PVlink is a data synchronization program for UNIX-like systems written by NARITA Tomio. Originally it is called caleidlink and works for Japanese CALEID device. But when compiled without support for Japanese it works (almost) perfectly well for Pocket Viewer. Unfortunately the program is documented mostly in Japanese (including comments in the source!) but there exists an English README. Here is the source code of original version: caleidlink-207.tar.gz.

The program is a command-line utility which creates a directory hierarchy on your computer that is synchronized with your PV. Each data item from the PV is kept in a separate file in a directory structure resembling PV's structure of modes and categories. Files are in a special text format describing fields and their contents. Changes on the PV cause changes in the files, changing the files causes appropriate changes on the PV.

I have finetuned the program for use with Pocket Viewer in the following ways (see also notes about XmPVlink below):

• A new datatype was introduced for money amounts in `Expense' mode. (Improved! 2003/06/08)
• Data format detection was changed according to CASIO's PV documentation.
• `Sheet' mode data is now (correctly) treated as binary.
• /dev/ttyS0 is used as the default device if compiled on Linux.
• A patch from Johannes Steingraeber is included that makes PVlink usable with PV-S1600.

[Since data format has changed you should not run this version of the program on data files saved by previous versions. In particular config files are a bit different. Just start synchronization anew.]

To install from sources read the license, download the source of my changed version caleidlink-207-mw4.tar.gz (2003/06/08), unpack, edit options in the Makefile, and run make pvlink. (Run make pv if you want to compile XmPVlink as well (see below). Note that you need LessTiff or Open Motif installed for this.) This version compiles smoothly on Linux (although with some usual warnings).

If you prefer, here is a Linux binary version compiled against glibc 2.1.3 (don't worry too much about this version number, just give it a try).

To actually use the program you will need a set of configuration files. You can create them from scratch basing on Tomio's README, or you can use my configuration files (they have Polish names for categories and fields, maybe some day I'll translate them into English).

PVlink has been verified to work with PV-S250. It is likely to work without changes with PV-S450, PV-S460, PV-S660 (but this is not tested - I have no access to these units), and PV-S1600 (tested by Johannes, but not (yet) for this version). If provided with appropriate version of config files it should work with other Pocket Viewer (PV-750, PV-750Plus, etc.) and perhaps even Business Navigator models.

Files created by PVlink are hard to edit by hand. So Tomio provides a Motif GUI program named XmClink for that purpose.

Here is an experimental version of that utility compiled without support for Japanese. I named it XmPVlink. Here is a Linux binary compiled against LessTif. LessTif is a free Motif replacement available in most Linux distributions. This binary expects to find its bitmaps in the xpm/ subdirectory of the current directory (it's experimental, sorry).

After starting XmPVlink for the first time go to the Options menu and set synchronization folder, serial device and transmition speed. The program will save this data in a file named ~/.clink.

Here are two scripts for converting Pocket Sheet data as saved by PVlink. Pvsheet2csv converts PVlink files to comma separated format (CSV). Pvsheet2gnumeric converts PVlink files to gnumeric XML format. As far as I can say, the first script works reliably. The second is a rather preliminary version - it only dumps data, no formats, no borders. A typical call might look like this:

./pvsheet2gnumeric ~/pvdata/sheet/0004B5 >sth.gnumeric

The scripts use MIME::Base64 Perl module, so you have to have that installed.

Stay tuned for improvements. The conversion in the opposite direction is planned as well.

This simple Perl script (written by me) allows to import public holidays data published on the PC Sync site.

The procedure is this:

1. Go to the PC Sync site and download zipped data in the language you want (it's not important whether you choose 'scheduler' or 'remainder' data, you'll be able to decide that in step 4).
2. Unpack the file in an empty directory
3. cd to that directory
4. Run the script like this:

   importpublicholidays ~/pvdata/open PL D GB_E_W_

   where ~/pvdata/open is your synchronization folder for open data and PL D GB_E_W_ is a list of names of countries (in the form used in the names of downloaded .sdf files). By default the script imports data to the 'remainders' area of Pocket Viewer. You can use the option -s to use the 'scheduler' area instead.
5. Run pvlink -S to transmit the data to the PV unit

The script is even better than the real thing, since if you select multiple countries it will join data for holidays that are the same in several countries (which is not the case with the original PC Sync procedure). For example with my procedure one would get just one item for December 26 with text like: 2nd Day of Christmas (PL, D), Boxing Day (GB (E+W)).

The script is admittedly simple but it provides a nice starting point for other import utilities.

This is a another tool that I use. The author of PVMerlin is Christian Ensel (some pieces of version 3.1 were written by me). For details refer to program's home page. It is possible to comfortably write in Polish using this program.