The HotSync conduit is a very specific beast, with a mountain of
documentation required to access it. I started out down this path and
it appeared to me that 1) it was going to take a *lot* of time to
decipher, and 2) there were many things that the HotSync manager
couldn't do at download time that I'd need to handle in a "download"
type of step anyway, and 3) if a user uses his PC to run directly to the
Cube, he has to unload the HotSync manager anyway, and 4) managing the
HotSync program would have been perceived as more steps by those who
don't use their Palm this way daily already, which I suspect will be the
majority of our users. So, I made the choice to write our own
communication procedure.
The ugliest thing about the HotSync manager was the necessity that
everything go into their directory, in their format. So this would have
meant that we took the simple data stored in the Palm, and translated it
into conduit-compatible format in order to pass it through
automatically. We expected that this format change would have to be
done AFTER the recording because of the Palm's inability to keep up with
the demands of recording with even minimal processing added in. Then
after the HotSync, GEEZ would have to read into their directory and
decipher the data, plus do the other mathematical functions required to
finally save the data as a ".GCD" file in the data directory. So what
we expected was that we could skip the "Download" program from the Palm,
but we'd still need a program to convert to conduit-able format. Then
you'd HotSynch. Then you'd still need to run the GEEZ dialog for
converting from Palm (and HotSynch directories) to GEEZ. So we
found no actual savings in steps, but we did see that we'd have to
have our users going in and out of the HotSync manager often. This sure
sounded like a lot of steps compared to the choice we took.
And then there are the users who occasionally record straight to their
PC. They have to take the HotSync Manager out anyway, in order to
record.
For the GEEZ user who doesn't use his Palm for much more than GEEZ, or
who does very little HotSync'ing, we thing the solution we chose is much
easier. For the user who is a daily HotSync'er, there's one additional
step required, probably no more difficult than working through the
HotSync's quirks.
--Byron
Mark Sirota wrote:
>
> Byron Short wrote:
> > I thought I read something about HotSync restoring the files for
> > you...
>
> Which begs the question -- why don't we use hotsync for uploading the
> data rather than a proprietary multi-step mechanism (during which I must
> turn off the hotsync manager)?
>
> It would seem natural to take the Palm out of the car, slap it into the
> cradle and hit the magic button, as I usually do with the Palm -- then
> work on the PC to select which files to work with in the Geez! software.
>
> As it is, I have to go back and forth from Palm to PC, and it seems
> awkward, especially given the very simple and natural hotsync mechanism
> designed into the Palm.
>
> I'm sure you must have considered it... What was the reasoning behind
> the implementation you selected?
>
> Mark
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