and decode Author ------ Jochen Siegenthaler 100127.3167@compuserve.com Zurich, Switzerland 06 Dec 1996