Subject: Re: [Patch] Psiconv TextEd and Word importer
From: Frodo Looijaard (frodol@dds.nl)
Date: Tue Dec 19 2000 - 18:55:49 CST
Martin Sevior wrote:
> So yes I think we should have native Psion import (and export). I'd love
> to have native Palmdoc import to go with our Palmdoc export capabilities.
Well, for the Psion it is exactly reversed: import is working well, and
I am hoping that export will come too one day, but it is not yet
there. It will first need libpsiconv support (at least, that is the place
I want to implement it), and though probably not too difficult, it will
take a little time.
By the way, for those interested: the reason that I started with importing
support in libpsiconv (which is usually more difficult than exporting),
is simple: the Psion file formats were nowhere documented. The amusing
part of it is that Psion itself claimed that they 'did not have it and
could not create it because there was no file format at all': streams
are used to write the files. They seemingly think that a computer can
automagically figure out what all those streams mean, where they start
and where they stop, but that it is impossible for a human to do so, or
for any other computer program except their own importer. They were
wrong ;-)
> It's probabally better to have a well maintained library in Abi that you
> periodically update from your "bleeding edge" library elsewhere. This
> seems to work for wv.
That's all right with me. We'll just have to prepare a build system,
throw away the OPT_ABI_PSICONV option and hope libpsiconv will compile
on all systems (well, the last is the least of my worries; I'll just
have to remember to backport any fixes to my CVS archive again).
> We haven't implemented these on any other than our native import/export
> file formats yet. I think your best bet is to look at ie_imp_AbiWord_1 and
> some *.abw files with header/footer/lists/styles in them.
I know the file format, I just need to figure out what functions to call
to have it added to the internal representation that is being built while
we are reading a file; or alternatively, how to write supporting functions
that do that for me. I'll take another peek at the native AbiWord file
importer and the appendSpan/appendFmt/appendBlock functions.
> Looking forward to those Psion files :-)
As they were quite small, I just sent them to the list.
Thanks,
Frodo
-- Frodo Looijaard <frodol@dds.nl> PGP key and more: http://huizen.dds.nl/~frodol Defenestration n. (formal or joc.): The act of removing Windows from your computer in disgust, usually followed by the installation of Linux or some other Unix-like operating system.
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