From: Newtvana (newton_at_ordersomewherechaos.com)
Date: Wed Sep 25 2002 - 22:34:03 PDT
> - Mac OS X Sync: This app would sync the Newton with the Mac OS X 10.2
> AddressBook and iCal applications.
>
> If you're interested in either of these applications, please email me
> with the following information:
>
> - What features would you like to see in the product(s)?
> - What desktop OS do you use? (not applicable for the sync product, of
> course)
> - What price would you consider to be fair?
>
This is what I'm interested in:
I've done *some* software development and a lot of web development. I
would love to help out in any way that I can. Here's my feature wish
list/use cases:
Primary Use Case: Manual connection
===================================
1) I turn on my Blue and White G3 and launch a small app (SyncX.app) in
MacOS X that watches for connections via TCP-
IP/Ethernet/Serial/USB/Modem.
2) I activate my Newton MessagePad 2000 with an 802.11b card and launch
the SyncX.pkg. I tell it to look for machines that are listening on the
proper port/connection *or* I give it an IP address/domain name to
connect to.
3) SyncX.pkg connects to the B&W G3 and both pieces of software play a
sound and highlight in some way.
4) Both the .pkg and the .app display a set of buttons: One to sync
'all', and then a series of buttons to sync the individual built-ins
(Notes/Names/Dates/Etc.), then another button to select a soup or pkg or
file to send.
5) Clicking any of those buttons leads you through a set of steps to
(select and) send that info. One of the final options is 'Remember this
Action'.
6) The proper info is passed from SyncX.pkg to SyncX.app. SyncX.app then
forwards the information as appropriate to the various OS X software via
AppleScript or Perl or some such inter-app messaging.
Primary Use Case: Auto connection
===================================
1) I turn on my Blue and White G3 and launch a small app (SyncX.app) in
MacOS X that watches for connections via TCP-
IP/Ethernet/Serial/USB/Modem.
2) I activate my Newton MessagePad 2000 with an 802.11b card and launch
the SyncX.pkg. It attempts to connect to my most recently chosen server.
If it can't find it, I tell it to look for machines that are listening
on the proper port/connection *or* I give it an IP address to connect to.
3) SyncX.pkg connects to the B&W G3 and both pieces of software play a
sound and highlight in some way.
4) SyncX.pkg activates the actions that I have set it to remember.
5) Both pieces of software play a sound and highlight in some way to
notify that the transaction has completed.
Secondary Use Case: Managing Remembered Actions
Secondary Use Case: Managing Syncing to other Apps on the Desktop machine
Secondary Use Case: Managing Syncing to iPod
Secondary Use Case: Setting connection method preferences
I'm more than happy to continue on in this thread if it would be helpful
for you. However it seems that waiting until Apple releases iSync would
make a lot of sense.
...Ross...
This is a note that I sent to the list last month:
==================================
Okay, so this is what I've seen so far:
1) Newton side:
A TCP/IP transport that is made available in the Dock app
2) Mac side:
A TCP/IP command line pkg installer for OS X
It seems to me that in order to make the Newton connectivity forward
compatible, moving to 1) Ethernet (wired or unwired) physical layer
connections and 2) TCP/IP data transport is paramount. In order to get
there we need to keep moving down these paths.
1) Serial hardware interfaces are rapidly disappearing. Adapters are
available, but why not keep with native support like with an Ethernet
driver? Higher speeds and greater ubiquity of connections are two great
reasons to pursue this.
2) Apple has already made it clear that AppleTalk is deprecated. TCP/IP
opens up a world of connectivity options including remote docking and
greater Windows connectivity.
There seem to be a number of projects that could be worked on and I'm
wondering if anyone is working on these:
A) A TCP/IP transport that can handle not only packages but also syncing
(or at least bi-directional dumping of data) from the Dock application.
B1) A GUI-based tool for installing packages with TCP/IP.
B2) A GUI-based tool for engaging with the TCP/IP Transport to sync/dump
data through the Dock application.
Once the data is transfered over to the MacOS X side, I could work with
the existing Perl translation tools to convert the captured data into
vCards (or vCals) or Tab-delimited or XML or whathaveyou. I've even got
some ideas for doing syncing using the same tools.
At the end of the day, the proprietary code that comprises the Newton
must be relegated to the bare necessities if the Newton is to be a
community support platform. This mostly means finding alternatives for
NCU for mac and win. With the addition of the TCP/IP transport for the
Dock, and with the various Ethernet drivers, we are well on our way.
If there are people here who have already begun down these paths, I'd
love to hear what's going on.
-- Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon May 26 2003 - 12:59:22 PDT