[NTLK] Einstein Emulator, iOS, MSWindows and Network Emulation

[Matthias Melcher]

To  the developers:

I advanced a tiny bit more with the Network emulation. I am now able to fake the DHCP packages needed for the IP setup. It is already possible to do http via the emulator on OS X hosts. But I would like to get further. Here are the issues:

1: getting Network emulation to work well for end users
2: getting Network emulation to work on MSWindows
3: getting Network emulation to work on iOS
4: documentation

Please let me know if you can help!

 Matthias



ad 1:

The emulation is still relatively difficult to set up. The user must know the IP address of the host machine and do other manual setups. With the DHCP emulation mostly working now, it is possible to automate all that. After installing the ethernet .pkg files from Apple, setting the network to DHCP should manage everything else.

What needs to be done:

- reliably find the IP address of the adapter that connects to the internet
- understand and create DHCP communication between NewtonOS and Einstein
- testing


ad 2:

The Network emulation was written for OS X using the standard Posix network interfaces in C/C++. The MSWindows API is slightly different. Network emulation must be adapted to work on MSWindows hosts.

What needs to be done:

- test compile interface on MSWindows
- rewrite all Posix commands as MSWindows commands, encapsulated in #if #else #endif
- testing


ad 3:

The Network emulation was written for OS X using the standard Posix network interfaces in C/C++. The iOS API is quite different though. Network emulation must be adapted to work on iOS hosts.

What needs to be done:

- test compile interface on iOS
- rewrite all Posix commands as iOS code in Objective C 
- testing


ad 4:

I have tried to explain the Network emulation and how to set it up. But as we all know, software engineers generally suck at writing documentation. We should provide simple and easy to follow documentation on how to use networking in Einstein.

What needs to be done:

- understand the process
- write easy to follow documentation including live links to packages, including screen shots
- document the differences between host platforms
- how to sync the emulated Netwon vie Ethernet/WLan
- list of network enabled software on NewtonOS and how it works in emulation
- how to develop and debug via Network