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Re: Netscape and Pilotmgr



Martin,
Sounds good.  We've discussed using a packet analyzer to look at the traffic
with our server as well.  I have a question, though, as to whether that would
constitute reverse engineering.  I haven't asked our legal department, but it's
on the list of things to do if we get that far.  If you're working that piece,
though, we may not need to.  We might be able to combine efforts and get
something up quicker.

I pulled down a copy of vCalendar parser source that Versit offers on their
home page and succeeded in getting it ported without much effort.  I've only
just begun testing it, but the test programs that came with it seemed to work
ok.  It has a free use and distribution license.  My next step will be to
turn it into a Perl extension and then write the glue to make it work with
PilotManager.  If you get something that can talk to the daemon and return
vCalendar, it should be simple to interface the two.

It's not clear to me, though, that OpenTime is using the same daemons that
Netscape Calendar Manager is.  I've been told, but haven't verified it, that
Netscape used the CS&T core, but wrote a custom database application for the
server side.  You might want to check into that, if you're planning to write
something that can be used for both.

The two best references I know for Perl are Larry Wall's 'Programming Perl',
which you probably already know about (be sure you've got the latest Perl5
edition), and Sriram Srinivasan's 'Advanced Perl Programming', also from
O'Reilly, isbn 1-56592-220-4, which only recently became available.  

Frank Holtry

On Feb 26,  8:34am, H. Todd Chapman wrote:
> 
> I suggest that you avoid any legal issues that arise from reading the
> specs in the manual. At our workplace we use a product called Russell
> Calendar Manager, which only has a Windows client. I have been using the
> Windows client in conjunction with tcpdump to write my own client side API
> in Perl. Eventually this work will lead to a Pilot conduit.
> 
> Using tcpdump wasn't that hard. I wrote a Perl program that showed me the
> hex dumps with ASCII conversions, side by side. I learned alot about how
> the product works and found some interesting security holes.
> 
> -Todd
> 
> On Thu, 26 Feb 1998, Martin von Weissenberg wrote:
> 
> > Frank,
> > 
> > I just called our computer department and asked for the OpenTime
> > administrator.  Having got him on the line, he told me that the full
> > specs of this client-server communication can be found in the OpenTime
> > manual and what more, he promised to find and deliver the manual
> > tomorrow.  It may be available in electronic form too.  Despite what
> > people say of computer administrators, I'm actually inclined to believe
> > that this manual will be on my desk on Monday morning. :-)
> > 
> > Let's just hope the stuff isn't too hairy.  It may be illegal to copy
> > and publish the information it contains, but I could perhaps compile a
> > summary or something.  Opening a socket to the server will probably be
> > much easier than syncing with OpenTime's local copy of the agenda.  I'm
> > going to see what I can do with the information and will probably base
> > the work on SyncCM.  The new conduit could be called SyncCST or
> > something.
> > 
> > I think I'll skip the metaconduit idea for a while (not to say that
> > other people aren't welcome to work on it).  The idea is neat, but I'm
> > too shaky on object-oriented Perl.  Could someone please provide
> > pointers to online tutorials or a good book?
> > 
> > --Martin
> > 
> > Martin von Weissenberg     <http://www.hut.fi/~mweissen>
> > ABILENE, adj.: Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of
> > the pillow. (DA)
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ***********************************************************
> > *             This is a public mailing list!              *
> > * Please do not publish Sun proprietary information here! *
> > *        -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -         *
> > *             http://www.moshpit.org/pilotmgr             *
> > ***********************************************************
> > 
> 
> 
>-- End of excerpt from H. Todd Chapman


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