From: Martin Joseph (martyNT_at_barknaturalpet.com)
Date: Sat Nov 19 2005 - 09:13:49 PST
On Nov 19, 2005, at 12:45 AM, James Wages wrote:
> On 11/19/05 4:45 AM, Martin Joseph <martyNT_at_barknaturalpet.com> wrote:
>> The "Get busy" or "do something" that you refer to is intended to
>> spur
>> you on to looking into the DCL source and setting up a development
>> system of you own if you don't have one already. Apparently you are a
>> programmer, so I don't know why you refuse to admit that you can do
>> this, and we are all waiting on you ;~)
>
> Said like a true non-programmer!
Actually an ex programmer. (6502,8088, 68K, FORTH)
>
> Martin, if I speak Japanese to you, will you understand it?
Say that again more slowly?
> Probably not.
Definitely not.
> But you do speak "a language," right? You do speak English natively
> just as
> I do. So even though we both speak "languages" you don't speak one of
> the
> languages that I know, hence you and I can in no way communicate or
> "get
> busy" in the Japanese language. They same applies to programming
> software.
I know I could learn japanese given enough desire and some time.
>
> I know Microchip assembly language. <snip>
I wasn't suggesting that you already knew everything necessary to just
punch this out in a day or two.
> Suffice it to say, if you read my previous post again, I made this
> point
> already. If I could program in the language required to get the job
> done, I
> would try to work with other programmers to "get busy." But more than
> just
> learning the programming language, one must know how to talk to a
> handheld
> and how to talk to a Mac. So even if I spent the next 6 months
> learning an
> appropriate language, I would need at least another year to become
> savvy at
> getting code to work well in a Macintosh programming environment. And
> even
> then, I wonder if I could be "efficient" in doing my programming part.
Perhaps true, perhaps you would get it faster then you think.
>
> This may be difficult or even impossible for non-programmers to
> understand,
> but that's the way it is. Laurent nailed the point down nicely when
> he said
> this project is "not for the faint of the heart..." This means that
> even
> someone knowledgeable in programming Mac<->Newton interfaces would be
> concerned about their ability to complete such a task alone.
Absolutely, it's not for the faint of heart. I agree completely.
Programming never is, especially when it involves figuring out someone
else's code. This case is a bit more extreme.
>
> I dislike making excuses for myself, but I needed to clarify lest
> anyone
> else think I have the ability right now to complete the job and I am
> simply
> a lazy bum wanting to crack the whip on others.
I am pretty sure no one thought that.
> That's not the case. I
> simply want to keep this topic alive so folks like "CC" can coordinate
> with
> veterans like Laurent or Paul or other of our senior programmers on
> this
> list to consider what really would be involved to begin such a project.
I don't know how much talking about it helps. In most cases it's the
personal desire of the developers to want something that gets it for
the rest of us. In fact I have long wondered if Paul has the DCL code
working perfectly for himself in some completely unfriendly form, and
hasn't bothered cleaning up escale.
Of course Paul is the person who could most directly fix/upgrade this
software. But he has many balls in the air, and that is the reality of
life. I a thrilled that he is still working on Newton stuff at all,
and am hopeful that the Einstein project will turn out to be new life
for the Newton.
> But
>
> Just as Laurent pointed out today, many like Escale, so there is a
> strong
> inclination to say "why waste time on reinventing the wheel?" To
> that, I
> suppose the only answer is, "Because Escale isn't a very good wheel
> right
> now."
It was just intended as a demonstration framework, not a finished
project. The basic transport (package installer) does work also, so
it achieved it's goal to some extent.
Anyhow, if anyone out there is working on this, let us know how we can
help.
Marty
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