#7 problem using with Palm Desktop 4.1.4

[Sea_Kayaker]

I am running Windows XP SP2. The Palm Desktop
application is version 4.1.4.

I am trying to run the application by running from the
Windows XP command prompt as follows:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My
Installers\palm2ical>java -jar p
alm2ical.jar -output mycalendar.ics "C:/Program
Files/palmOne/DenholD"
palm2ical: Generating file: 'mycalendar.ics'
palm2ical: Error processing datebook:
java.io.IOException: Unknown database form
at
java.io.IOException: Unknown database format
at
org.muellerware.palm2ical.Database.readHeader(Database.java:93)

at
org.muellerware.palm2ical.Database.process(Database.java:79)

at org.muellerware.palm2ical.Main.runMain(Main.java:134)
at org.muellerware.palm2ical.Main.main(Main.java:29)

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My
Installers\palm2ical>

The java version is (I believe) from Sun and it gives
me the following version informaton:

C:\Program Files\Aladdin Systems\DragStrip>java -version
java version "1.4.2_05"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build
1.4.2_05-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_05-b04, mixed
mode)

As requested, I will upload and attach three dummy
*.data files created for a new user "Eny Random".

I will also upload and attach the install zip. The Palm
Desktop is freeware so I don't see any problem with that.

--Doug

[Sea_Kayaker]

address.dat file

[Sea_Kayaker]

datebook.dat

[Sea_Kayaker]

memopad.dat

[Sea_Kayaker]

Logged In: YES
user_id=1166851

I was going to upload the Palm Desktop installer but it
seems like it's not allowed... It is an executable so maybe
that's verboten.

[Patrick Mueller]

Logged In: YES
user_id=129941

No worries about the desktop .exe; not sure I want it if it's going to break
things :-)

OK, so this is very odd; I just started debugging the problem, and put a
breakpoint at the spot where it checks the version number of the database;
supposedly the first four bytes. Which don't match what I'm expecting and
so it barfs as you plainly see. The number it read: -889275714. Convert
that to hex, and it's CAFEBABE. Now, the weird thing is, that's the magic
cookie for Java .class files (first four bytes of every java file). Only, for Palm
databases on Windows, all ints are stored big endian, so it's actually stored
in reverse: BEBAFECA.

Why, why, why, would Palm do this? Very, very odd. I also noticed looking
at a hexdump that there's a 'DB20' sequence in there, 24 bytes from the
beginning; looks like they added 24 spurious bytes, and (potentially)
updated the whole schema.

Quick google didn't reveal anything. Not sure how I'm going to get the new
file formats ... I'm pretty much stuck here at this point.

[Sea_Kayaker]

Logged In: YES
user_id=1166851

I did a newsgroup search and found the following exchange
which sounds like the same symptoms... --Doug

From: hoho (hokeung168@hotmail.com)
Subject: Palm desktop 4.1.4 Databook and Nokia compatibility
**** Help

View this article only
Newsgroups: alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot
Date: 2004-07-31 23:02:26 PST

I upgarded the Palm desktop to version 4.1.4, afterward, I
noticed that the
datebook cannot recoginse by the Nokia Application. Pleas
advise whether
there is any utilities that can convert the datebook to
[revious version for
Nokia, or whether Nokia has released an updated version taht
support Palm
desktop 4.1.4

Best Regards

Message 2 in thread
From: Spammay Blockay (SPAMBLOCKER@BLOCKEDTOAVOIDSPAM.com)
Subject: Re: Palm desktop 4.1.4 Databook and Nokia
compatibility **** Help

View this article only
Newsgroups: alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot
Date: 2004-08-01 18:50:02 PST

In article <410c864a$1_1@rain.i-cable.com>,
hoho <hokeung168@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I upgarded the Palm desktop to version 4.1.4, afterward, I
noticed that the
>datebook cannot recoginse by the Nokia Application. Pleas
advise whether
>there is any utilities that can convert the datebook to
[revious version for
>Nokia, or whether Nokia has released an updated version
taht support Palm
>desktop 4.1.4

Yeah, this kind of thing seems to be happening all over.
It happened with me in regards to the DataPilot application.

[Patrick Mueller]

Logged In: YES
user_id=129941

I've created a hack job to work around this. See the note
at the palm2ical homepage (http://palm2ical.sf.net) about
the exportPalm.py program.

At this point, I'm closing the bug; I will likely never fix
this until someone publishes the database formats.