From: Simon Roberts (srob_at_mac.com)
Date: Sat Sep 28 2002 - 15:29:14 PDT
on 28/9/02 8:19 pm, Sean Luke at sean_at_cs.gmu.edu wrote:
>
> As I've mentioned in the past, because I've done plenty of Cocoa and
> plenty of Newtonscript, and would really like a names-and-dates syncing
> app, I'm pondering putting together an iSync module for the Newton.
> I've got a lot of questions, and am hoping the Newton Community might
> be able to answer various ones:
>
It would be very good to see this happen.
> 1. I have never used the Newton Desktop Integration Library (DIL). As
> I understand it, it's hard-coded in MacOS 9 code, ick. [And even if
That is my understanding as well.
> 2. If the DILs are *not* available, then I think the most
> straightforward approach would be to write our own syncing software on
> the Newton side to handle Names and Dates. Has anyone done this
> already?
I'm sure that I remember someone on the list saying that they had a
prototype of some portable code that could access Newton data at a fairly
high level. It sounded promising.
>
> 4. If anyone has poked around with iSync and has some experience with
> hacking it, I'd be appreciative of any info.
>
I've installed iSync and I've been poking around a little. Some observations
so far:
/System/Library/SyncServices contains bundles for the various devices and
data sources. Doing a "string" on the executables suggests that there is not
that much in there. Once it is documented, it looks as though one will not
have to implement too much (i.e. many methods) to get basic iCal and AB
syncing.
There seems to be nothing in the form of a real SyncML implementation
present. Each of the conduits (yes, they seem to be calling them conduits,
like Palm), seem to be pretty much a point solution for talking to a
particular sort of device. Perhaps there is some more interesting stuff in a
private framework somewhere. Comments that I have read elsewhere
(powerpage.org) suggest that SyncML is not really part of iSync at the
present time. I hope that this changes - SyncML is the future for this kind
of thing IMHO.
In some of the plists there are references to "sample conduit" (e.g. an icon
file). I guess that there is, at least internally within Apple, a sample
conduit available. Hopefully this will be released to ADC members sometime!
Regards,
Simon
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