From: Konstantinos Theofilis (theofilis_at_macland.gr)
Date: Mon Nov 21 2005 - 05:06:11 PST
On 21 Nov 2005, at 06:06, Paul Guyot wrote:
> There are several technical problems that were not entirely solved:
> - NewtonOS's dock interface isn't compatible with NIE and you get a
> =20
> -4 error randomly when browsing over TCP/IP.
> - MacOS X AppleTalk interface sucks. Badly. This we more or less
> went =20=
>
> over it.
> - There is a serious bug between the Airport Extreme base stations,
> =20
> MacOS X and the Newton implementation of AppleTalk (actually on the
> =20
> Airport Extreme side) so you cannot connect to an AppleTalk server.
> - MacOS X shuts down an interface whenever nothing is connected. =20
> NewtonOS does the same. It's a real nightmare for one-to-one
> ethernet =20=
>
> connections.
Well, I was thinking about getting the basics things first. For me at
least, serial connection is enough for a start. (Like other PDAs,
e.g. Palm. They sync only with serial/modem connection, BT counts as
serial too).
>
> The truth about the DCL and Escale is that:
> - synchronizing isn't as easy as Newton users seem to think. Apple =20
> came out with a nice solution in the Newton dock protocol. The DCL =20
> implements most of it, but not all. iSync is good but also buggy
> (got =20=
>
> two times my contacts in my mobile, lost some contacts in Address =20
> Book, things that should never happen).
The new SyncServices framework is very stable, according to reports.
I have not checked it extensively myself though. And most
importantly, it negates the need for iSync. :-)
> - I always found it boring to translate a .doc to newton data and
> the =20=
>
> other way around, so this was never implemented.
True, true, but a translation between Newton format and .rtf should
be included in a future suit. It is also much easier!
> - it's difficult to get a networking program working through all
> the =20
> interfaces wanted here with all the little nightmares of each =20
> interface and all the individual cases.
See above. Newtorking as a method of syncing should not be mandatory,
at least at the early stages.
> - at some point, we felt that the community was less friendly to =20
> developers than required for such a project. There are so many =20
> expectations, so many features wanted, but users do not realize how
> =20
> complex it is and how much work must be done to get things right in
> =20
> the end. nSync is a good example. Many Newton specificities were
> not =20
> taken into account in its design and it would require a huge work
> to =20
> fix the program to take them into account.
Well, that always the issue with users! That is one of the reasons
why I think that such a program should be freeware/donaionware.
But the unconditional moral support of the Newton community is a
prerequisite if such a project would begin.
There are too many things that can go wrong is such a project
(programmaticaly and socially).
But I think it worths a try.
Kostas
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