From: Anton Aylward (anton_at_the-wire.com)
Date: Tue Oct 21 2003 - 05:57:20 PDT
I don't blame you.
What I don't understand is why it can't be turned inside out.
What I mean is this:
Under the *NIX Family, "devices" are just things in the file system that
look like an array of bytes. There is even VM support to map the 'file'
into memory.
So the flash card, or the ATA card, from the Newton, in the *NIX
setting, can be treated as a huge array. This much I remember from days
of kernel hacking at drivers and some DB interface apps.
I'm in the Linux/BSD/Solaris/AIX world, but perhaps someone can confirm
that OSX hasn't deviated from the *NIX model.
So my question is this:
Why can't we stick to the SOUP model but have an application on the *NIX
side that manipulates the soups?
Advantages:
- backups. Just put the card in the *NIX machine and tell it
to back up what's on it. Faster even than Ethernet!
- applications. Let your imagine run wild. Upload and download
notes, address book entries, MP3s, whatever
The variety of development tools available on the *NIX platforms is much
greater than those for developing targeted for the Newton.
Perhaps even someone could write the low level Newton::Soup for Perl and
Ruby so we can do all the backup/manipulation in a script.
On Tue, 2003-10-21 at 06:14, Paul Guyot wrote:
> Aux environs du 20/10/03 à 16:55 +0100, sous le titre "[NTLK] FAT
> Support through APIs: Was Re: newtontalk Dig", Andy Collins prit sa
> plus belle plume pour écrire les mots suivants:
> >Does these mean that a standard Newt app couldn't use a CF card with FAT
> >layout?
>
> Right now, it cannot. The card has to be formatted to the Newton
> Stores Collection format and each partition in this partition map
> format is a Newton Store.
>
> >If so, that would be a shame. Would it not be possible for ATA driver using
> >FAT to store Newt Soups as files?
>
> No.
> As in, I'm not going to spend two years on this.
-- Anton Aylward <anton_at_the-wire.com> -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries List FAQ/Etiquette/Terms: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
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