Button Bar

[Conkers]

Is there a reliable way of keeping the button bar cable securely in place? I have lost count of the number of times I've had to open up the old 3a to put it back in and secure it, the little pegs seem to work their way loose too often.
I did try and put a piece of selotape on the ribbon and the socket but that doesn't work.
Anyone got any ideas or experience of this?
Ian

[Jim Cooke]

Ian,

I used to have the same problem with my 3a. I finally resorted to adding a tiny drop of superglue to the little legs. This held mine fine until my wife destroyed the 3a by accidentally putting it through the washing machine. :(

I suspect that, if the little legs break after they've been superglued, then you may have a fatally damaged button bar so take this advice with caution.

[Conkers]

As it has happened again today - third time in two days - I think the Superglue option sounds a good idea.
I will instruct the wife not to put either of our Psions in the Washing Machine - I take it they're not Dishwasher safe either? ;)

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by Conkers
... I take it they're not Dishwasher safe either? ;) Strictly "Dry Clean Only", Conkers! :D

Errr, Jim - the watery end (ouch!) met by your 3a wouldn't have anything to do with "accidentally" leaving it in the pocket of the item-to-be-laundered, would it? ;) (I think Mrs Cooke needs someone to defend her!)

:D

Julie

[PhilAP]

Hi,

There is a macro for MacSys, actually by Tom Dolbilin I think, called "JumpTask" that works well (far better than DPSwitch in my opinion). On my 3a it is set for Control-Diamond. I think that is the recommended keystroke too.

There is another Tom Dolbilin program called "Finder" but I prefer the macro as MacSys is running anyway. I imagine the program's for those who either only use KMac or use no macro utility at all.

Neither the program nor the macro need the button bar to switch tasks/files/programs. DPSwitch does work too and does a similar job but it falls over on my 3a when about 6 or 7 files are open, certainly far too few for me.

My button bar works fine, though, and has since I got the machine from the first batch of 512KB 3as, a bl**dy long time ago. I use the macro since the button bar cannot hold all the programs I use.

[Conkers]

Could you post where you get this program? It sounds like I could use it as a back up to the Button bar.
Thanks
Ian
(BTW Jim, the superglue option has worked so far - I'll let you know if it fails :D

[PhilAP]

Hi Conkers,

The files are all available but I don't actually know where!

Probably the IC site is favorite. The Daniel Pfund site (somewhere on Geocities) has his program and the Phun programs are also available on P. Hunkel's site (Google "phuntime" and "phunjump").

The Dolbilin program is attached and the macro with the next post.

Wait!

[PhilAP]

Hi again Conkers,

I've got the others as well.

[Jim Cooke]

Originally posted by netBookBabe
Strictly "Dry Clean Only", Conkers! :D

Errr, Jim - the watery end (ouch!) met by your 3a wouldn't have anything to do with "accidentally" leaving it in the pocket of the item-to-be-laundered, would it? ;) (I think Mrs Cooke needs someone to defend her!)

:D

Julie

Julie,

Without getting into the disgusting details, I had the worst case of flu in my life that day and had managed to vomit on my jacket. I was too wonked out to even know what was going on so my good wife decided to wash the jacket but did not check the pockets before she put it in the washer. So, no, it wasn't totally her fault although I still think she could have felt, just by the weight, that something was in the pocket. :)

Strangely, after drying the machine out for several days, it did turn on and the button bar still worked. It was only the keyboard that was fried. I can only imagine what my 5mx would be like in similar circumstances. In truth, I had been lusting after a 3mx so I just had to go out and buy one to replace the 3a so it wasn't all bad.:D

[Conkers]

S*ds Law - I've had to open up the S3a and refix the ribbon - this time I've put a little more glue on the pegs before closing them - I'll let you know........
Meanwhile I'm going to try these two little programs

[Conkers]

Phil,
I've loaded Finder 3a in ok and am learning how to use it, but I am at a loss how to get jumptask to open/work. I keep getting a message about Unicode. Can you help me how to run this program. I am completely clueless on programming
Ian

[PhilAP]

Hi Conkers,

Haven't you heard of the favorite Macro utility for SIBO? :rolleyes:

Tom Dolbilin's MacSys may well have been Pascal Nicolas' inspiration for Macro5. There is another SIBO Macro utility, KMac by David Wood (they're both free) but MacSys is rather simpler and less arcane though bigger, I think.

It's also better known. JumpTask only works as a MacSys macro. I've posted MacSys 2.0 here. I think it's the latest version. If you want KMac I've got that too, but most SIBO utilities are on the Imperial College site.

[PhilAP]

Hi Conkers,

How are you getting on with MacSys?

[Conkers]

Hi Phil,
Not very well, to be honest. I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, and the Psion keeps locking up on me whenever I tried to use it.
I will stick with Finder as it does what I want it to do, but thank you for your help in this matter.
BTW The Superglue didn't work, and I have had to re-fix the ribbon again. Luckily I have found finder invaluable on this occasion
Ian

[PhilAP]

Hi Conkers,

There is no problem at this end.

Tom Dolbilin probably wrote Finder for people who didn't want to use MacSys. I found MacSys easy to install but I'm a technophile at heart - these things are meat and drink to me.

But any macro system is bound to be a bit arcane and a basic knowledge of programming is very helpful indeed. If you can cope with it MacSys has many macros available and is fairly well-documented to boot. If you can't there are many other utilities available.

If you want another Psion 3(a/c/mx) and eBay can''t help, try http://www.psionex.co.uk. Or try them anyway. The 3mx is a bit expensive but it's a faster and more recent model. The 3(a/c/mx) will probably last much longer than the 5(mx) series and they're a very practical machine unless you want a cellphone and a games machine too. I used to take my 3a to the pub when I walked my friend's dog (between 4 and 14 miles).