Compatibility

This page records what the SharkPoint range ran on and what it connected to. Because the software dates from the 2000s, most of it is now historical — but the compatibility questions it deals with are the same ones divers face with any logbook software, and they are worth reading in that light.

Host platforms

All three handheld and desktop platforms named here have since been discontinued by their vendors. Palm OS and Windows Mobile in particular no longer exist as shipping products, which is the practical reason the handheld editions cannot be used today even where an installer survives.

Between editions: the 1.5 / 2.0 divide

The one compatibility rule worth understanding is the generational split. The database format changed between the 1.5 and 2.0 generations, and DiveSync 1.5 could not read the newer format.

The consequence was concrete: the Palm DualPack paired SharkPoint for Palm 1.5 with SharkPoint for Windows 1.5, and could not be supplied with Windows v2. Divers who wanted the version 2 feature set on a handheld needed the PocketPC DualPack instead.

This is the ordinary shape of the problem described on the file formats page: a logbook lives or dies by whether its format can still be read, and a format change inside a single product family is enough to strand a platform.

GPS receivers

SharkPoint could take position data from a handheld GPS unit with compatible data output, over any of the connections in normal use at the time:

• Bluetooth
• Serial
• Internal receivers on handhelds so equipped
• USB

Recorded co-ordinates were accurate to within a few tens of feet in good conditions and were attached to the dive place record, from where they could be exchanged with the Windows edition's mapping features or exported for viewing in a mapping application. Real-world accuracy depends on the receiver and the sky view, and the official GPS accuracy pages set out what the system actually guarantees.

Dive computers

Dive computer support came through the separate SharkPoint DCU modules rather than being built into the logbook itself. The DCU programs read the log files that a dive computer's own desktop software produced, in that software's native format, and imported the profiles into SharkPoint for Windows.

That indirect route was deliberate and it is why the module list was per-format: each dive computer manufacturer used its own file layout, and a module had to be written for each one. Dive computer manufacturers have since converged somewhat on more open exchange formats, which has made this problem less severe than it was — but it has not disappeared, and it remains the first thing to check before committing years of dives to any logbook program.

Documents and printing

Printed output went through the EPF (Easy Print Format) system to any printer the host operating system supported. Because EPF layouts were designed by the diver, output could be matched to an existing paper logbook rather than to a fixed template.