Re: Changes in HPComm 3.0r4b1

[Mitch Davis <mjd@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Jose,

Thanks very much for your mail.  It's by discussing these
sort of things that we can make HPComm better and better.

Joseé Alberto Novais Machado wrote:
> 
> I doesn't agree winth this change from  HPComm 3.0r3 to 3.0r4b1:
> 
>     -  When we rename a file on the PC we also have to recalculate the
> icon for it, as the ending/type could have been
>        changed.
> 
> because if i have an array [1 2] named A and i rename with ext .txt to
> distinguish from another the icon will be a string icon. This is not
> true. Sometimes we give extensions that on HPComm may correspond to a
> icon that doesn't match the variable type. In my humble opinion when we
> rename a variable we doesn't change the content of the file then the
> icon can't change anyway.

This updating of the icon should only happen on the PC side.

Surely you agree that if you rename a PC file that is not a
calculator object, then the icon should change.  But short of
reading the header in EVERY file to see if it's a calculator
object, there's no way to see if a file is from an HP calculator.

On the Macintosh, every file system object has a four character
type descriptor.  Sadly, the PC does not have this, and on the
PC, the "file extension" is what is used to determine the icon.

Once you transfer a file to the PC, regardless of what's in the
file, it must live by the PC's rules for which icon to display.
(When transferred back to the calculator, it will show up correctly)

> On early versions the HPComm doesn't display icons correctly if the
> language is changed to french or spanish. I have download the
> portuguesev0.2 from Tacio and the problem remains. Why?

I don't understand what you mean by "portuguesev0.2" and "Tacio".

We do know of a problem in earlier versions of HPComm where
the icons are not displayed correctly if the calculator is
set to Spanish or English.  This problem has been corrected in
the latest version.

> The HPComm author make a program with X-modem transfer (in version 2.0,
> i didn't know the version 1.0). Why th HP remove it. The X-modem is very
> quickly.

HPComm 3.0 is a total rewrite, and there are some things that
we never had time to reimplement.  Both James and I are very busy,
and unfortunately, we are not likely to get the time we need to
make this improvement any time soon.

Having said that, HPComm 3.0 was written so it would be fairly
straightforward for a knowledgable person to add support for
XModem.

Jose, thanks for your ideas.  I hope we hear more from you in the
future.

Regards,

Mitch.
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