Introduction
InterType is a set of software components allowing Palm powered devices based on Palm OS 5.x (a.k.a. Palm OS Garnet) to display and accept additional alphabets and languages. Only American and Pan-European versions of Palm OS 5.x are supported, due to core differences with the Japanese and Chinese builds of the OS.
Further, not all languages can be added via InterType: the same limitation that had caused the device manufacturer to make separate American and Far East releases is actually preventing from adding Far East languages to a western device (see below).
Note: Due to the application specifics there is no trial download available for the product. Please make sure to read all product features and limitations before placing an order.
InterType Macedonian Localization Kit
Localization is pretty much essential for anyone whose native language is not among the ones built in the original device configuration. Even if you know English or German or Spanish well enough, if you are a native Macedonian speaker, you would likely be receiving emails in Macedonian, reading Macedonian websites and having contacts in Macedonian. Therefore, you would likely need to have Macedonian localization for Palm, not just an application-by-application solution.
Without attempting to completely turn the device to Macedonian, InterType addresses the very need to be able to read and write other languages in every application.
An excellent localization for Palm, InterType is one of the very few applications ever to bring Macedonian language to Palm devices.
Features
Supported languages and code pages
How does it work?
As of version 5.2 of Palm OS, the American and European Palm OS devices are using a single-byte code page, meaning they can only display and distinguish among 256 unique system characters.
Alternatively, in the Japanese builds of the OS a character is represent by two bytes, allowing for much more unique characters.
Unicode is a standard for using the two bytes to describe a character allowing representation of all world languages; unfortunately, it is not applicable to the American and Pan-European versions of the Palm OS devices.
The lower 128 characters of all code pages, regardless of whether 1 or 2 bytes, are standardized and match the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). This is where the Latin alphabet, the digits, punctuation marks and a few other special characters are.
The upper 128 characters available in a single-byte systems is where usually the alternate languages are.
By default, all Palm devices contain the standardized extended Latin code page. The upper page contains the accented Latin characters used by various Western-European languages like German, French, Italian etc.
Caution: adding any other language (e.g. Russian) to the device is only convenient if it is located at the upper 128 characters of the available system table and as such is only possible at the price of [temporary] losing the characters available there.
The directly viewable result of installing any such localization enhancement on a single-byte system is that some Western-European characters across the device suddenly start looking oddly. It is important to know that it is only the appearance of the documents that is affected (as a result of changing the character glyphs for the upper half of the alphabet); the actual documents are not.
In a nutshell, all localization programs replace several system resources, providing more or less of the functionality needed to read, enter and manipulate (for example sort) alphabets for particular language.
When first run InterType installs some operating system enhancement and replacement modules. This is not what a usual software application does. Once installed, these modules become part of the operating system. It would be unwise then to simply remove the program from the device using the classic "Delete" command from the main application launcher or any similar alternative.
Instead, you would want to first "uninstall" the program's extensions from the operating system and then eventually remove it the regular way. InterType provides a special button in its main form for this purpose.
Because of its specific nature InterType requires a soft device reset any time it has to install or uninstall its components in the operating system.
Limitations
The first and most important limitation of the program has already been explained in the previous chapter and it comes as a direct result of the limited space in which Palm OS Garnet maintains language information; as a result, no more than TWO languages with different alphabets can be displayed/used at global system level at the same time; for example one can have English and German or English and Russian, but not English and German and Russian at the same time, because the Cyrillic letters occupy the same codes where German keeps its non-standard characters like umlauts etc.
In fact, since German and Russian overlay each other it is not even possible to have correct German and Russian at the same time without tweaking the whole code page upside down.
As all localization applications, InterType is tightly tied to the OS and thus very dependant on it; there are DIFFERENT program versions for significantly different OS versions and usually every time a new OS release is made the program needs to be updated.
InterType 5.4 covers all known Palm OS 5.x versions up to 5.4.2; for handhelds running older Palm OS versions please find and use PalmType, the InterType predecessor.
No Grafitti recognition is supported - input can only be done via the soft input keyboard on the device.
For devices with hardware keyboard (e.g. the Treo smart phones) the input from the keyboard is NOT supported, but is under development and can be provided under special arrangement (bulk ordering, site licenses etc.)
Changing the active secondary language requires starting the program; we are working to enabling hot switch from within other programs
Once activated, the program MUST remain in main device memory;
It is important to UNINSTALL the program before deleting it from the device.
Installation
To install InterType, first locate the folder with its files. There are two such files for any set of languages based on the same alphabet (technically, the same code page): one is called "InterType.prc" and the other contains the specific code page name and number, e.g. "Windows Cyrillic (1251).prc".
Both (or all, if one wants to install more than one code page file along with the program) files can be installed on the device, just as with any other Palm OS files. We strongly recommend that they get installed directly in RAM (as opposed to a media card), but in reality it is not a must; it is only important that once run, they do not get deleted from the main memory, unless the program is being un-installed according to the below instructions.
Once the program files are copied, you should see InterType's icon in the application launcher and be able to run it from there.
The program will warn in case it is not certain it could properly install on your device; it is possible that it may flatly refuse to run, or it may ask you whether you want it to try and run. If either of the two happen, it will be a good idea to consult with our website (http://www.beiks.com) to see if an update is available.
Un-installation
Important: once the program is run it is automatically installed; if you want to delete it you MUST uninstall it first!
Unlike most other programs, InterType is an OS extension program and can not and should not be simply deleted when no more needed.
Instead, you should run the program (if possible) and tap the "Uninstall" button; the device will be reset and just then the program can be deleted the regular way through the application launcher or any other similar program.
If for whatever reason the program could not start, then probably it has not been installed and can be safely deleted. However, we recommend a soft reset before and after performing such an operation.
Troubleshooting
Q. The device displays error message right after a soft reset; it is unusable in this form.
A. Try performing a soft reset while holding down (having pressed) the up arrow key on your handheld. If the device resets normally this way, go to the application launcher and delete InterType or any other program you might suspect is the cause of the program; delete, if possible, all titles that can somehow be related to the offending program. Once done, try doing normal soft reset again.
If that doesn't help (or even if it does) please contact us at support@beiks.com and we will try help.
Q. After installing InterType I can get localized keyboard to show up, but still can't read Cyrillic (or whatever else) in AvantGo, BibleToGo, Blazer etc.
A. Some programs may use proprietary set of fonts instead of using the system fonts; this is usually done so that they provide better reading experience, but in this case may also be a limitation. The best source for resolution of this program is the developer of the program. In our view, they should have at least left an option to use the system fonts if that was possible.
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