From: Newtopia (MicroSSG_at_Comcast.net)
Date: Tue Feb 24 2004 - 13:10:23 PST
YOU ARE MY IDOL!
I hate having to tip toe around serial and its serendipitous connection
behaviors.
And yes, I have an IrDA port.
Regards,
Paul Curtis - USA/OR
MP 120 v2.0/130/2100
Michigan State Spartans - Go Green! Go White!
-----Original Message-----
From: newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net
[mailto:newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net] On Behalf Of Eckhart Köppen
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 12:36 PM
To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
Subject: [NTLK] Nitro + Neo + IC/VC (Was: Some Project Ideas for Idle Hands)
On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 11:42:29 -0800, Newtopia wrote:
> I might be a little thick on this; can you help me understand it?
No problem, it can be a bit confusing ;)
> Will this combination allow me to load .pkg's from my Windows XP to my
> Newton and then be able to install it, foregoing the need for serial?
Depends... if you have IrDA hardware on XP, then yes. Here's the
explanation:
Nitro is the low level IrDA driver. It provides the IrCOMM protocol
necessary to talk to other IrDA devices such as laptops or cell phones.
Blunt is the Bluetooth counterpart. Nitro and Blunt are more or less on
the same level as a plain serial connection or an HTTP connection. So
whatever can be done via serial should be possible to do over IrDA or
Bluetooth, depending a bit on the application support (old applications
can be patched, new applications need very minor modifications).
Since the plain serial or IrDA connection is not enough to transfer
data (compare this to a serial connection between two computers: how do
you send files?), you need some sort of transport protocol. This is
where Neo comes into the picture. Neo implements the OBEX protocol,
which is used by almost all devices which support IrDA or Bluetooth.
OBEX is comparable to FTP and can run over any kind of connection. Neo
has support for IrDA, Bluetooth and TCP/IP built in.
There is also an additional transport besides OBEX: The Fetch URL
transport which is part of NHttpLib. You can use it do download items
from a URL into the Inbox.
Now to the data formats: Since the native data formats are not usable
on other devices, some sort of translation is needed. IC/VC does this
part. It converts data from and to iCal and vCard which are the most
common exchange formats for calendar and contact data. It also can
install packages. Handling items (i.e. installation of packages or
importing contacts and calendar data) is done via the Inbox "Put Away"
menu.
So if you have some way of providing the low level connection (IrDA,
Bluetooth, HTTP) on the Newton, you should be able to install packages
from XP. I use the Blunt/Neo/ICVC combination to transfer data between
MacOS X and my Newton (including installing packages).
Eckhart
-- 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/ -- 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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