From: Paul Guyot (pguyot_at_kallisys.net)
Date: Thu Sep 19 2002 - 22:25:23 PDT
>I think you're both on the same page, tear the guts out of Newt OS and
>re-build it (ground up) on an embedded Linux kernel.
This will be hard. NewtonOS kernel is *very* different from Linux
kernel. Like 70's technology versus 90's technology.
>Although a hobby project at the moment, putting linux on the newton
>may very well be the springboard to advancements in current PDA
>development, including better handwriting recognition and a very
>friendly user experience.
To get NewtonOS HWR, you need to have some compatibility box on your Linux.
>Continuing investigation,
Here are some tracks you could follow.
65-70% of hardware calls are done thru a PlatformDriver. This is a
P-Class (read about P-Classes in the DDK Introduction) and on the
MP2K you have an implementation for the Voyager. I guess there is one
for the Runt in MP1x0.
The other 30-35% of hardware calls are done thru various drivers
(like linear flash drivers) plus at most a dozen of global addresses
(like the hardware clock, some PCMCIA information, etc.).
If you want a compatibility box, it's like giving NewtonOS a new
hardware (most hardware calls in NewtonOS can be done in any task --
what you'll call process in Linux). You need to write a new platform
driver (the easy part), new drivers for various hardware part (the
middle-easy part) and find out everywhere global addresses are called
and rewrite that (the not-so-easy part).
Good luck.
Paul
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