[NTLK] Einstein News: developers delight

[Matthias Melcher]

Hi folks, yay, there is news on Einstein ;-)

After a subtle hint on one of my communications channels, I became aware that BasiliskII has serial port support. I have no idea how I did not see this before. Einstein has serial port emulation too for a while. Why can't they hook up?

Well, now they can, at least on MacOS, but this can easily ported to Linux.

I added code to the current source code repository on Github that allows Einstein and to run on the same machine and connect over what is called a pseudo terminal.

This is how it works:

 * download the source code fro GitHub: https://github.com/pguyot/Einstein

 * download and install Xcode from the Apple developer site

 * open the project in Einstein/_Build_/Xcode/

 * compile and run (you know the ROM procedure)

 * open the Einstein settings and set the external serial port to "Pseudo Terminal"
   this will open /dev/ttys0 as if it was a serial port

 * download a recent version of BasiliskII and a Quadra650 ROM

 * download the volumes "macos755.dsk" and "newt_devel1.1.dsk" from Unna 

 * make sure that the "Modem Port" is set to "/dev/ptyp0"

 * remember to disable AppleTalk in Classic MacOS

Now you can run "NCU" or "NTK" on Classic and run "Dock" or "Toolkit" and they will happily connect and exchange data just like it's 1996. There is no longer an excuse for not writing new software on NTK... .

 - Matthias

PS: the one bug I found so far: when closing "Dock", "NCU" may lock up, freezing Basilisk. If you find more bugs, please let me know. I will see if I can fix that.