Psion Comms-Link Version 1.3b by Dave Westwood
       
       NOTE: THIS PROGRAM THINKS OF ITS CURRENT DIR AS
       BEING CALLED `PSION`. IT IS THEREFORE NECESSARY
       TO USE AN ASSIGN STATEMENT SUCH AS THE FOLLOWING
       LINE IN YOUR STARTUP-SEQUENCE:
       
       ASSIGN PSION: SYS:UTILITIES/PSIONLINK/

This is a sampler version of the full-blown comms-link, it is complete
in all but two respects; it cannot operate in Psion protocol, and it
does not have the file editor built in, if you want the full version,
you can contact me via Diamond Computers, 144 Ferry Road,
Edinburgh, Scotland, Tel 031 554 3557 or at 14 Davaar Drive,
Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, KY2 6RT.

        Apart from the "info" feature, the program is made up of just
two pull down menus, the first of these is the file handling menu,
whereas the second is for transfer control. I will handle the transfer
control first, as it is the simplest to understand.

        The majority of this menu consists of a variety of standard
comms parameters,(Baud Rate, # of Data bits, # of Stop bits, and
parity), I will not go into their meanings here, as a whole book could
be written on this subject, and indeed many have , Suffice to say that
as long as all these parameters match on both the Amiga and the Psion
end of things, then you should experience no problems.

        Protocol means the method of transferring data between two
machines, "No-Protocol" is the fastest transfer system, but is also
the most prone to errors, and because it contains no error checking,
errors can not be detected during transmission, and indeed may not be
noticed until it is too late, it's use is not recommended, and it is
only included here for the sake of completeness and addicts to risk
taking. "X-Modem" is probably the simplest and most widely used form
of error correcting protocol in the communications world, it is not
100% secure, but is infinitely better than no protocol at all. "Psion"
protocol is the slowest of the three, but is also the most secure, and
also offers further benefits, in that it allows the retrieval of
deleted files on data-packs, and also the transfer of OPL object code
for use within the psion developer (also available from me for the
Amiga).

        The last option in this menu allows you to save all your Comms
parameters to a prefs file and thus save you needing to set them all
up again next time you use the program. ( as a side note, it is worth
noting that if you select X-Modem protocol then Comms-Link will auto-
select 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit, because this is the
suggested set up for X-Modem within the standard, however after
selecting X-Modem, there is nothing to stop you from re-altering these
parameters and there will be no adverse affects after doing this).

        Send and Recv begin file transfer in the selected protocol to
or from the Psion and the Amiga, a similar selection will also have to
be made on the Psion (see the comms link manual), incidentally, the
TRANSMITTING machine should be set into action first.

        After file transfer is complete, the other pull down menu
comes into play, the first important selection here is "TYPE" this
must be selected to show what sort of file you are working on (OPL,
NOTE or FILE), this is important because the conversion between Amiga
file and Psion file and vice-versa is carried out differently for
different file types. Once type is selected, you can progress to PS>AM
or AM>PS these are the Psion to Amiga and Amiga to Psion conversion
modules respectively, and they do the actual file conversion. (It is
worth noting here that if FILE type is selected, then PS>AM converts
the file to a series of fields separated by commas, with each new
record on a different line, or the Ascii delimited format as it is
sometimes known, this is suitable for direct importation into most
popular Amiga databases).

        You will have noticed by now that each time the program asks
for a filename, whether it be to send, recv or convert, the
fileselector defaults to the directory it was in when Comms-Link was
run, this can cause some severe moving about the directory tree in
order to find the particular file you want, so for this reason, the
"Path" option is included here so that you can set up a different
default directory for the fileselector to start from. (Incidentally,
try not to set a file as part of the directory here, you will only
confuse AmigaDos !)

        "Read" is provided to let you examine any file on the
directory structure, it is obviously designed for files that have been
transferred, but will work quite comfortably on other files as well,
it does not assume Ascii content, and thus shows a file both in its
byte-value form (in decimal) and also in Ascii if it has a valid Ascii
character.

        This brings us neatly to "Quit", I bet you can guess what this
does !

        That's more or less it, if there is anything further I can
assist with, please do not hesitate to contact me at either of the
addresses mentioned at the beginning of this file, not necessarily
with this product, but with anything Psion or Amiga orientated.

                                        MY ADVICE IS FREE !!!


        Lastly, I would like to apologise for any bugs that may have
slipped into this program, if you do find any, I would welcome hearing
about them, as I intend to carry on developing Psion and Amiga
software and hardware, and especially the bits in between.