Hello John,
Please, don't mind but I do think that you should give this
suggestion to Microsoft who is not following the rules even being a member
of Infrared Data association. Moreover why should Palm people deviate from
the laid down specifications if Microsoft fails to do so.
Cheers
Khurram
"Schettino, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 04/08/2000 12:07:59 AM
Please respond to "Palm Developer Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Palm Developer Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cc: (bcc: Khurram S-SWD-ITIL-UB/Itilmail)
Subject: Palm Beaming to non-palm (windows) IrObex stacks... interoperabil
ity issue
As part of HP's CoolTown project (http://cooltown.hp.com) we want to
support
using VCards and IrObex to support legacy devices. In other words, someone
with any kind of device (Palm, CE, Psion, Cell phone, whatever) that
supports IrObex and can beam/receive a VCard can interoperate with CoolTown
enabled spaces.
Problem:
The IrObex spec version 1.2, section 6.3 (see
http://www.irda.org/standards/pubs/IrOBEX12.pdf, page 44) says "The OBEX
IrLMP service hint bit has a value of 0x20 in the second hint byte...
Setting the OBEX hint bit is required. Many OBEX clients will not even
attempt a connection unless the OBEX hint bit is set."
It appears Palm OS (as a client) is following this rule. No hint bit set,
no
connection attempt. MS Windows's IR Stack does not allow setting the hint
bit at all, so when we implemented OBEX on top of the Windows IR stack, a
Palm device won't send/receive VCards.
Testing:
We tested a number of IrObex devices with the MS Windows IR stack + our
Obex
layer.
Psion (Epoc32, REVO) connects & Puts VCard OK
WinCE (Jornada 4xx, 6xx) connects & Puts VCard OK
Palm (3.0x, 3.1x, 3.2x, 3.3x, 3.5) fails to connect
Using the QuickBeam IrDA stack with its Obex implementation is a
work-around, since it sets the hint bit correctly. When using this stack,
Palm & other devices successfully connect and beam.
It seems that testing for the hint bit and not attempting a connection if
its not set, although correct in the spec, limits interoperability and
doesn't really provide any gain for the user.
Suggestion:
Either remove the test for the hint bit, or allow users/developers to turn
it off ;)
Thanks,
- John Schettino
Hewlett Packard Labs
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