But that sets me wondering... Surely it can only be in Sharp's best interest to enable the likes of us to do this kind of thing, so maybe the proper way to do this is just to contact Sharp and ask them for the tech spec of their backup format?
Are there any formal or informal points of contact between Sharp and the pdaxrom/openzaurus/cacko etc community?
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No, there aren't
Background - I recieved my 5000D directly from the VP of Sharp R&D who was the head of the Z project while he was visiting the telecommunicatinos research institue that I worked for at the time.
An engineer who worked with me who is a big fan of the Z recently contacted that VP. Turns out he's moved on to head the Sharp WZero3 project. Some interesting facts came to light from that conversation:
1) Sharp really had *no* idea what the open source community was about, and no idea why anyone would want the source code in the first place.
2) They picked linux because they just wanted an OS fast, and MS wasn't flexible enough.
3) They consider a Z a glorified Japanese dictionary.
We got in touch with the aide of the current head of the Z project, and found out some more:
4) They aren't interested in working with the community.
5) Further investment in the Z line isn't warranted.
Now, as far as 5 is concerned, I take that to mean that further investment outside of their current roadmap isn't going to happen, not that *no further* invesment is planned. (The aide's English wasn't the best, and my friend is somewhat blunt at the best of times.)
Unfortunately, their roadmap consists of making it a better dictionary, not a better handheld computer.
In short, I doubt we'll get any further useful info out of Sharp.