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1. Introduction

First there was the Pilot, then the PalmPilot, and now we have the Palm III from Palm Computing Devices. IBM sells a rebadged version of the PalmPilot Professional, which they call the WorkPad. What are these gadgets? They are Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), sometimes known as palm-top computers. Sold as an electronic combination of address book, telephone directory and memo pad, they are actually general-purpose computers capable of running almost any kind of application. The trick is to find Palm OS applications to fit your needs and to be able to share your data with your Linux system. Palm OS devices incorporate software to synchronize their data with programs running on another computer. Such software for use on a Windows 95 system is generally bundled with the device. A MacOS version is also available. If the foriegn computer is running some other operating system, you need to find third party software to work with your Palm OS device. This document describes such software that is available for use on a Linux or unix system.

1.1 This Document

The latest version of this document can be read at http://www.orbits.com/Palm/PalmOS-HOWTO.html, and is part of the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). This document superceedes the previous version, which was called the Pilot HOWTO. See http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/ for further information about the LDP and other HOWTO documents.

If you find anything in this document which needs to be corrected or better explained, please send me e-mail at the address above and specify which version of this document you are referring to.

This document is Copyright © 1997 & 1998 by David H. Silber. It is released under the copyright terms in the LDP HOWTO-INDEX document.

1.2 See Also

The http://www.orbits.com/Palm/PalmDevelompent-HOWTO.html document describes how to use the gcc-based development system to write Palm OS applications.

The http://www.orbits.com/Palm/PalmConduit-HOWTO.html document describes how to use the pilot-link libraries to write Linux-resident conduits for use with Palm OS devices.

1.3 Mailing List

The pilot-unix mailing list is maintained by Matthew Cravit . Its mandate is:

The pilot-unix mailing list is for discussion and idea-sharing for those
interested in using the US Robotics Pilot PDAs with UNIX systems. This
includes people who are interested in helping to develop tools to allow the
Pilot to operate with UNIX, and possibly to develop an SDK for the Pilot
for Unix.

For more information, including how to subscribe to the list, send mail containing the word ``INFO'' to . The subject line does not matter.

1.4 Mailing List Archives

An archive of the pilot-unix mailing list can be found at http:///www.acm.rpi.edu/~albert/pilot/. It is maintained by Chris Stevens .

1.5 FTP Site

An FTP site containing an archive of Palm OS tools for use on unix systems is located at ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/. It is maintained by Jeff Dionne .


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