[Techtalk] addressbook/calendar on Linux server + Win on desktop + PDA

[Akkana]

Glenda R. Snodgrass writes:
> Today the client tells me he wants to get a PDA and sync
> it with info on the server.  Suddenly I'm stumped.  I'm not really into

Gnome has palm syncing built in to recent versions -- if you bring up
the Gnome Control Panel (the toolbox icon in the panel, at least when
I run gnome/sawfish) it includes items for "pilot" and "pilot conduits"
which you can configure to point to the right serial port and so forth,
and you can set up what you want to have happen at hotsync time
(datebook, addressbook, avantgo malsync, etc.)  I think KDE has
something similar (at least, I've seen their conduits in the list
of software to be installed, but I haven't actually run them).

On older versions on gnome, you can just run the apps gpilot or kpilot:
they look a lot like the Palm desktop software for Windows that comes
with a Palm or Visor, and work just the same way, syncing everything
and letting you edit on the workstation.  I'm fairly sure they
import/export to whatever datebook/addressbook clients gnome and kde
use, but I don't use those clients so I can't offer any more details.

For command line, the pilot-link package, in addition to being a MUCH
easier way of installing random files onto the Palm than anything
available on Windows, also includes some programs to get the addressbook
and datebook and convert them into random other formats, but I'm not
up on what those formats are or which programs use which format, so
I can't tell you whether pilot-link can get you whatever format the
client wants for his particular addressbook program.

Unfortunately pilot-xfer and the other pilot-link programs can't run
when gnome is watching the pilot port, so I turn off gnome's conduits
since I use pilot-xfer all the time.

There's a fairly active (but not high traffic) pilot-unix mailing list,
linked off pilot-link.org (which also mentions an IRC channel).

	...Akkana