This might be a novice question, but...
Here's what I'd like to be able to do.
I give someone a .prc file, and a bunch of .pdb files.
But I want the user to also get a PC-side application to
communicate with the Palm.
(E.g. the user may want to be able to visit 15 different
customers and exchange data on their palmtop with the PC.
E.g. I go on holiday in Hanoi with my palmtop, and I want to
carry enough software inside the palmtop to be able to
load this onto any old PC in an Internet cafe, and then in this
way I backup my data by sending home over the Internet.)
How can I load up a PC application into a PDB file in such a way
that I can transfer my ad hoc conduit software, or any other
software, to the PC?
The PC in the Internet cafe in Hanoi has no software for
talking to a Palmtop. So presumably I need a sort of boot-strap
program which I put on a web page, which hopefully is not
on a black list maintained by the govt's firewalls,
then the cafe downloads the boot-strap program onto their PC,
possibly runs this in Perl or something, and then they fetch
my software from the Palmtop, and that application then
does all the application-specific things.
Question:
Has anyone else gone through this thought process?
And perhaps created and used such boot-strap software?
How do you get stuff out of your Palm organiser into
a random PC that you have never met before and has no Palm-specific
software?
I was hoping to do this without carrying around a CD-ROM
of PC-side sync software.
But even if I did, I'm not aware of any software which
provides a conduit for PC executables.
It's not even clear how you would load up an executable into
the record-oriented database structure.
The answer to my questions should be relevant to anyone who wants
to go on holiday with a Palm organiser and wants to
send stuff back home or get, say, news cuttings off the net for
reading while out on a boat in Ha Long Bay.
Cheers,
Alan Kennington.
PS. Following all the discussion of copy protection, I've put
PGP signatures on all of my own Palm software -- only a single
exprimental learning-application at this stage.
Here is my solution to how I personally would solve the problem
in view of all that has been said.
1. If I want to put in some sort of copy protection or
registration functionality that I don't want the user
to remove, then I put that into my program, not worrying
too much about obscuring it particularly.
2. I sign the software containing the registration functions etc.
3. At all points where the software is distributed, I have
an explanation to the effect that:
a. The software is copyright and it is illegal
to copy it.
b. The software is signed, and the user should
download the signature file along
with the software itself (if the signature
is in a separate file).
c. I warn the user that if the signature does not
succeed, using a public key which is made
available at a site which I have personal
control of, or some other reliable site
which is unlikely to be compromised, then
their software is certainly compromised,
may contain viruses or other faults, and
should not be used.
d. Users found in possession of copies of my
software which do not have a valid signature
will be prosecuted.
This approach gives two threats to users who do not
have validated copies of my software: (1) it is certainly hacked
and therefore dangerous to use because it may contain
trojan horse etc., and (2) the user is certainly in possession of
a copyright-infringing pirated copy which makes them liable to
be prosecuted. The signature gives a method of giving any
auditor of a company a simple tool to determine
if the software is illegal.
The unaltered copies of the program have built-in code which
the user can disassemble and persue for their pleasure,
but the moment they later it, they face the threat of legal action,
and anyone who receives a copy is taking a trojan horse risk.
If this methodology because widespread, reviewers would know that
they should check their copy against a signature.
Perhaps even Palm Computing could provide a place on their
web-site to be a repository for PGP keys and signatures.
If it became known that this was the way to deal with Palm software,
then I think that users would get into the simple habit of
running a check on any software they get.
It should be possible to just run a simple application over
all of their software to see which is authentic.
I place all of this thinking in a "PS" because I don't want
to contribute to the e-mail item-count for this
copy protection topic.
Cheers again,
Alan Kennington.
