[NTLK] Launching Einstein

[Matthias Melcher]

> On Mar 21, 2020, at 18:45, Doug <ispinn at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I feel lost.
> 
> I'm stepping through the instructions you wrote a few days ago about
> stir-craziness prevention and the "Hello world," first time NewtScript
> programming example. When you say, "Launch Einstein" and I'm on
> BasiliskII... what do you mean?

Sorry if this is confusing. I will have to redo the text and go much more into details.

> Do you mean, "Find the .apk and double click it?" That's where I feel lost.

By now I found out that this works only on Apple MacOS. You basically have both emulators running at the same time, side by side. Einstein runs on the Mac, and so does BasiliskII. They communicate through a simulated serial cable, basically just some program.

I am working hard on getting this to run over the network, so you can connect Einstein on Android with BasiliskII on Linux, for example. It will take a few more days.

> So, taking a stab in the dark, I double-clicked Einstein's .apk on
> BasiliskII but got a "supporting program not found" error, so that wasn't
> it, but now I've run out of (my huge accumulation of zero to one) guesses.

Ah, sorry, no. The .apk is for Android devices, Samsung phones for example. Basilisk emulates old Macintosh computers from the nineties and is used to run NTK, the Newton Toolkit. NTK is a program that contains everything to write your programs, but it can't run them.

> Also, if it's on different platforms, is *launching Einstein" always the
> same, regardless of the platform and OS?

Einstein is just a program. Just like any other program. To install it, you need to add the Newton ROM, and by launching, I mean "start it".

> Do the ROM and REX files have to be present in BasiliskII like they are
> when Einstein is installed on Android, with Einstein in a folder named
> "Downloads" folder and the ROM and REX files in a folder named "Einstein"
> underneath the .apk?

You need the Newton ROM and REX files to run Einstein. On MacOS, you can put those file anywhere, but into the same directory. Then set the deirectory in the Einstein Preferences dialog. It should be similar on Linux and Windows. On Android, those files must be in the Downloads folder.

> No need to rush. I think we're still under virus-house-quarantine for about
> another twenty-six more days. :-P

Haha, yeah, but I know that it sucks to stuck when trying out software. I will try to make a video for YouTube. That shoudl clear thing up a lot. Thanks for the bravery of trying this out though. I'll try to improve my descriptions ;-) .

 - Matthias