Comments on: Convert your PalmOS Calendar to iCal

By: Carol

Carol — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:30:10 +0000

Thanks for this effort. I really appreciate the detailed instructions & screen prints (good documentation is so hard to find).

This seems to expect the input file to be called Calendar.dba. When I tried other names, it could not find the input file. It also had problems with paths that do not conform to the old DOS standards of a maximum 8 characters for each segment, no embedded spaces or special characters, etc. Both of these are consistent with the date that the program says it was last compiled: September 17, 1998 (think “before Win2k” or even before Y2K). And yes, malloc is indeed a C command used to allocate memory needed by the program, something commonly done by programs at that time.

That said, it did not work for me, either. It displayed “0 records” but then seemed to get hung up. Or perhaps I did not wait long enough?

By: Lia

Lia — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:31:49 +0000

I am having the same problem with malloc: I get the message unable to malloc 20000 bytes. My datebook file is 3505965 bytes, a collection of 10 years of events.
Is there a way I could recompile the program DTBK2CSV.EXE to allow more memory?

The Palm desktop won’t let me sync any more because it says I have too many events.
I have exported all the calendar entries to a datebook-format .dba file, but I would like
to search that data someday.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:57:12 +0000

I have the same problem with malloc. My guess is that malloc is failing because of the memory that’s allocated for a command window. In some ways, could the old memory limitations of DOS be somehow emulated within a command window? Is there some way to expand the memory allocation to the command window. One would think a program could allocate 20 thousand bytes of memory on a computer with nearly a billion bytes of RAM!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:36:13 +0000

My datebook was over 20000b so it would not convert it to CSV it gave a malloc error, is there any fix for this?

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:26:44 +0000

Regarding using Linux to translate as stefantesch noted, Gnome-based distros will also provide this. Evolution, the mail/calendar app typically included, will sync with Palm devices via gnome-pilot and export to iCal format.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:03:45 +0000

Hi Peter, sorry, no linux versions of dtbk2scv.exe that I could find. That was my first choice actually - a linux CLI. I do hear Kpilot on KDE may be helpful though also, see stefantesch’s comments above

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:39:36 +0000

Hi, is there something for Linux?

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:31:39 +0000

For the faint of heart, you can also use Dba2Csv (http://www.dba2csv.com) to take you up to Part D…

By: Flo

Flo — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:03:58 +0000

Thanks for this guide, it worked for me with my 1000+ events (even if I imported the CSV directly into my Google Calendar).

One thing others should keep in mind - the output is not so accurate as you may exspect:

* All repeating events (congresses, lectures, …) are single events now
* All “fullday” events (e.g. birthdays) where one day ahead

Flo

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:04:48 +0000

Unfortunately, most of the SW used here was not written by me, and source is not available, so I can’t even begin to figure out what some of the errors/problems are. Ultimately, the Palm OS Datebook format is a closed, proprietary format, and no official documentation exists on how this format is structured. So in a way, if it works for you, consider yourself one of the lucky ones.