README file for yepos

yepos is another dictionary program for PalmOS.
it's primary features are:
(0) RMS-sense freedom, you can use and distribute it under
    the terms of the GNU GPLv3+
(1) it is older devices-oriented:
    it runs on PalmOS 2.0 devices with 16 MHz DragonBall quite fluently
    (unfortunately, they can't bear any really large dictionary);
    generally, one of the most important goals is to to minimise
    the power consumption;
    it is written with badly adjusted digitizer in mind
(2) it's host-side programs are written in C within C89 standard
    (apart from dependency on zlib), single object file per program,
    so should be very portable and easy to build
(3) it has both database compiler and decompiler to regenerate
    the database source file bit-to-bit
(4) compressed databases support (via SysZLib)
(5) minimalistic user interface, e.g. find action is triggered with
    carriage return stroke or `Find' hardware button; articles are
    scrolled like in Weasel with tap on upper/lower half of the screen;
    no form titles, no fancy buttons, no other non-functional decorations

Some not so important features that are also planned:
(1) databases in memory cards as well as in Palm RAM
(2) reverse search (in articles bodies rather than in their titles)

Not planned neither in foreseeable future, nor later:
(0) multibyte encodings

There are other free dictionary programs available for PalmOS.
Here I list reasons why they didn't suit me
(0) PalmOpenDic doesn't come with database decompiler;
    it's host tools are written in Java
    and I am not familiar with this language;
    the most important - it is very intellectual, but it is slow.
(2) PAdict is a wonderful work oriented on Japaneese
(3) PocketBabylon can't read compressed databases

yepos is free program; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Although yepos is free, PalmOS is not, so it is not very ethical to
support Palm producers by writing free programs that primarily run on their
proprietary system. yepos author writes the program for personally
historical reasons (another excuse is that PalmOS is not supported by
it's developers any more).

Please don't use proprietary programs when you have a free alternative!

Another necessary copyright note: files in extern/ directory are neigher
copyrighted by yepos author, nor parts of yepos; they are used with it
as external libraries. yepos authors distrubute them under the same terms
as yepos. you also can get these files under their original
(more permissive) licenses from their original distributors.
for precise copyright statements see the respective files.