#34 cards not truly deleted

[Wally]

I've been trying twinkle 1.01 on my Palm IIIe (OS3.1.1.) and Palm Vx (OS 3.5). I noticed that when I delete a card, it disappears from the list, but doesn't seem to be deleted.

If I go to the list of databases and look at the details, the number of cards doesn't go down. Neither does the number of records when a file browser (Z'catalogue in my case).

[k_uber]

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Confimed same issue on Treo 650.

Does this fix itself after a hotsync? (I don't use hotsync)
The normal delete behaviour for palm databases is that they are 'marked as deleted' and then actually deleted when the conduits run at hotsync. This gives desktop conduits access to the information for backup purposes. But I don't know if that is what's happening here. It may just be counting all of the cards, including those marked as deleted.

[Wally]

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I tried the hotsync suggestion but it didn't work. The deleted cards are still counted and the number of records remained the same.

May I ask, since you don't hotsync, what do you do?

[k_uber]

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At the moment, instead of hotsyncing, I use a daily automated backup program to the built-in SD card (NVBackup). I tend to use TwinkEdit only for creating databases initially. When I create a database, I beam it to the Treo by Bluetooth or copy it to the SD Card. Now and then I back up the data just by copying the SD card contents. When I want to add cards to an existing database, I normally create a new database and merge it with the old one on the palm.
I should really install hotsync again or look at a third party tool. There were issues with both after the recent OS release on the Mac - I was optimistic that Palm would update their suite for Leopard, but never did. The other tool, Missing Sync, was only recently updated for Leopard support.

[k_uber]

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OK, After a very quick look, it looks like the function dbDeleteCard() in dbUtils.c needs to use DmRemoveRecord rather than DmDeleteRecord.

Issue of using DmDeleteRecord without having a proper conduit (not standard backup conduit) is discussed here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/palm-dev-forum@news.palmos.com/msg36757.html

For now, I wouldn't panic about it. One more workaround to try (I'm guessing here); create a new database and merge the old one to the new one (using the rename function - rename old database with the new database's name). It may not merge the deleted records, and may correct the card count total. (although the code looks like it copies everything over.)

[Nobody/Anonymous]

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The merging suggestion resulted in "Fatal Alert: nil value" on my PalmIIIe. Twinkle crashed requiring a soft reset upon the rename, and subsequently on trying to start Twinkle.

The old database was no longer on my palmpilot. I forgot to check the number of records in the new database, but I had to delete the remaining new database for Twinkle to start.

I'll retest some other combinations and copy down the full alert message, but this could be a serious bug if it's not limited to my old palm.

Meanwhile, I won't delete cards. I'll replace the information with nonsense and reuse the card in the future. I tried clearing the information, but that causes an expected delete.

[Wally]

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Hmm, maybe this related to:
[ 1544265 ] A crash on database merge
<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1544265&group_id=149723&atid=775693>

[Wally]

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Oh, I just noticed that selecting to create a new card, but not entering it also has the same problem. Don't press "New" unless you mean it.

Further playing between my two palmpilots leads me to believe that database merging is it's own weird bugs.