[NTLK] A lot of Newton questions. Mail, PIM and more

[Warren Ockrassa]

Ha! You've asked some questions similar to ones I've had myself. I recently got some 120s, an eMate, and a 2000U, so I've been poking around a bit too. I've responded only to the stuff I have a little awareness of; I'm sure others will be able to go into much greater detail. 

On Dec 23, 2011, at 11:02, Vladislav Korotnev <vladkorotnev at gmail.com> wrote:

> • An app that will allow me to use ICQ, AIM, Google talk. BTW, is ChatBuddy IRC client available for registration, is it free/abandonware now?

You may have difficulty finding a chat client that can handle anything that went online after about 1999. Even if the communication protocols are well documented for those chat services, the question becomes one of whether anyone has actually developed anything for them. :\

> • Is it possible to use Gmail IMAP on the Newton? Any workarounds?

If IMAP is usable at all on a Newton, gmail's should work as well as any other. Otherwise you might have to look into using POP, and locating a POP client for the Newton. 

> • What is the best web browser for the Newton?

As I understand it, Newt'sCape. Your results will vary depending on the sites you visit. 

> • Is NewtDevEnv a good choice to start developing Newton apps (and does it have a graphical GUI designer like in NTK)?

I don't think I'd use that. If you have to enter a lot of code, it could get rather tedious.

If you have a Mac, consider installing Basilisk and running system 7 in emulation, with the old Apple Newton Developer Kit running on it. That's what I've been doing, and it's worked well so far. (As well as possible, anyway.) I use Einstein for desktop 2x00 emulation to test my packages, and NCX for installs. 

A lot of these files can be found at unna.org. 

You'll also want to retrieve as much documentation and sample code as you can. UNNA has a nice repository. Just be aware that you'll be a bit like a Latin scholar - exploring what is, sadly, a dead language, with its native speakers unavailable to offer assistance. You have to be a bit of an archaeologist. The remaining documentation is a bit less than optimal, in my view, and working with it can be frustrating. Added to that is the unavailability of the inspector in the development environment, so you can't trace buggy code when it's running. You just get an error number and have to guess where things went wrong. 

Good luck!

• Warren • off console • w azkrmc.com • h nightwares.com •