Re: [pilot-db-list] Help with new pilot-db utilities

[Tom D. <td...@us...>]

On Tuesday 06 March 2001 10:52, Larry W. Virden wrote:

> The latest version says this:
>
> usage: pdb2csv [options] PDB_FILE CSV_FILE INFO_FILE
>   -e, --extended               Use extended CSV mode.
>   -s SEP, --separator=SEP      Change the default field separator.
> (Default: ",") -h, --help                   Display this help screen.
>   -v, --version                Display the program version.
>   -n FILE, --errors=FILE       Send all error messages to FILE.
>   -d FORMAT, --date=FORMAT     Change the output format for date fields.
>   -t FORMAT, --time=FORMAT     Change the output format for time fields.
>   -D FORMAT, --datetime=FORMAT Change the output format for datetime
> fields.
>
> 1. The fact that -d used to mean one thing, and now means another, is
> really unfortunate, as it leaves user scripts doing things not intended.

I'll remove the single letter form for those options since they should rarely 
be used. (They change how date and time fields are formatted into the CSV 
file.)

> 2. The fact that -d is used by csv2pdb to indicate the type of pdb
> to generate, and by pdb2csv to mean something else is unfortunately,l
> inconsistency tends to result in user error.

No need for consistency since the options are really only necessary for 
csv2pdb. (see below) The old 0.2.x versions of pdb2csv needed the options 
because it was not programmed nicely. The new one is so it is fine.

> 3. Question - how DO I indicate what type of pdb is being read?

There is no need. pdb2csv detects it automatically from the pdb file via the 
PalmOS creator and type values embedded in every pdb file.