Product specifications

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Inside This Issue

continued on page 21

Volume II, Number 3 June 1996

Newton Technolo

O U R N A L

Communications Technology

New Technology

Communications Technology

Newton Internet Enabler 1

New Technology

Newton Toolkit Does Windows 1

Communications Technology

Enabler Kits 9

Newton Directions

Communications Strategies

for Newton 2.0 10

NewtonScript Techniques

Using the NewtApp Framework 13

NewtonScript Techniques

Caching for Maximum

View Scrolling Performance 18

Product Development

Creating Quality Newton Applications 22

Newton Toolkit

Does Windows

by Lee Dorsey, Apple Computer, Inc.

In an effort to expand the number of software

developers who can develop for the Newton 2.0

platform, Apple is delivering the first release of

Newton Toolkit for Windows, Version 1.6. This

product provides complete Newton Toolkit

functionality, including the compiler, profiler,

and full support for Newton 2.0. It runs on

Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 3.1

with Win32s with a fully native Windows look

and feel.

“Shipping Newton Toolkit for Windows is a

very important step in providing our developer

community with the most flexible, powerful

tools of any PDA platform,” said Rick Fleischman,

Newton Tools Product Line Manager. “As the

Newton platform is maturing, Newton Toolkit for

Windows allows us to reach out and address a

much larger base of software developers who

want to create Newton applications.”

Newton Toolkit for Windows is only one

example of the many improvements that

continue to be made to developer tools for the

Newton platform. In January, Apple shipped

both Newton Toolkit for Mac OS, Version 1.6 and

the Desktop Integration Libraries for Mac OS

and Windows, Version 1.0. Newton Toolkit 1.6 is

optimized for PowerPC, delivers improved

debugging tools, and provides full support for

Newton 2.0. The Desktop Integration Libraries

(DILs) allow desktop application vendors for

both Mac OS and Windows to directly

synchronize data between their applications and

data on a Newton PDA, without the use of any

Newton Internet

Enabler

by Gary Hillerson, Hillysun Enterprises, Inc.

The Newton Internet Enabler makes it easy for

you to develop applications that access the

Internet. With Newton Internet Enabler, you

establish a link to an Internet provider, configure

your link with options, and use communications

endpoint methods to send and receive data. The

Newton Internet Enabler even automates status

display and data conversion for you.

You can establish a link that uses one of two

transport services: either TCP or UDP. Several

applications can share the use of a link, and the

Newton system software keeps the link open

until all applications release the link. Newton

Internet Enabler currently supports the use of

two lower-level link protocols: SLIP and PPP.

Newton Internet Enabler provides an

application programming interface and a setup

application. The setup application, Newton

Internet Setup, allows users to define the

configuration for links to various Internet

providers. For example, a user might set up a

link configuration for Compuserve, another

configuration for a local Internet provider, and a

third configuration for checking email at work.

Each link configuration includes information

about the phone number to dial, the link-level

protocol to use, and the initialization and login

sequences for establishing the link.

The Newton Internet Enabler application

programming interface (API) consists of about

ten global functions that you can call to perform

various net session-related tasks, a number of

options that you can use to control the

Summary of content (24 pages)

PAGE 1
NewtonTechnology ® J O U R N A L Volume II, Number 3 June 1996 Communications Technology Inside This Issue Communications Technology Newton Internet Enabler 1 New Technology Newton Toolkit Does Windows 1 Communications Technology Enabler Kits 9 Newton Directions Communications Strategies for Newton 2.
PAGE 2
NewtonTechnology ® J O U R N A Volume II, Number 2 L June 1996 …………………………………………………… Published by Apple Computer, Inc. Lee DePalma Dorsey • Managing Editor Gerry Kane • Coordinating Editor,Technical Content Gabriel Acosta-Lopez • Coordinating Editor, DTS and Training Content Technical Peer Review Board J. Christopher Bell, Bob Ebert, David Fedor, Ryan Robertson, Jim Schram, Maurice Sharp, Bruce Thompson Contributors Greg Christie, Barney Dewey, Gary Hillerson, Peter Murray, Jeffrey C.
PAGE 3
continued from page 1 Newton Internet Enabler configuration of your links, and a communications tool that you use with your endpoints to perform communications on the Internet. Figure 1 shows the relationship of the Newton Internet Enabler components.
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Then, when you call the InetGrabLink function in your application, you pass it the name (symbol) of your callback function. For example: myApp.TestGrab := func() begin myStatusView := InetStatusDisplay(nil, nil, nil); InetGrabLink(nil, self, 'GrabLinkCallback); ... end; This function first calls the InetStatusDisplay function to create and display the status view.
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if err then begin print("link failed"); :endGrabLink(err); end // handle the error // end connect attempt else // status.linkStatus = 'connected, so resolve name DNSGetAddressFromName(“apple.com”, self, 'DNSCallback); end; The first statement, myLinkID:=linkID, saves the ID of the link that InetGrabLink is in the process of grabbing in one of your variables. You might want to store the link ID for use in other portions of your application.
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2, 7, InetPortNumber a value as shown in Table 1-1 when sending the local port option with a Bind request: ], typelist: [ 'struct, 'byte, 'byte, 'byte, 'byte, 'short ] Table 1-1: Local port numbers for binding with Newton Internet Enabler Bind type Transport service type Local port number For connect TCP The system always selects the local port number, so don’t set this option.
PAGE 7
type: 'option, opCode: opGetCurrent, result: nil, form: 'template, data: { arglist: [ 0, // host addr - byte 1 0, // host addr - byte 2 0, // host addr - byte 3 0, // host addr - byte 4 0, // host port number ], typelist: kPortAddrStruct, [ 'struct, 'byte, 'byte, 'byte, 'byte, 'short ] } }, inputScript: func(ep, data, terminator, options) begin // do something with data end, completionScript: func(ep, options, result) begin // skip error handling for canceled requests if result <> kCommAbortErr then begin
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• the DNSGetMailServerNameFromDomainName function translates a domain name into the domain name for a mail server that serves that domain. • the DNSGetNameFromAddress function translates an Internet address into its corresponding domain name. You must supply a clientContext and clientCallback parameter to each of the DNS functions, just as you do for the link controller functions. However, the DNS callback functions are called with different parameters than are the link controller functions.
PAGE 9
know how to use Newton communications endpoints to send and receive data, then you already know how to use the Inet tool to send and receive data over the Internet. The only additional concept that you need to understand to use the Newton Internet Enabler is that of links. You establish a link to establish an Internet session with a certain Internet services provider. Each link is configured to work with a certain transport service (TCP or UDP) and to use NTJ a certain link-level protocol (PPP or SLIP).
PAGE 10
Newton Directions Communications Strategies for Newton 2.0 by Barney Dewey, Apple Computer, Inc. Today, the definition of “work environment” is rapidly changing. People are roaming farther and farther from their base of operations, whether that base is a corporate desk or a home office. Job-related information now resides not just on a local hard drive, but on servers maintained by in-house MIS staff or remote information service providers.
PAGE 11
party Ethernet drivers and Ethernet access cards within the next year. Fax send and receive. Full fax support is part of our strategy to provide more core communications capabilities in the Newton platform. Newton 2.0 OS not only provides the capability to send faxes, but the capability to receive faxes, with the option to annotate them before forwarding them to someone else.
PAGE 12
Motorola NewsCard) and two-way pagers (the Motorola Tango). Device developers can write additional drivers for new paging devices as they become available. You can make inquires concerning the Messaging Enabler at NewtonDev@applelink.apple.com. Put “Messaging Enabler” in the subject line of the message. INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS Internet technologies are essential to the Newton communications strategy. They will provide better networking capabilities when coupled with Ethernet and AppleTalk networks.
PAGE 13
NewtonScript Techniques Using the NewtApp Framework by Greg Christie, Apple Computer, Inc. The NewtApp framework is a collection of system-supplied protos which can be combined to form a complete application. In the past, creating an application for Newton PDAs usually required assembling many protos to form a complete application. What sets NewtApp apart is the amount of functionality built into the NewtApp framework.
PAGE 14
styles for your application. Another step before you begin is to sketch out your data structure and how you want that data to be represented visually. If using stationery, plan it carefully, and try to encapsulate the data-specific code into your stationery. Avoid presuming what data your application is displaying, and when designing stationery, remember that the stationery may be used outside of your container application. Don’t hard-code references between your application and your stationery.
PAGE 15
symbol slot in that dataDef. See the Newton Programmer’s Guide for more information on the required slots for dataDefs. The allDataDefs frame can explicitly list a set of frames and/or it can reference NTK layouts using the GetLayout(filename) function. So, if you need to advance to a particular entry, you can go to the entry in soup referenced by a layout’s masterSoupSlot and call DoRetarget() to update the views.
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The Default Layout For the default layout in the application, use newtLayout, newtPageLayout or newtRollLayout. For card-flavor applications, use newtLayout. Page and roll applications should use newtPageLayout and newtRollLayout respectively. This layout level is where the user will view and edit soup entries. Therefore, the views which will contain your soup entries will be added to the default layout.
PAGE 17
these slot views include a label and can pop-up lists of potential values. The miscellaneous slot views include the newtEditView and the newtCheckBox. Slot views are implemented for many types of common data. Text, integers, real numbers, symbols, and entire notes can be displayed and edited by using the appropriate slot views. The names of the slot view protos, while typically long and sometimes cumbersome, are good cues to indicate where to use each one.
PAGE 18
NewtonScript Techniques Caching for Maximum View Scrolling Performance by Jeffrey C. Schlimmer, Washington State University Techniques for writing faster code are always of interest to NewtonScript developers. Faster implementations open new avenues of functionality for applications – what was once unthinkably slow can become marketably fast. Some speed techniques capitalize on details of the execution environment.
PAGE 19
and synchronizes the children views of P to match the stepChildren array. Specifically, any child view whose template is no longer in the stepChildren array is closed, a child view is constructed for any new template in stepChildren, and remaining views are redrawn if their template viewBounds have changed.
PAGE 20
actual difference of 4K versus 1K. USING A SIMPLE PROTO AND A viewDrawScript WITH CACHING Though faster, the simple proto with a viewDrawScript is still repeating much work. Each of the shape creation calls, like MakeText, are repeated for the same item as the user scrolls up and down. To compensate for this, we could save the shapes for each item in a cache and reuse them. To construct the cache itself, P will allocate an array with N entries, one for each item.
PAGE 21
As with picture caching, using a bit map cache does not slow down the application much as it opens. This implementation opens in 1.5 seconds, about as fast as all of the implementations so far except the one using setOrigin. Our real target was to speed up scrolling. Caching bit maps yields the fastest performance of all the implementations: 8.5 seconds to scroll down by 10 and back up by 10 items.
PAGE 22
Product Development Creating Quality Newton Applications by Peter Murray, Apple Computer, Inc. INTRODUCTION Quality does makes a difference. It makes a difference to your customers and ultimately to your bottom line. But quality assurance goes beyond just making sure you find and fix bugs – that’s a given. However, you can’t test quality into your application. Quality consists of meeting or exceeding customer expectations in all facets of the user experience.
PAGE 23
The change should be code-reviewed by another development engineer. The developer making the change should write a release note about the change, its impact on other areas of the system, and important tests to run. SQA should verify and test the change and any related areas. Bugs Since you can’t test everything or use the product in every way that a real customer might, you won’t find every bug, and you’ll almost certainly ship with known bugs.
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represented, but don’t go overboard on the details. Keep the feature list updated to reflect the current state of the product. 2. From that feature list, create test cases. For each specific feature there will be one or more test cases. Your base functional test cases should only be testing one thing. That way you can more easily isolate bugs and relate test cases to bugs.