News On Zmacsync

[dhns]

Dear all who have been waiting for a very long time for some progress,

we have a first beta version which does more or less perfectly bidirectionally sync contacts and tries to sync something (wrongly) on calendar entries.

But beware: this is a Beta with several known and even more unknown bugs!

As a precaution, please do a Backup of your Mac and the Zaurus first:

1) open Apple AddressBook and save the database to a safe location
2) open Apple iCal and save the database to a safe location
3) make a Backup of your Zaurus to CF/SD
4) you can additionally start ZMacSync and use the "File/Save As..." menu item to copy the Zaurus PIM database to a file on your Mac (it is the output of dtm2xml stored in XML format) - to restore you would use "File/Load..."

Notes:
* the manual has NOT yet been updated.
* use a Refresh sync if you don't want to touch the database on the Mac.
* use a slow sync to enforce that SyncServices compare records item by item. The Mac will pop up a Conflict resolver - if needed
* the package includes AJZaurusUSB-0.3.2 - both the PowerPC and the Intel version. It is known that the Intel version has problems.
* earlier reports that ZMacSync hangs and shows no progress after some minutes is thought to be an unresolved bug in the USB driver (a new release is in preparation but still kernel panics sometimes).
* you may loose or corrupt all your contacts and iCal entries.
* ZMacSync itself is now a universal binary.

Now, if you still want to try: http://www.dsitri.de/download/ZMacSync-2.1.0.tgz

We would appreciate any feedback.

-- hns

[Antikx]

Very neat.
Does this only work with the Sharp/Cacko ROM?

[HoloVector]

Very neat.
Does this only work with the Sharp/Cacko ROM?
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I would think so, since it is looking for either the older XML based or newer DTM based data files on the Z.  If you had an PIM app that saved in the exact same location and format as the PIM apps in Sharp/Cacko then it might work with one of the other distros (  oops, mean ROMs).

[dhns]

No additional comments yet on the beta? Did it work for you? Did you experience problems?

For the ROMs we support I want to clarify: yes, we support only SharpROM and Cacko because they use the same PIM suite and database. The reason for that decision is simple: complexity and focus on the most commonly used ROMs.

Sorry to say: we don't and have no plans to support OpenZaurus, GPE and pdaXrom resp. Ka/Pi & Ko/Pi.

But what we are working on in parallel is QuantumSTEP which is a completely different approach. Instead of installing/porting some Linux PIM suite onto the Zaurus and trying to sync we reverse everything:

we port AddressBook, Mail, iCal and iSync/SyncServices and AppKit/Foundation etc. to the Zaurus.

Since we don't have access to the source code from Apple we develop it on our own and use many parts of GNUstep. The goal is to have 100% compatibility, i.e. all fields of a Contact or iCal entry are available identically on the Zaurus (or other Linux PDAs like the Acer n30). And even the location of the database files in the file system is the same (e.g. ~/Library/Mail). No loss of any data or functionality.

But that is even more ambitious and sometimes conflicts in development capacity with ZMacSync. Prototypes of QuantumSTEP already work pretty well but they are still not ripe for everydays use.

-- hns

[ralphrmartin]

So, we now get ZMacSync 2.0.4, after ZMacSync 2.1.0 was released 3 months ago.

Will ZMacSync EVER be able to do what I paid my shareware fee for all those years ago? :-(

[dhns]

So, we now get ZMacSync 2.0.4, after ZMacSync 2.1.0 was released 3 months ago.

Will ZMacSync EVER be able to do what I paid my shareware fee for all those years ago? :-(
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Hm,
looks like we should start a rumour thread - like those about an Apple Tablet or iPhone, MacOS X Lite :-)

BTW: 2.1.0 was a beta test that was not very successful and encouraging as you can see from the number of responses.

-- hns

[ralphrmartin]

BTW: 2.1.0 was a beta test that was not very successful and encouraging as you can see from the number of responses.

I want to be able to sync my calendar - much more than anything else. This changes much more often than my address book. But this is the one thing that still doesn't work.

Put that observation with the dire warnings about possible data loss, and I am not surprised you did not get much feedback.

Release a final version which DOES sync everything, and I am sure you will get a lot of feedback.

As for an iPhone or whatever, I'd lay money it does not have a QWERTY keyboard if and when it comes out. If I am right, it will be useless as far as I am concerned, and I suspect for many other Z users too.