PilotManager v1.100 BETA 5 available

[bharat@shadow (Bharat Mediratta)]

Greetings Pilot-managers!

	After a month and a half of coding and testing, I'm finally
	ready to do a general public release of the beta version of
	PilotManager v1.100!  Rejoice!

---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
	<disclaimer>
	
	This is unsupported beta software.  I've done my level best to
	make it as failsafe as possible, but if you're going to use it
	you need to EXPECT IT TO FAIL OCCASIONALLY.  If it fails or it
	does something you didn't expect it to, IT MIGHT TRASH A WHOLE
	LOT OF YOUR DATA.  Be wise.  Make backups before you use it.  Be
	careful who you give this to.  Don't give it to somebody who is
	going to have a cow if it eats their lunch.  I am not
	responsible for any data loss you incur.

	READ THIS WHOLE EMAIL BEFORE INSTALLING THE PACKAGE.  
	
	I've been plagued with bug reports from users who didn't do the
	due diligence of reading the available documentation.  Please
	respect my time and do the research before firing off bug mail.
	
	</disclaimer>
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	You can download the new version from:
	
		http://playground.sun.com/~bharat/pilotmgr.html
		
	There are many new features in this version and they are not yet
	documented on the web page.  However for the most part it should
	be fairly intuitive and seamless.  I recommend that you
	reconfigure every conduit after installing the new version to
	make sure that all your settings are still valid.  I'll update
	the docs on the web page after this version has been out for a
	few days.
		
	Now, on to the good stuff!  First of all, I've made major changes
	to the way that PilotManager communicates with the Pilot.  For the
	techies in the crowd, I'm using the Perl5 interface to pilot-link.
	It's much more robust than the previous system because I've spent
	a whole lot of time working on it. 
	
	I've added lots of little features:
		- You can cancel a sync from the desktop at any time
		- Status window for immediate gratification
		- Better error handling
		- much faster GUI
		- Optional, configurable color scheme
		- Much more reliable and accurate SyncCM
		- ...and more
	
	The first time that you run PilotManager v1.100 it will make some
	changes to your preferences.  If you ever plan to go back to an
	earlier version of PilotManager, MAKE A BACKUP of your ~/.pilotmgr
	directory.
	
	I've changed SyncCM to use the CDE backend.  No, you don't need
	to run the CDE window system to use it.  However, the CDE
	calendar server that comes with Solaris 2.6 is way better than
	the one that ships with 2.5.1 Openwin.  Installing it is fairly
	easy.  If you're internal to Sun, you can download the
	appropriate package from:
	
		/net/ferdinand.eng/export/cde
		
	If you're outside Sun, you'll need to talk to your system
	administrator about having this installed on your system.
	SyncCM tries to be very careful about talking to your calendar.
	It will require that you are running the latest version of
	'rpc.cmsd' from /usr/dt/bin and it will also require that you
	have converted your calendar to the new data format (using
	'sdtcm_convert').
	
	I've implemented Dan Mick's suggestion for the Backup conduit
	so that now you can specify whether or not new databases that
	you add to your Pilot will be automatically backed up.  I've
	implemented Chris Quennelle's long-standing request to have
	SyncCM correctly do one-way syncs.  SyncCM will now create a 
	new calendar for you (if you are root or your rpc.cmsd is 
	configured to let you add a new calendar on your system) if
	you wish, so you can avoid possibly munging your own calendar.
	
	Finally as a little bonus for you Bay Area residents, I've
	written a little script called 415-to-650 (in the
	'contrib/bharat-mediratta' directory) that will convert the
	appropriate 415 area-code numbers to the new 650 area code
	(based on the list of prefixes that PacBell distributes) in your
	Address book.  The techies in the crowd will appreciate how easy
	that script was to write.  Read the header on the script to
	see how to use it.
	
	If you have feedback about PilotManager, go ahead and send it to
	the alias.  If you find a bug, however, please use the feedback
	menu in PilotManager to send it directly to me.  Remember that
	the more informative your bug report is, the more informative my
	reply is going to be.  Nothing is less inspiring than somebody
	who is expecting me to do all the work for them.  I will probably
	have to roll up several BETA versions of PilotManager before it
	is completely bug free, so I will be expecting bug reports.
	
	Thom Byxbe is making up a FAQ for PilotManager to be posted on
	the web.  Hopefully that will make a lot of headway towards 
	answering your questions, but until it is available this mailing
	list is your best forum.
	
	Good luck!
	
			-Bharat
			
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