Hi all,
Here are some results about a NCU-like software native MacOS X, and
especially news about why it isn't satisfying yet because of Apple.
Some of you might know how enthusiast of the slowest Unix on earth I
am. Nevertheless, because otherwise noone will do it, I have been
working on a NCU replacement for you Newton & MacOS X users.
Let me remind you the story of NCU-clones capabilities and the
existing products.
NewtonOS Dock application can connect to a server implementing the
protocol described there:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/bowels/docking_protocol.txt
(well, this doc isn't complete but gives most of it).
A special thing in this protocol is that there is a pseudo-DES
challenge on the connection.
A subset of this protocol is the load package protocol.
It is also described in Newton Formats PDF:
http://archive.dstc.edu.au/AU/staff/david-arnold/newton/dev/newton-formats.pdf
And it does not use the pseudo-DES challenge thing.
There are several software implementing either the dock protocol or
just the load package subset. For a long time, the problem was that
the pseudo-DES challenge wasn't solved out and therefore, third party
software had to rely on Apple's libraries implementing it if they
wanted more than the load package protocol.
These libraries are not carbonized. They call MacOS APIs that are not
emulated/present on MacOS X, especially the Communication Toolbox
(and some OpenTransport APIs for the TCP/IP connection).
They allow connection via Serial (with MNP compression), AppleTalk,
TCP/IP and generic CTB (hence IrDA).
Something like 18 months ago, I've started working on a
re-implementation of these libraries, focusing on the DES challenge
part, which I finally solved.
This project, called the Desktop Connection Library, only connected
to the Newton via the Communication Toolbox, a technology that was
steved. Thanks to it, you can backup & install packages (I haven't
implementing anything else yet) via IrDA, AppleTalk and MNP Serial.
Recently, I have added OpenTransport (it was fully functional
yesterday night). So under MacOS, you can also do TCP/IP and
AppleTalk with OpenTransport (Serial will come later).
Since I hate booting under MacOS X because I can't use my own account
(and also, it's painfully slow in spite of the 320 MB of RAM), I have
asked Nicolas Zinovieff to try the thing on his iBook. Nicolas also
helped me on OpenTransport implementation and he's working on
AppleScript bindings.
AppleTalk failed on OpenSTEP.
This confirms what can be read here:
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Carbon/CarbonSpecification/AppleTalk_Manager.html
(use OpenTransport or native MacOS X calls)
and here:
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Carbon/networkcomm/OpenTransport/Open_Transport/Miscellaneous/CarbonCompatibility.html
(Carbon/MacOS X doesn't support ADSP or Serial)
Nicolas and I thought that these docs were not up to date (something
common now on Apple's website), but apparently, they are.
And on this page:
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Networking/networking.html
there doesn't seem to be any AppleTalk native MacOS X APIs.
So let me summarize.
If you have a MacOS X computer with a serial port, you can connect
with UnixNPI. Install then Thomas Tempelman's TCP/IP and connect to
the DCL.
Screen shot of Nicolas' Newton connected to his MacOS X iBook can be
found there:
http://ngfun.free.fr/dcl.html
Otherwise, use a finished operating system. And don't buy a computer
that default-boots to it to show your discontent.
Paul, quite angry.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:03:18 EST