Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/discs/pipeline/8_02/PD_Psion/PD>PsionSS

Text File | 1994-08-07 | 8.0 KB | 555 lines

%OP%VS4.13 (28-Apr-92), Ian Williamson, R4001 0043 5191 9854
%OP%IRY
%OP%PL64
%OP%BM2
%OP%LM6
%OP%PT1
%OP%PDCourier
%OP%WC2,1236,44,980,0,4,0,0
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%C%Transferring PipeDream files to Psion/Pocket Book Spreadsheet
%C%Ian Williamson
Keywords:
Transfer PipeDream Psion Series 3 PocketBook spreadsheet


%H1%Introduction

As mentioned in the ReadMe file, these notes are written in
response to a call for help from Steve Hutchinson in the February
PipeLine, 4PL9402.$.Help.ReadMe.  He says "Going from PipeDream to
Pocketbook leads to continual recalculation in the pocketbook..."

Initially I had the same problem; the first time I suffered from
continual recalculation I had a minor panic, I thought I was going
to have to reset my Psion and lose all my data.  Fortunately I
avoided that, and having carefully re-read the Psion Spreadsheet
User Guide I realised that the information in the User Guide is
accurate, if too brief and difficult to follow.

The key to successful transfer is %H1%not%H1% to use the A-Link conversion
window, but to drag a Lotus 123 format spreadsheet file from a
directory on ARM into the internal disc on your Psion, and then let
the Psion spreadsheet do the conversion.  Thus there are three
basic steps in the process:

1).     Convert from PipeDream to Lotus 123 format
2).     Transfer file from ARM to Psion internal disc
3).     Convert file to SPR format

This method is foolproof and avoids the problem of continual
recalculation.

These notes were written to explain in greater detail what is going
on, and what to do when transferring a spreadsheet file from
PipeDream to Psion.  Once you are confident you may prefer to use
the associated brief notes, PD>PsSS.


%H1%Conversion from PipeDream to Lotus format

On the ARM:

Double click on !PD123 to load Coltonsoft's PipeDream to Lotus
convertor.  Drag the PD file you wish to convert onto the PD123
icon.  A small Save as: window will open with the red 123 icon and
the leafname LotusFile in the dialogue box.  Change the name to
something more informative (with a maximum of 8 characters, and add
/WK1 which will be recognised as the Lotus file identifier), then
drag the 123 icon onto a suitable directory on a DOS format disc:
you could of course rename the file after saving it.

Sometimes you may see

Error from PipeDream:
Expression not completely converted.

This is because there are some PipeDream expressions that have no
simple direct equivalent in the Lotus format, and you will have to
rewrite those parts of the spreadsheet when you have loaded it into
Psion.  Click on OK and the conversion will be saved.


%H1%Transfer file from ARM to Psion

On the Psion:

Plug in A-Link into the expansion socket on the left-hand side of
the Psion.  It would also be advisable to use the external
power supply during the following file transfer.  From the System
screen press <Menu> and select Special Remote link, or press
<Psion-L>.  The Remote link window will open.  Set:

Remote link
Baud rate

Press <Enter>.


On the ARM:

Double click on the !PocketFS icon to load the program.  The
PocketFS icon will appear on the icon bar and should not be
partially filled with red; if it is check again that Remote link is
On, and that all serial port connections are good.

Click <Menu> over the PocketFS icon, and click on Open '$'.  A
filing window will open with the name PocketFS::Remote.$. in the
title bar, and at least two directories, C & M, if you have
PocketBook or Psion Series 3a.  If like me you have Psion Series 3
with the Spreadsheet plugged into one of the SCD drives, you will
see at least three directories A, C & M (I use drive A rather than
B in order not to cover the backup battery).

Open directory M and then SPR.  SPR is the directory in which all
your spread sheets are stored, they are all represented by the
abacus, as on the System screen, file type &FBC (fbc).

Open the directory with the file you wish load into Psion - this
should have the red 123 icon, filetype WK1 (db0).  Drag the file
into the directory SPR; this takes a little time, but when the file
is transferred it will appear as a DOS file, filetype (fe4), not
the abacus symbol for a spreadsheet file.  Don't worry!

Click <Menu> over the PocketFS icon and click on Dismount.


On the Psion:

Set Remote Link to Off and press <Enter>.  This is fairly
important, as the Remote Link facility seems to take up a lot of
disc/memory space on the Psion and you may have difficulty saving
files otherwise.


%H1%Convert file to SPR format

On the System screen, move the highlight to the list of spreadsheet
files.  You will see that the file you have transferred from your
ARM does not yet appear on the list; again don't worry!

Press <Tab> and the internal disc window will open with the
highlight on the file at the top of the list.  Your new file will
appear in alphabetical order in the list but without the file
extension .spr.  Highlight the file and press <Enter>.

The following window will open:

Convert to SPR format

SPR file


You can change the name if you wish, or where you store it.  When
you press Enter the conversion process will start.  If you have not
added the file extension .wk1 you will get the error message:

File does not exist

The file does exist, but the Spreadsheet does not recognise it;
exactly the same thing happens in AsEasyAs, and many other PC
applications, so don't worry.

Press <Esc> and you will be back on the System screen.  Press <Tab>
again.  Select your file, press <Menu>, select Rename file, add the
file extension .wk1 and press <Enter> to start the conversion
process again.

When the conversion is complete the spreadsheet will open with the
cursor in the slot A1, and all the columns the same width as in the
original file - you may wish to change these to display the file
better in the small Psion screen.

Go to the System screen and you will see your file in bold at the
top of the list.  If you now press <Tab> you will again see your
file highlighted with the .spr extension, immediately preceding the
.WK1 file from which it was converted.  Against your .spr file you
will see a file size of 0 (zero) - don't worry about this, Psion
has set up a file name but has not yet saved the file to the
internal disc, so the file length is correctly stated.  If you now
escape from the file selector screen, close your spreadsheet file,
and press <Tab> to re-open the file selector, you will see that the
full disc file length is now shown.

As mentioned before, the next file in the file list is the .WK1
file which you transferred from your ARM.  You will note that it is
much larger than the .spr file and should now be deleted as it is
no longer required on the Psion.  Highlight the .wk1 file, press
<Menu> and select Delete file; a Delete file window will open:

File:

Subdirectories

Note: none of the .spr files have any extension shown in the delete
window.  Press <Enter>.

Delete
Press <Y>

The transfer of a PipeDream file to a Psion spreadsheet file is now
complete, unless during the conversion by PD123 you had got Error
from PipeDream message: Expression not completely converted.  As
mentioned above, some PipeDream expressions have no simple direct
equivalent, and you would now have to rewrite those expressions
according to the syntax of the Psion spreadsheet.

It has occurred to me that it might be possible to write PipeDream
command files to convert the few expressions for which there is no
direct equivalence into a suitable format before starting the
transfer process described above.  This could be the topic of
another article…
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k
























































Name
Disk






































Name
Disk





"SPR\filename.wk1"?
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On
9600























































Filename.spr
Internal






































filename.wk1
Internal
No
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