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Why is Palm Desktop Mac so superior to Desktop/Windows?

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John Faughnan

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Nov 26, 2003, 9:42:01 PM11/26/03
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I'm one of a very small number of people who use Palm Desktop 4.1
(only available with T|E and T3, supports Date Book/Calendar
categories) on both Mac OS X and Windows. So I can pass on something
that may come as a bit of a surprise.

There's no comparison between the two applications, which look nothing
alike. Desktop/Mac is far superior to Desktop/Windows. One minor
example -- there's no way to export all appointments from
Desktop/Windows, in Desktop/Mac you have 3 options, as well as import
and "merge". On Desktop/Win you have a few paltry task filters, on
Desktop/Mac there are filters and views galore.

Admittedly Desktop/Win has a full year calendar view and Desktop/Mac
does not. Neither allows one to see all appointments at once. Outlook
far exceeds both applications.

So why is the Mac version so much better? And, given the weakness of
the Palm on the Windows side, and the new bundled Outlook conduits,
does it make sense for T|E and T3 users use Outlook for most desktop
tasks on Windows?

john
jfau...@spamcop.net

meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, desktop, mac, windows, OS X,
PalmOS, PalmOne, macintosh, apple, Palm, Tunsten E

Jim Anderson

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Nov 26, 2003, 10:01:59 PM11/26/03
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On 26 Nov 2003 18:42:01 -0800, John Faughnan said...

Palm did not write the Mac desktop, it is Apples old Mac PIM (forget what
it was called). They bought it after Apple discontinued it, so that the
Palm could support MAC. They just did a global search thru the source
code to replace (c)Apple with (c)Palm and wrote some conduits.

--
Jim Anderson, Omphaloskepsis apprentice (@)
( 8(|) To e-mail me, just pull 'my_finger'

Derek

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Nov 26, 2003, 10:39:01 PM11/26/03
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It was open stage night in comp.sys.palmtops.pilot, when John
Faughnan stepped up to the microphone and muttered:

> I'm one of a very small number of people who use Palm Desktop
> 4.1 (only available with T|E and T3, supports Date Book/Calendar
> categories) on both Mac OS X and Windows. So I can pass on
> something that may come as a bit of a surprise.

You might want to be a wee bit more specific. I'm running Palm
Desktop 4.1 right now and I downloaded it. The T|E and the T3 come
with a modified version that supports the added categories.

--
Derek

Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is to just fire all of
the unhappy people.

bcd

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Nov 27, 2003, 3:12:48 AM11/27/03
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Ditto ... using a T|C that came with 4.1. It Exports the standard apps,
but not sure what was meant by "3 options". There are options, but in the
Date Book for example, you can only export the whole date book, though you
can be selective about which columns are exported. I'm a little surprised
that the desktop program would distinguish between what are essentially
contemporary models. Perhaps the conduits determine that? So much to know
and so little time!

On 11/26/03 19:39, in article Xns943FDC8E...@130.133.1.4, "Derek"

Chris Game

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Nov 27, 2003, 6:41:14 AM11/27/03
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John Faughnan said:

> And, given the weakness of the Palm on the Windows side, and the
> new bundled Outlook conduits, does it make sense for T|E and T3
> users use Outlook for most desktop tasks on Windows?


This problem with the New Contacts window in MS-Windows doesn't help
(large fonts), it all smells like a rush job.

--
=============================================

Chris Game <chrisgame@!yahoo!dotcodotuk>
=============================================

John Faughnan

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Nov 27, 2003, 9:41:40 AM11/27/03
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Jim Anderson <fro...@frontiernet.my_finger.net> wrote in message news:<MPG.1a2f2518c...@news.frontiernet.net>...

> On 26 Nov 2003 18:42:01 -0800, John Faughnan said...

> > There's no comparison between the two applications, which look nothing
> > alike. Desktop/Mac is far superior to Desktop/Windows. ...

> > So why is the Mac version so much better?

> Palm did not write the Mac desktop, it is Apples old Mac PIM (forget what

> it was called). They bought it after Apple discontinued it, so that the
> Palm could support MAC. They just did a global search thru the source
> code to replace (c)Apple with (c)Palm and wrote some conduits.

I was pretty sure they'd gotten it from someone else, but I didn't
suspect Apple! I don't remember Apple having a desktop PIM. A quick
google search didn't help; I'm a PIM admirer so I'd like to learn more
history.

Desktop/Mac is really quite a curious application. One can view ALL
notes, irregardless of whether they are attached to tasks/to do items
or are standalone notes. The combination of filters and sorts on tasks
remind me of Access/Windows Query view. It also has two categories per
item in the database export, but I suspect only one is used.

Again, far more capable than Desktop/Win.

On further reflection Outlook isn't a good choice for a Windows Palm
Desktop replacement, it's too easy to assign an Outlook item to
multiple categories or use too many Outlook categories, that data
won't carry over to the Palm category correctly. I wonder if Palm OS
6 will support multiple categories, I know it doesn't have the
category limit.

There have been so many fine PIM products on the Windows platform,
though most are long dead. PalmOne could do worse than use the
Palm/Mac Desktop as a prototype for development of a future Palm
Desktop app.

john

PS. As others gently noted, I did goof by saying 4.1 comes only with
the T3 and T|E. It's a modified version of the 4.1 desktop that,
confusingly, lacks its own identifier.

Jim

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Nov 27, 2003, 12:31:34 PM11/27/03
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Jim Anderson <fro...@frontiernet.my_finger.net> wrote:
> Palm did not write the Mac desktop, it is Apples old Mac PIM (forget what
> it was called).


Didn't Palm buy the old Claris Organizer PIM and re-brand it Palm
Desktop for Mac?

Thomas Adams

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Nov 27, 2003, 2:57:26 PM11/27/03
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jfau...@spamcop.net (John Faughnan) wrote:

>> Palm did not write the Mac desktop, it is Apples old Mac PIM (forget
>> what it was called). They bought it after Apple discontinued it, so
>> that the Palm could support MAC. They just did a global search thru
>> the source code to replace (c)Apple with (c)Palm and wrote some
>> conduits.
>
> I was pretty sure they'd gotten it from someone else, but I didn't
> suspect Apple! I don't remember Apple having a desktop PIM. A quick
> google search didn't help; I'm a PIM admirer so I'd like to learn more
> history.

A quick google search turns up:

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04915>

So the old program that Palm bought was Claris Organizer.
--
np : -

Dr. Gee

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Nov 27, 2003, 4:00:25 PM11/27/03
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In article <5c0dbfb4.03112...@posting.google.com>, jfau...@spamcop.net (John Faughnan) wrote:
[snip]>

>Again, far more capable than Desktop/Win.
[snip]

yes, Palm Desktop on Mac is nice, except it does not display Chinese
(it's all gobbledygook). there was no "default decoding" so i could set it to
Big5.

regards

Tony Lima /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
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Aaron Davies | Don't let Micros**t add Usenet and Email to
| (x) its list of successfully polluted protocols.
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John Faughnan

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Nov 27, 2003, 6:02:21 PM11/27/03
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> > I was pretty sure they'd gotten it from someone else, but I didn't
> > suspect Apple! I don't remember Apple having a desktop PIM. A quick
> > google search didn't help; I'm a PIM admirer so I'd like to learn more
> > history.
>
> A quick google search turns up:
> <http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04915>
> So the old program that Palm bought was Claris Organizer.

Evidently a BETTER quick google search than mine :-). I do remember
Claris Organizer. Lord, that was a long time ago. That explains why
it's so superior to the Windows Desktop; CO was a good product in its
day. It competed against a similar Lotus based desktop product (NOT
Agenda, a simpler Lotus PIM that was unrelated to Agenda and was sold
to end-users in the PIM glory days).

This page has a little note about the UI for CO.

http://www.mousewks.com/visual/interface_claris.html

It's the same thing one sees on the Palm/Mac desktop.

From another page I saw that the "merge" function was used to combine
Organizer data with Palm data. I also saw posts from folks mourning
the loss of CO when they moved to OS X. Little did they know it was
still around. CO would also sync with a Newton ...

I had a vague recollection that Claris did a version of CO for
Windows, but I can't confirm that so I guess I'm remembering wrong.

Thank for the references and links. Fun!!

john
jfau...@spamcop.net

meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, Palm, PDA, Desktop, OS X, Claris
Organizer, PIM, calendaring software, Macintosh, Apple, Claris

John Faughnan

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Nov 27, 2003, 6:10:59 PM11/27/03
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Thomas Adams <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message news:<bq5kv6$1uur23$1...@ID-34.news.uni-berlin.de>...

> <http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04915>
> So the old program that Palm bought was Claris Organizer.

This inspired me to read the manual for Palm Desktop/Mac that's
installed in the apps folder. This is one powerful piece of software.
It maintains links between items, for example. All kinds of print
options. I knew it was clearly superior to Palm Desktop/Win, but now
that I know it's CO underneath I'm looking for more ... and finding
it.

This also puts Apple's current PIM solutions to shame.

I'll have to keep my eye open for an old CO paper manual at a library
or used book store. Those old manuals were a terrific resource.

john

Dan Norder

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Nov 27, 2003, 7:13:54 PM11/27/03
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>I was pretty sure they'd gotten it from someone
>else, but I didn't suspect Apple!

Well, Claris. which was a subsidiary of Apple. When Steve Jobs came back he cut
off a number of side projects Apple wasto in that weren't part of the core
business,. The software division was an easy choice because it was small
potatoes and cauising grumbling in the developer community for competing with
them. Most were discontinued, FileMaker got spun off into its own company. and
the core software bits (the OS obviously, Clarisworks became Appleworks) got
reabsorbed into the main company.

Considering that a significantly high percentage of Palm executives and
programmers were ex-Apple employees and the Mac version of the Palm organizer
software at the time was horrible, it was only natural that Palm picked it up.
And considering that Apple got to bundle it for free on new Macs as part of the
bargain, it was a major win-win for everyone.

With Claris gone, I wonder what happened to the dogcow mascot.

Alfred E Newman

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Nov 27, 2003, 8:21:21 PM11/27/03
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Dan Norder

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Nov 28, 2003, 8:16:57 PM11/28/03
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alfred...@rogers.com (Alfred E Newman) What, Me Worried:

>If you guys really think the MAC software is
>better, please try and answer my question
>here:
[snip google groups link]

Already answered.

(And, as stated in my answer to that thread, Mac is not an acronym, so it
shouldn't be in all caps.)

Steven Whatley

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Nov 28, 2003, 11:42:31 PM11/28/03
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Derek <ne...@gwinn.us> wrote:
> It was open stage night in comp.sys.palmtops.pilot, when John
> Faughnan stepped up to the microphone and muttered:
>
>> I'm one of a very small number of people who use Palm Desktop
>> 4.1 (only available with T|E and T3, supports Date Book/Calendar
>> categories) on both Mac OS X and Windows. So I can pass on
>> something that may come as a bit of a surprise.
>
> You might want to be a wee bit more specific. I'm running Palm
> Desktop 4.1 right now and I downloaded it. The T|E and the T3 come
> with a modified version that supports the added categories.

The T3 Palm Desktop/Win is v4.1.2

Later,
Steven

Derek

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Nov 29, 2003, 12:24:10 PM11/29/03
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On 28 Nov 2003, Steven Whatley posted the following to
comp.sys.palmtops.pilot:

And it's the ".2" that makes the difference. I knew there was a
difference, but it wasn't simply "v4.1".

Thanks for the info.

--
Derek

It hurts to admit when you make mistakes.
But when they're big enough, the pain only lasts a second.

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