Original author: Chris Wesley
Actual author & maintainer: Daniel Pfund
01Dec95 - v1.1Beta2
*NOTE*: my Email address has changed! Please use this address until 11Oct96: Pfund3@uni2a.unige.ch.
Welcome to the FAQ for comp.sys.psion. Find the contents table below. Questions and constructive comments are welcome. Send them to me at: Pfund@uni2a.unige.ch.
This article is provided "as is" without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, neither the authors, the maintainer or the contributors will assume responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. This document is compiled in spare time for free, and I cannot resource thorough checking of all its contents. However, I am interested in making the FAQ as good as it can be, so your constructive feedback is welcome.
This FAQ is not sponsored or endorsed by Psion PLC or any subsidary companies they may own in any way.
To create this document Chris (the original FAQ author) reviewed the Newsgroup activity at comp.sys.psion over some months, used that to generate a list of Frequently Asked Questions, used THAT to generate a FAQ structure, then populated it with extracted wisdom from the news traffic. So a lot of information here is provided by the newsgroup contributors, who are too numerous to credit individually. (Chris said "I'm just the clerk that put it all in one place.") Special thanks go to Markus Illenseer, who owned the first (Series 3) FAQ - from which Chris also extracted useful information. Chris also thanked Clive D.W. Feather, Daniel Senie, Roger Burton-West, for extensive helpful comments on his preliminary FAQ. I would like to thank Mark Gould and Jason Savage for their precious help and comments. Other contributors are credited in the sections they provided special help in compiling.
If you have a question which is not answered in the actual FAQ, please Email it to me (Daniel), otherwise if you want more information from one specific section of this FAQ, please try to contact the author of that section first. All the Email addresses of people mentioned in this FAQ are listed here for convenience (in alphabetical order):
Andrew Baldwin Andrew-Baldwin@psion.com
Daron M. Brewood dbrewood@nest.demon.co.uk
Roger Burton-West rburton@nyx10.cs.du.edu
Steve Clack sclack@cix.compulink.co.uk
Nick Craig-Wood ncw@axis.demon.co.uk
Alban Debeaupuis A.Debeau@ellis.fdn.org
Tom Dolbilin tdolby@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Clive D.W. Feather clive@demon.net
Mark Gould Mark.Gould@bris.ac.uk
Markus Illenseer Markus@tiger.teuto.de
Eric Johansen ej@id.dtu.dk
Uwe Kallmeyer uwek@yedik.escape.de
Edwin Klement eklement@crcg.edu
Dan Ko daniel@danielko.demon.co.uk
Roger Muggleton hzk@cix.compulink.co.uk
Daniel Pfund Pfund@uni2a.unige.ch
Angus Rae angusr@festival.ed.ac.uk
Jason Savage Jason_Savage@MBnet.MB.CA
Daniel Senie dts@world.std.com
Oliver Wagner owagner@lsd.wupper.de
Lloyd Wasser LWasser@infowave.net
John A. Watson JAWatson@thelcastle.win-uk.net
Chris Wesley Chris@people.demon.co.uk
If you happen to change addresses or know the new address of someone on this list, please Email it to me, thanks!
I assert copyright on this document. I encourage you to distribute it widely, but only in its complete and original form and if you do not make any money out of it.
For the time being at least, I (Daniel) am the keeper of the FAQ. If you have comments or suggestions, corrections, or you have some information you want to see added or a request that I find some new answers, please let me know. Please contact me via the Email address at the top of the FAQ, or if that address doesn't work anymore (will stop working after 11th October 1996), then contact me at: Pfund@cyberspace.org which works all year, but isn't checked out very often and is of very slow access.
NOTE: In the (near) future only! For the time being, this FAQ is instance of approval by the "news.answers" team. It was only posted to c.s.psion and c.s.palmtops this time.
You're reading it aren't you? SAVE it :-). This article is posted monthly to comp.sys.psion and cross-posted to comp.sys.palmtops, comp.answers, and news.answers. It is therefore archived at any site that archives news.answers. News.answers is archived on rtfm.mit.edu, and this article is available there via anonymous ftp in the directory /pub/usenet/news.answers/psion-faq/partX. If you do not have anonymous ftp but only Email, you can use the mailserver at rtfm: send a message containing the lines "help" and "index" to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu for information on how to obtain it.
Other news.answers/FAQ archives are: cnam.cnam.fr (163.173.128.6) in the anonymous ftp directory /pub/FAQ; ftp.uu.net (192.48.96.2) in the anonymous ftp directory /pub/usenet (also available via mail server requests to netlib@uunet.uu.net, or via uunet's 1-900 anonymous UUCP phone number); and ftp.cs.ruu.nl (131.211.80.17) in the anonymous ftp directory NEWS.ANSWERS (also accessible via mail server requests to mail-server@cs.ruu.nl).
There is also a WWW site archiving all the news.answers FAQs at:
There is a HTMLized version of this FAQ held on Mark Gould's site at:
Please do NOT Email me or anybody else mentioned in this FAQ for the latest version. We simply cannot handle such matters effectively.
I thought it might be useful to include a few words about using the comp.sys.psion newsgroup. We get a steady trickle of transgressions and the ensuing admonishments. Maybe we can fix these before they happen in future. Egg-sucking grannies may skip this section. (Does that work outside the UK?)
a) DON'T BE RUDE. Obvious? Apparently not. Our newsgroup is an oasis of civilization in a sea of adolescent vitriol and worse. Let's keep it that way. Say it nicely or don't say it at all. If you need to be uncomfortably direct, do it in personal mail - don't post it.
b) When responding to a post, most handlers will give you an edit pad with the original post inserted. Delete most of this, leaving only the part which will set the context for your reply. This is more effective communication, it cuts down on crud to scan through, and reduces phone bills for those that pay them.
c) Official NETIQUETTE says you should not use the net for advertising, but the prevalent view here is that the current level of activity is useful without being obtrusive.
d) Posting binaries is definitively not recommended on the comp.sys.psion usenet group! There is a seperate Psion binaries group called comp.binaries.psion which is a moderated group. The moderator is Eric Johansen. If you wish to post to this group, either Email your binary directly to the news group's Email address: mailto:psion-binaries@id.dtu.dk and it will arrive to the moderator or if your news program is configured correctly, post it directly to the group. You will receive a message in return usually in a laps of 2-3 days maximum to confirm your binary. It has been agreed that very large programs which are not Psion specific (ie: don't run directly on the Psion) should NOT be posted there but to the relevant computer group. But you should send a small message to the comp.binaries.psion group stating that you have just posted your program. It is also common practice to send a little description of your binary; it helps to know if it's worth downloading it or not! Usually, this description has the same subject line but with part0(/x) suffix. All postings to this group have been archived and are indexed on the following FTP site: <URL:ftp://ftp.id.dtu.dk/pub/psion/index.html%gt;.
e) Consider whether you should be mailing or posting. PING-PONG personal dialogues may - or may not - be of interest to others. If not, please don't post.