[NTLK] NCX and synchronizing names

[Simon Bell]

On 16 Aug 2010, at 17:26, Forrest wrote:

> the Newton displays "Backing Up Names", and there is the moving  
> "barber pole"..the Mac displays "Internal" above the barber pole,  
> and "Pushing Names" below--then NCX quits, disappears from the  
> display, and there's an error message on the Newton saying the Mac  
> has disconnected.

Um, okay, I freely admit that the sync component of NCX is by far the  
largest and most error-prone. That being said, it works for the data I  
have here at the Newton Research laboratories.

The sync goes like this:
1. Fetch names from Newton, translate them to Mac format and push them  
to the Sync Service.
2. Let Sync Service mingle those names with the others it already has.
3. Pull names from the Sync Service, translate them to Newton format  
and send them to Newton.

At the point you describe, NCX is fetching entries from the Names soup  
and pushing them to the Mac OS Sync Service. It looks like the  
translation of a soup entry -> Sync Service database entry has failed  
catastrophically. To find out what actually went wrong it would be  
good to see a console log or crash report. (Better to send me any such  
reports off-list.)

> Nothing appears changed in either machine afterwards.

Under the circumstances, that’s a good thing, no? :)

> I know NCX's creator Simon Bell monitors our NewtonTalk list, so  
> maybe he has some answers...?

If only it were that straightforward! I have a feeling there’s going  
to be a lot of investigation before I have any answers.

Simon