[pilot-db-list] editing on a PC

[Yedidyah Bar-D. <di...@ta...>]

> > 5. I spent some time on editing the DB on a PC. I mostly want to do this
> > on linux, so dbeditor isn't my first choice. I tried to hack palm-db-tools
> > into exporting and importing filters (and eventually hoped for all other
> > data), but after spending on this around 10 hours, not getting it working
> > and deciding it's too hard to debug, I decided to quit. Instead, I searched
> > and found a small tool called par (7th google hit searching for 'par'),
> > which lets you extract the appinfo to a file, each record to a file, and
> > create a pdb from such files. So I intend to write a script that will
> > do this:
> > export and keep the appinfo
> > pdb2csv to file.csv
> > edit the file.csv (with openoffice, or maybe mysql+some web UI?)
> > csv2pdb
> > export all the records from the new pdb
> > create a pdb from the records and the saved appinfo
> > 
> > I verified that this theoretically works, but did not make thorough tests.
> > Should it? Is this a good way, considering no tool will follow closely
> > enough the development of pilot-db? And, BTW, isn't something written in
> > some higher-level language easier to write? E.g. things like
> > datascript or DataWorkshop? I know this isn't pilot-db-related, but
> > palm-db-tools seems dead to me.
> 
> We've had a bit of discussion this list about what needs to be done
> about this, but no solution yet.  I wouldn't give up on the hope of

I will read the archives.

> having a tool that would follow the development of pilot-db.  In fact,
> I think that is just about the only hope.  

Generally speaking, I agree. But this wasn't my point. What I wanted to
say is this: Even though there is currently no tool that knows about
recent additions (global scripts, filters), there is still a way to
edit the _data_ part without loosing all the metadata. Using only
palm-db-tools, pdb2csv and csv2pdb, this isn't possible - on the first
conversion you loose everything not supported by it. Using par, I keep
all the metadata in binary form, as a single appinfo file, and edit the
data with whatever I want.

Now, even without reading the archives (and hoping this doesn't sound
too rude): Suppose I agree there is a need for a tool that will fully
support all the metadata. When writing for palmos, it's pretty clear
why you (we?) write in C - we want it as fast and small as possible.
But when writing for a PC, we can use some higher level language. Either
a general-purpose scripting language (such as perl or python), or, which
is what I suggested, to use a tool that is specifically intended for such
a thing - a tool in which you define your data in some language and can
automatically edit or export/import it, without adding code in a lower
level language. The two examples I gave are datascript and DataWorkshop.
I have no experience with neither, I only found them now, but they do
look to me like the Right Thing (even if the implementation isn't, yet?).

What do you think?
-- 
Didi