WCEFiler HP 200LX Filer Server Windows CE

I've been working on adding missing pieces in our SCL list for my software I've been finding. I came across the following that I added, which I thought may be of interest - how much interest, I'm not entirely sure. (If this isn't the correct forum, we can move it to HPC General, I didn't want to step on anyone's toes)

Here's the original site:
https://aliknod.synology.me/Website_Copies/oohito/OOHITO_C/WINCE/SH3...

and the respective listing in the SCL
https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/1322/Eiichiroh_Itoh/WCEFiler/version_0...

It appears to be some kind of filer server for Windows CE communication with the 200LX

I missed this post so I apologize for not letting you know sooner that this is a great find. I've never heard of it before.

Can't translate the readme. Maybe stinggraze can have a look. I can't tell if it's a kermit-like file swapper or something else. My goodness, what a hey-day for those Japanese developers. There was nothing they couldn't do. I use gsplayer on any machine that will run it.

Again, a fine discovery. Thank you.

Jake

Yeah I’ll have to wait on stingraze but the original website links to the old hp200 Palmtop page for the “notes”

I pasted the archive.org description here in case that goes dark

TRANSFILE WIN 200
With TRANSFILE WIN 200 you can quickly and easily backup your HP 200LX. Hewlett-Packard is offering this easy to use and fast backup and file transfer utility free of charge to all HP 200LX users.

TRANSFILE WIN 200 provides a familiar user interface with drag and drop transfer of files from your HP 200LX to your PC.
TRANSFILE WIN 200 supports MS Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95 and NT.
TRANSFILE WIN 200 can back your entire HP 200LX up with just a click of your mouse.
TRANSFILE WIN 200 is easy to use, all you do is start the Filer on your HP 200LX, start TRANSFILE WIN 200 and it connects.
All you need to run TRANSFILE WIN 200 is:

HP 200LX 1Mb or 2Mb.
MS Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95 or NT 4.0.
An HP serial cable (F1015A or sold with the HP PC Connectivity Kit F1021B)
Before you download the software, we would appreciate it if you could register yourself:

Anyway so I wonder if this software hooks into this somehow. Or do he website was just showing a different way to connect to the palmtop.

Edit: I ran it in Google Translate
WCEFILER -- Filer Server for WindowsCE (V0.06)

Copyright (C) 1997 by Eiichiroh Itoh

?Overview?

This is an HP-100/200LX Filer server running on WindowsCE. this pro
If you run the program on an HPC running WindowsCE, you can connect with a serial cable.
Filer on HP-100/200LX can operate files on HPC machine.
vinegar.

This is a FreeBSD developed by Ishijima?Dai (NIF: BXC01416)
Based on his Filer server "BSD Filer V0.0" for Win32 from scratch
It was rewritten to , and the source etc. are not compatible.

? Installation ?

1. Unzip this package to extract WCEFILER.EXE.
2. Using HPC Explorer etc., put WCEFILER.EXE in an appropriate directory on the HPC.
forward.
3. If necessary, create a shortcut on the desktop, etc. (Bole
It is required if you want to set the port etc.)
4. Connect HPC and HP-100/200LX with a serial cable.

That's it for the installation.

?How to use?

1. Start WCEFILER using the created shortcut or Run...
2. A small dialog will appear in the middle of the screen.
3. Start Filer on LX connected with serial cable.
4. Select {Communications}-{Remote Settings...} from the menu and select "Baud".
Make it 9600 and press {Enter}.
5. Press {F6}.
6. After a while, the contents of the HPC “Handheld PC” directory will be displayed on the LX screen.
should be
7. After that, you can copy, move, etc. just like normal filer operations.

Files with long file names on HPC will not be displayed. De
The directory name is the same, so a directory such as "My Documents"
can't even get inside. be careful

?End method?

Press the close button in the upper right of the WCEFILER dialog on the HPC. {ESC} key
You can also exit by pressing -.

?Start-up options?

At startup, you can specify the baud rate on the command line. The designation is

WCEFILER [baudrate]

You can specify "9600" or "19200" for the baud rate. If you set an abnormal value
I think that it will end with an error (^^, so please try it properly.

However, when the baud rate of WCEFILER is changed, the baud rate setting in Filer of LX (?
Please do not forget to refer to How to use ?).

? About support ?

Support is

* Nifty serve: FHPPC MES 7
* Nifty serve: FENOTE MES 15
* Mail: GHC02331@niftyserve.or.jp

will be done.

? Change history ?

* 1997/01/17, V0.03, released
* 1997/01/19, V0.06, slightly faster, TRANSFILE WIN 200 compatible

? TO DO ?

* Communication using infrared port

? Acknowledgments ?

Thanks to the research of Dai Ishijima (NIF: BXC01416), the interaction in Filer was analyzed
it was done. When the results of this analysis were published, at last Windows NT and LX were connected serially.
I remember thinking that I could continue and transplanting in one day.

Most of this WCEFILER is also based on "Ishijima"'s analysis. stomach
I would like to thank Mr. Shijima from the bottom of my heart. Thank you very much.

?Notice?

The copyright of this program belongs to Eiichiro Ito (GHC02331@niftyserve.or.jp)

I own it.

? References ?

* Complete technical description of Windows NT 3.5, Nikkei BP, ISBN4-8227-1005-X
* How to Create 32-bit Communication Programs, Shujiro Yokota, CQ Publishing Company,
ISBN4-7898-3561-8

WCEFILER Copyright (C) 1997, Eiichiroh Itoh

Edited by torch 2022-10-13 3:47 AM

Hi. I'll try to see what happens when I run the software, and will get back to you two. I don't have a HPC200LX though.... I believe it's a program that is used for transferring files.

I found an English website with some more information.

WCEFiler

"This is a small program that runs on the Windows CE H/PC that emulates the Filer software communications from the old, DOS-based Hewlett Packard 200LX. In other words, when it is running on your H/PC, your H/PC is pretending to be (emulating) a HP 200LX palmtop for the purposes of serial communications. WCEFiler simply sits there and processes any requests for file transfers that it detects on the serial cable. It can be thought of as a server that will work in conjunction with any desktop/laptop software designed to communicate with a HP 200LX (like Transfile)."

From:
http://www.markvirtue.com/trip/howto.html

Thank you! I updated the listing and pasted all of that info in case the site goes dark. And yeah, I tried running it (added the CE3.0 screenshot), but it literally doesn't do anything more than the screenshots posted.

Thanks for testing it out. I was a bit busy these days and couldn't test it myself.

I think you need a host (PC or HP200LX) for it to work. (via a serial cable)

So, I took a look a bit at the source code, documentation and the application finally.

It seems this is a version of (NIF:BXC01416)'s BSD Filer V0.0 for FreeBSD.
It was written entirely from scratch and there are no source compatibility with BSD Filer V0.0.

That said, I will need a computer with a serial cable and a Linux machine / Windows machine that does terminal. I am not familiar with terminal system so when I have time, I will try to see if it will work with modern machines.

The source was mostly about getting serial connection, didn't look too much into it. I think it's written in C++.

I have a Sigmarion 1 and its serial cable, so yeah...

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2022-10-22 9:18 AM








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wcefiler-1.jpg (38KB - 0 downloads)
wcefiler-source-1.jpg (80KB - 0 downloads)

Thank you for looking into this.
I just am constantly fascinated with how much CE software came from Japan!
Slowly but surely, I'm wanting a Sigmarion... lol

or the Fujitsu PenCentra

But yeah, I think it just is a slave program for CE to be able to serve data over serial to the PC, like those guys who were vacationing (that website you found)

I'm quite surprised too, as a Japanese. I guess Japanese people really liked mobile devices back then.

-stingraze