NAME

HP200LX::DB - Perl module to access HP-200 LX database files

SYNOPSIS

  use HP200LX::DB;

  interface functions:
    $db= HP200LX::DB::openDB ($fnm)     read database and return an DB object
    $db= new HP200LX::DB ($fnm)         create database and return an DB object
    $db->saveDB ($fnm)                  save DB object as a (new) file

  array tie implementation to access database data records:
    tie (@dbd, HP200LX::DB, $db);       access database data in array form
    TIEARRAY                            stub to get an tie for the database
    FETCH                               retrieve a record
    STORE                               store a record

  additional data retrieval and storage methods:
    $db->FETCH_data_raw ($idx)          retrieve raw data record
    $db->FETCH_note_raw ($idx)          retrieve raw note record
    $db->STORE_data_raw ($idx, $data)   store raw data record
    $db->STORE_note_raw ($idx, $note)   store raw note record
    $db->get_last_index ()              return highest index

  internal methods:
    $db->show_db_def (*FH)              show database definition
    $db->show_card_def (*FH)            show card layout definition
    $db->get_field_def ($num)           retrieve field definition
    $db->print_summary ($header)        print DB summary line;
                                        print also header if $header==1
    show_field_def                      show a field definition
    fetch_data                          used by FETCH to get db record
    store_data                          used by STORE to save db record
    get_recheader                       read gdb internal record structure
    put_recheader                       store gdb internal record structure
    fmt_time_stamp                      create a readable date and time string
    get_fielddef                        decode a field definition record
    get_carddef                         decode a card definiton record

  Diagnostics and Debugging methods:
    $db->dump_db (*FH, $type)           dump a complete data base
    $db->dump_data                      dump all data records
    $db->recover_password               attempt to reconstruct DB password

  Diagnostics and Debugging functions:
    print_recheader (*FH, $txt, $rec)   print details about a record
    dump_def                            dump database definition
    dump_data_record                    print and dump data record
    hex_dump                            perform a hex dump of some data
    decrypt_password                    attempt to decote the DB password
    decrypt_data                        attempt to decode a DB recrod

DESCRIPTION

  DB.pm implements the Perl package HP200LX::DB which is intended
  to provide a Perl 5 interface for files in the generic database
  format of the HP 200LX palmtop computer.  The Perl modules are
  intended to be used on a work station such as a PC or a Unix
  machine to read and write data records from and to a database
  file.  These modules are not intended to be run directly on the
  palmtop!

  Please see the README file for a few more details or consult
  the examples which can be found at the web site mentioned below.

Copyright

  Copyright (c) 1998-2001 Gerhard Gonter.  All rights reserved.
  This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

  Gerhard Gonter, g.gonter@ieee.org

SEE ALSO

  http://sourceforge.net/projects/hp200lx-db/,
  perl(1).