Agendus Problems?

J

JoshZman

New member
I like using agendus for my schedule/contacts app. I installed the latest version on my new TX about a week ago and everything was going just fine. Yesterday, I installed a few alternate keyboards to try out (MessagEase and MyKB ATOMIC keyboard). I am disabled and writing grafitti is next to impossible and I hate the palm keyboard.

I briefly tried MyKB and then uninstalled. I installed MessagEase and I loved it. I opened agendus and used MessagEase to create a bogus appointment. I then attempted to delete the appointment several times and was met with a soft reset each time. I thought there was a conflict between my TX or Agendus and MessagEase so I deleted the program. I went back into agendus to delete the appointment: soft reset.

Long story short, hard reset and up and running (I thought there may have been residual data left from MessagEase). I again went to agendus to delete the appointment: soft reset. Uninstall, reinstall agendus: soft reset. I was stumped and then realized I had never deleted an item from agendus since loading it on my TX. I loaded datebook5 and reloaded messagEase and no problems. Also no conflicts between the program and other palm apps.

I guess I took the long way around but, has anyone else had conflicts between Agendus and the TX?
 
Brackman,

As an Iambic Forums Team member - we've got several people running the TX without this issue. That said, it's possible a couple of things might have caused this:

1. Most likely a corrupted record.
2. Conflict with another program.
3. Conflict with Agendus's preferences versus Palm's preferences.

The normal testing procedure would suggest that you go to the native Palm application and attempt to delete the appointment and see what happens. If you got an error at that time - then it's a corrupted record.

So how would you then determine which one of the 3 above possible's was causing your issue:

1. There are several utilities to run to search for corrupted records. DBScan, Fix Address and there is a utility on the Palm Desktop under Tools>options>tools tab.
2. Unistall the suspected program and hot sync, then soft reset and hot sync again. Why? The first hot sync clears the program, the soft reset clears the Palm Preferences and the next hot sync "sets" the preferences to where they need to be.
3. Agendus has an option to set the preferences back to "default". This will normally clear most issues short of having to uninstall and reinstall as outlined in #2.

Ok - now for more bad news: You've installed DB5 - which in it's own right is a good program but it will cause corrupted records that can cause conflicts with Agendus.

Ok so you think that unistalling DB5 and returning to Agendus would be ok - nope.

DB5 uses proprietary encoding for it's Icons. If you go into your native Palm calendar application and select an event with an icon and then look at the note field you'll see something like this:

##@@AY@@@@@@@@@@@Q

The above is how DB5 encodes it's colors, icons and links.

Agendus uses: ICON:38|150448#AN

Now for more bad news - these "tags" (as we call them) are not removed even when you remove either program. The only way to clear them is to remove all note fields or to go through them one by one and delete them.

More bad news - DB5 DBsetup goes through and forces all of the tags to the front of the note field regardless of what you want which is a root problem for Agendus and causes conflicts. If you had tried DB5 before - on the TX or another device - these @ signs would most probably cause the corrupted record.

I can't tell you exactly what was the cause of your issue but perhaps some of this information might help you in the future.

Now I can tell you all of this not because of my relationship with Iambic but because of personal knowledge that caused me to pull my hair out the couple of times that I tried DB4 then 5 back in late 90s and tracing it to this exact issue.

One program to another - both are good but this established encoding is not going to be changed by either company because of costs etc but it does show how good programs can become in conflict with each other.
 
Well, Moose, it appears as if I've become a DB5 fan. (Ha-ha) I've been playing with DB5 and it's not too bad Not as good as Agendus, but not that bad. I'm not an incredibly busy fellow so I'll get by. I really do appreciate your help and if there were a quicker or easier fix (and I was confident I could acomplish the task) I'd pony-up to the table.

Thank God there there are men like you out there willing stroke out figuring this stuff out. I did find a program to extend the auto shut off time. It's called Set Auto Power Off. It's pretty rudimentary but it works. I appreciate the help and I'm sure I'll be back.
 
DB5 (6 is in beta and will be released soon - DB6 Here)- it's not that I'd call it a bad program.

I have often said it here and at Iambic and other places: Agendus is a contact manager program - the best. Datebk5 is the best Calendar program.

If you are Calendar eccentric then by all means DB5 (download 6) is the way to go.

But if you are Contact eccentric - then hands down Agendus is the only way to go.

I have 1,600 contacts and at any given time 100 or so active Tasks - there is no way in the world that I could use DB6.....cause I've tried it and I am a registered owner of DB6. It's never wise to commit overly to one product and that's also why I run two different devices at any given time, to see if an improvement in efficiency can be made etc.

The encoding issue causes conflicts - but that was simply programming decision by both companies about 8 years ago so that fills in the blank.


Glad you found the other program.....and thanks for the other comments.
 
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