Dial Hack 1.0

LICENSE:

This software is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License
(the GPL).  In essence, this license allows you to use this software for any
reason, redistribute it for any (or no) fee, and to obtain the source code and
make changes to it.  If you redistribute the software, with or without any
changes made by you, you may only do so if you make it available under the
same terms.  That means that you can distribute a changed version under the
GPL, or may include code from this software in another piece of software,
provided the whole is under the GPL.

The full text of the GPL is in the file COPYING, which should have been in the
archive with the software and this README.  If it *wasn't* provided, please
let me know at once where and when you got the software, so I can correct the
error.

Most PalmOS software is shareware or payware.  This is not - it is free
software.  For more information on the free software movement, see
http://www.fsf.org or get in touch with me.  If you feel that this software is
worth some money to you, please give it to your favourite charity - I don't
need it and the charity will almost certainly put it to better use than I
would.

This software is not covered by any warranty (or, at least, I, the author,
provide no warranty) and it is not guaranteed to work for you.  It works for
me, and I will try to fix any reported bugs (much more likely with a solid
test-case or better, a patch), but in the immortal words of some forgotten
free software author:  "If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces."

WARNING:

This is a Hack - a piece of software which overrides or augments a part of the
PalmOS.  I am pretty sure DialHack is safe, but I do *not* guarantee it.  In
particular, I would not recommend activating this Hack while running another
piece of software which uses the TRGPro advanced audio facilities (for
example, my dialler FoneHome), because I'm not sure how well the OS will react
to the audio software being accessed twice at the same time.  Apart from that,
there shouldn't be any problems, so let me know if you have any problems.  I
will look into the possible conflict with diallers and try to do something
about it if you want me to.


Thanks go to Mitch Blevins for his help writing this.  I started out by
borrowing his DiddleBug screen capture hack and rewriting it do do dialing,
and he gave me some coding advice on an earlier version of the Hack.  Any bugs
are my responsibility however, not his :-)

Usage:

It's a Hack, you need HackMaster (or possibly EVPlugBase although this has
*not* been tested).  For safety, backup your TRGPro before installing this
software.  When you install it, run HackMaster and you will see Dial Hack
appear in the list.  Tap on the [+] icon to configure Dial Hack - there are
two 'modes' listed, and you can select the start and finish buttons to
activate each mode.  The 'from selection' mode allows you to select something
onscreen by dragging the stylus over it and dial by dragging the stylus
between the two selected buttons.  The 'from clipboard' mode is similar but
dials the contents of the clipboard instead - for the few applications which
provide clipboard support without selection, with iSilo being my prime
example.

When you have selected the buttons (or to use the default), tap the OK button,
then tap the checkbox on the left of the 'Dial Hack' label to activate the
Hack.  Once that's done, you can dial from any application!  Simply select the
number to dial and stroke from the 'selection from' button to the 'selection
to' button - or do the same with the clipboard if necessary.  That should be
all there is to it :-)

Release history:

23/08/2000:
First full public release - this software was released on the pilot-pda list a
couple of months ago, but I was slightly paranoid about waiting for bug
reports with this being my first Hack, and I've had a couple of major changes
in my life over the past couple of months, including buying a flat (and moving
into it) and changing jobs after being made redundant.  I've finally got
enough time and confidence to release this to the world.  Enjoy! :-)

The author:

I work as a Unix system developer during the day.  I bought a Palm III on
31/12/98 - upgraded it to a IIIx a few months later - won a TRGPro at
PalmSource London in December 1999.  I have written a couple of small pieces
of Linux software, but I enjoy programming for PalmOS more.  It is a nice
environment in which to code, Palm (and TRG) are very good to their
third-party developers, and the community is in most cases, a nice place to
be.  My programming background is in the Linux community, where the vast
majority of software is free (aka open source) software.  I am somewhat
suprised at the lack of free software authors working in the PalmOS world -
there are only a handful of us - and I'm proud that so many people (seem to)
have found my software, written in my spare time for fun or my own use,
useful.

The home of this software, and my other Palm software, is
http://www.vmlinuz.org/palmos and my contact e-mail address is
richard@vmlinuz.org .  Please get in touch with me if you have any problems
with this software, having checked for a new version or any news at the above
URL, or if you have any other questions which you think I can help you with.
I tend to be short with questions which are answered somewhere else easily
found, and friendly and helpful otherwise :-)

Cheers
Richard - 23/08/2000
