Hello one and all....
I have a grand idea for a cool Hack for the Newton... but do not know where
or how to begin working on it and need some help.
Here is the proposal:
Write a small extension application that reroutes the Serial Port to the IR
Port. This would only be effective for the 2000/2100 and eMate. It would
basically be like the hack for the Palm that 3Com made allowing IR syncing
of the Palm with an iMac by changing the Serial HotSync port to the IR port
of the device.
Why would this be useful? Well my friend has a Canon BJC-80 portable
printer. There was no Apple Driver for a Canon with IR. Now there is a Canon
BJC driver in the ROM..... but it's Serial only. So if we can reroute the
Serial port to the IR port, then we *could* use the IR canons. It gets
better.... There are other brands of machines that use IR (printers, that
is) .... with the ability to use like the Epson or Canon, etc drivers with
IR you can wirelessly print to any of these devices. As to how fast the
communications could be I do not know, because Apple rewrote the IR drivers
for the HP to make it faster (and it was indeed. The original ROM driver
took like 3 minutes to print a handwritten note - or a minute and a half,
but with the new one it prints in like 10 seconds... it's incredibly
faster).
Wait, there's more.....
What about wireless networks? Many networks have IR interfaces (if I am
wrong, correct me..) that would allow one to find a network laserwriter or
other postscript networked laser printer and print it to -say it with me
now- wirelessly.
Now, once again I am not much of a programmer but I would like to know if
someone is willing to point me out to how to write something like this, or
if someone is interested in this kind of challenge. I would find this kind
of extension very useful for normal everyday use..... others may not... but
fact is the Newton hasn't had any new printing drivers since it was killed
and this is a somewhat new driver being devised even though it is sort of a
Multi-use idea. Anyone willing to embark on this idea, PLEASE email me! I am
very interested in composing this application!
Thanks one and all....
-- - Chris B.A supporter of... \\ /, `( Newton Technology \ =
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