BBS in a Box 12/BBS in a box XII-1.iso/Files/Newton/NANUG/Newsletter 1.1.text.sit/Newsletter 1.1.text/Jan Newsletter (text)

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_protoReality
The North Atlanta Newton Users Group Newsletter

[Note:  For best results, set your editor to Courier 10-pt!]

_protoReality
The North Atlanta Newton Users Group Newsletter

Volume 1, Number 1
January 22nd, 1994




Contents

Notices 1
Contact Information 2
NANUG Membership Application Form 3
Welcome to _protoReality! 4
A NANUG Overview 5
Minutes of the January Meeting 6
An Interview with Kent Sandvik 7
Views and Reviews 12
Code Samples 17
Tips, Hints, and Secrets 22
Messages 24
The Sharper Knife 25
Want-Ads, Classified, and Cork Board 26



Notices
Apple, the Apple Logo and Newton are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.,
registered in the United States and other countries.  MessagePad is a
trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.  All other products mentioned herein are
copyrighted/ trademarked by their owners.

The editor and the NANUG (The North Atlanta Newton Users Group) staff are
responsible for the opinions expressed in this newsletter, unless
specifically
by-lined.

NANUG cannot be held responsible for any damages that occur due to use or
misuse of the information contained in this newsletter.  It must be
distributed free of charge, and the original contents remain intact.
Portions
may be reprinted, quoted, or adapted as long as proper credit is noted.
Individual portions may bear the copyright of their original authors, who
should be contacted directly.  All such copyrighted material appears in this
newsletter with permission of the original author.



Contact Information

For more information about NANUG, meeting times, newsletter submission
guidelines, etc., please write:

Mark Underwood
President
The North Atlanta Newton Users Group
3381 Claire Circle
Marietta, Georgia  30066

or E-mail:

InterNet:  [e-mail]
AppleLink:  EMA.COMPSV
NewtMail:  MarkU
CompuServe:  71211,2336

or call:

[phone] 7 AM to 4 PM weekdays
[phone] 7 PM to 9 PM weekdays



NANUG Membership Application Form

Below is a membership application to join NANUG.  There is currently no
membership fee.

The benefits of joining, as opposed to just reading the newsletter?  Well,
you
get on our exclusive mailing list ;-) and can take advantage of our user
group
discounts on hardware and software (soon to be published).  Even better is
the
general idea of belonging, don t you think?  ;-)


NANUG Membership Application Form

Name:   ________________________________________________

Address:  ________________________________________________

City/State/Zip: ________________________________________________

Country:  ________________________________________________

Phone:   ________________________

Fax:   ________________________

E-Mail:   ________________________

    ________________________

    ________________________


You can:

  Print this form and mail (or e-mail) it to:

Mark Underwood
NANUG Membership
3381 Claire Circle
Marietta, GA 30066

  NewtMail your personal Names card to "MarkU" with a subject of "NANUG
Membership"

  E-mail your personal Names card to "[e-mail]" (be sure to check
1text only ) with a subject of "NANUG Membership"



Welcome to _protoReality!
Mark Underwood

Yes, I know that sounds like you ve stepped into one of those virtual reality
games (slipped into, more like), but as Newton developers will tell you, a
"_proto" models a program object that can be used over and over again--like a
scrolling field, a cluster of radio buttons, and so on.

Our newsletter certainly falls into that descriptive category, in that we
hope
you will refer to it over and over again for news, reviews, interviews,
opinions, gossip, facts and  fiction (we ll try to keep them straight), and
more.  And oh, yes--it s a newsletter--which means you ll get to read what
goes on at our NANUG meetings.

This is a highly experimental newsletter, befitting the nature of the beast
it
monitors.  It is distributed in three forms on all of the major on-line
services (such as AppleLink, CompuServe, and so on):

  A Newton Book Reader package
  A "rich binary" text edition
  A "plain" text edition  (this version)

To get the most out of our newsletter, grab a Newton and download the "Book
Reader" format, which includes all sorts of goodies and uses Newton
technology
to the hilt.  If you don t have a Newton handy, download the "rich binary"
version, which won t have all the bells and whistles, but will have the
essentials.  Last (but not least) comes the "plain" text version, that anyone
(with or without a Newton) can read and keep up.  The actual text
contained in the newsletter will be the same in all three versions
so you don t have to get all three (unless you just want to).

What sort of things will we include as "goodies" in the Book Reader version?
Well how about actual code snippets that, when tapped, show you what they do,
instead of talk about it?  How about programs that can you can install in
your
Newt after reading their reviews?  Or being able to give us feedback via e-
mail (if you have Newton Mail) while you re reading the newsletter?  I could
go on and on--interactive surveys, smart NANUG membership forms (that one s
in
this issue), product order forms...

Well, not to leave you "rich binary" people out--each application "bundled"
in
the Book Reader edition will be "bundled" with the "rb" version, but you ll
have to handle the installation yourself, using one of the commercial or
shareware utilities.

Honestly, "plain text" readers, we re not trying to leave you out of the fun--
but there s only so much you can do with flat text ;-)  We ll at least
include
text frame versions of those things we can, so if you get the chance to buy a
Newton in the future (which we strongly suggest you do), you can save some
time in getting your own code development started!

Before I close, it s important to us what you think about the newsletter.
NANUG s goals (which you can read for yourself later on) aren t limited to
the
people who walk into our meetings--we d like to think that anyone who owns a
Newt (or wants to) is an honorary member, and therefore has some say in what
we do (if you want to become a real voting member, you ll find the
application
later on).  Please send us e-mail, phone mail, or even old fashioned ground
mail and let us know what you think!



A NANUG Overview
Mark Underwood

Founded in October of 1993, NANUG was created with these ideas in mind:

  To provide timely and correct information about the Newton and all of its
accessories, software packages, and other Newton-related products

  To assist new and experienced Newton users in getting the most out of their
purchase

  To provide a (hopefully) un-biased forum for the exchange of user tips,
hints, and suggestions

  To provide free or low-cost resources for small to medium Newton
development
projects

There is currently no membership fee to join NANUG.  Meetings are held the
second Tuesday of the month.  Future plans include an "on-line" conferencing
system to allow our remote members interactive access to the meetings.

_protoReality, our newsletter, is published one a month (normally on the
15th) in three formats:  a Newton Book Reader package, a "binary enhanced"
text document, and a "plain" text document.  Each format strives to convey as
much information as possible within the constraints of the media.  The
"plain"
text version, for example, is posted to InterNet, while the "binary" and
"book
reader" formats are posted to on-line forums that support binary up/down
loads
(AppleLink, CompuServe, America On-Line, etc.).

NANUG also distributes a "best of" Macintosh-format (and soon DOS-format)
diskette of free or shareware applications, books, and other Newton files
that
are posted on commercial services for the benefit of those who do not
subscribe to them.  We also provide a software "kiosk" at the meeting to
allow
our members who don t have a Macintosh or PC to download these files to their
Newton.



Minutes of the January Meeting

The meeting was called to order (so to speak) about 7:10 PM.  New members
exchanged name cards and introduced themselves (in that order).


Under the general heading of "old business", we discussed the newsletter and
solicited last minute submissions from the new members.  In deference to
their
schedules, the cut-off date was moved to the 22nd of January.

Discussion of the 1.05/1.12 OS upgrade was brought up.  Tom White had called
the 1-800-SOS-APPL line and received a general confirmation that it was
"soon", and that there would only be "one" upgrade, probably numbered 1.12 to
bring the old ROM and new ROM versions into line.  Other sources, such as
InterNet, CompuServe, etc. seem to confirm this as the "party line" from
Apple
Support.  Chief benefits from the upgrade will be increased user memory
(fewer
"out of memory" dialogs) and the repeating event bug fix.

New members discussed the events of the Newton Developer s Conference of
December--Jeff Hendricks, one of the new members, had attended the Marketing
track, and gave us some insight to the current licensing agreement and
StarCore.


Under the "new business" category, we discussed Erica s idea of a group
programming project, proposed at the December meeting.  Everyone seems
interested in doing one, both to provide some "hands-on" NTK work, as well as
making NANUG more visible to the Newton community.  After some discussion,
six
ideas were generated:

  A general Newton utility
  A IR-based, "ping-pong" style game (such as chess, checkers, etc.)
  An adventure-style game
  A business application
  One or more "drop in" functionality modules
  A PIM (personal information management) add-on or utility

Members will vote on project selection at the February meeting.

There being no other new business, members broke off into discussion groups.
The meeting was adjourned at 9 PM.

The next meeting will be held on February 8th, 1994.



An Interview with Kent Sandvik
Mark Underwood

PR: Kent, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions.  On behalf
of the North Atlanta Newton Users Group (NANUG), a big thank-you to you
and all of the PIE/DTS support staff for their awe-inspiring efforts. I
don t think I ve ever seen such a Herculean effort as what you and
Maurice Sharp and Bob Ebert have done--scanning the realm of Cyberspace
in search of the elusive (not!) Newton question and taking the time to
answer it.  First, can you tell us a little bit about your background,
and how you came to work for Apple?

KS: I joined Apple in Australia of all places, leaving Sperry to join Apple
Australia as the first UNIX support engineer responsible for launching
A/UX support in Australia. As part of my job responsibilities I got more
and more involved with Developer Technical support, MacApp, Macintosh
toolbox, comms--actually anything related to Macintosh programming. This
was a very interesting experience, taking over a lot of the support
responsibilities with near zero experience in MacOS programming. Anyway,
my wife was young and we had no kids, so I could spend a lot of time at
the office. The position at Apple Australia was a very educational
experience, because we all had to do many tasks instead of specializing
in one single role.

 Anyway, after 3 years in Australia my wife wanted to move back to the
northern hemisphere, so we looked around, and MacDTS needed an OOP DTS
engineer, so I got a new assignment in Cupertino. I spent two years in
DogCow land working mostly with MacApp, C++ and finally with PowerPC
compilers and the PowerPC runtime. Yet another good experience. Actually
now looking backwards I've mostly worked in developer support roles,
which is both a good and a bad thing. Staying in same position stagnates
you, but I've moved between various countries and products, so I've
tried to make the job as varied as possible.

PR: How did you come to work on the Newton project?

KS: Well, I always wanted to be involved in a support group with a brand-new
product line from day one. Zz (Scott Zimmerman, PIE/DTS - Ed.) was
actually the first Newton DTS engineer, so all I could claim is that I
was the second. Anyway, ten years from now I could go around and say
that 'oh, we did things very differently the first year we supported
Newtons, sonnies'.

 The early days were really crazy in DTS; (Lawrence) Tesler was my
manager, and while he was traveling Mr. (John) Sculley was in principle
my manager. Hmm, anyway, it was just to sit down and start developer
support processes from zero.

 I think they needed a crazy and wild person who would jump into the
chaos, start designing order, and see how much work it would take to
reinvent a support group from scratch. Now afterwards it feels like I've
been involved in the Newton project for years, instead of one year. This
because we had two pre-kitchens (developer workshops), about ten
kitchens--one in Germany that I visited and one in Japan (done by other
DTS engineers, phew)--endless nights hacking code, writing temporary
documentation, meetings from morning to evening, and so on.

 Otherwise,  being involved in the creation of a brand-new support group,
including creation of new mythologies, strange habits, weird
recreational sports in our group, being the first who dared to write
certain code using the toolbox, and so on, has been a strange and
grateful journey, indeed.  And the journey is the, eh, journey.

PR: I understand you recently had a vacation in Hawaii, and during that
time, still somehow managed to find time to answer developer s
questions!  How was the vacation, otherwise?

KS: The vacation was nice--actually paid by a bonus for the 12-14 hour a day
work week last summer! And the phone lines in Maui worked fine.

PR: Do you find the process of dealing with developer s questions via e-
mail, rather than phone calls or face-to-face, works better?

KS: It depends--phone and face-to-face support is more social; you meet
people and can discuss other things than nerdy techie issues. Also
personal contacts are good because you don't loose the customer focus;
people use our documentation, examples and tools, and we need to know
what they think about the products, and also what is missing and what is
wrong.

 E-mail and BB (bulletin board) support is perfect for a quick dispatch
of knowledge, dispatched to as many developers as possible. Maybe this
is the future of developer support, because unfortunately, direct
support is extremely expensive for both companies and the supported
developers.

 Another interesting notion about Cyberspace is that the Net is blind
concerning race, color and religion. People that have met me are usually
confused because they expect a Californian Apple hacker--instead they
hear this hyperactive Finnish-Swedish person jumping up and down when
talking about programming.  Then again I'm also confused when I meet
other programmers and I have pre-defined conceptions about who is
actually typing on the other end.

PR: How much weight did you lose running the microphone around to members of
the audience during the Question and Answer portions of the recent
Newton Developer s Conference? ;-)

KS: My jeans actually fit much better, so I really lost weight that week.

PR: What sort of things do you like to do in your spare time?

KS: Mostly spend time together with my son and wife--kids grow so fast so
one could never spend too much time with them.  Other interests, well,
I'm trying to finish all current five books in the Wheel of Time series
by Robert Jordan, 3000+ pages, phew. I'm trying to change my guitar
playing style from a classical Van Halen clone to something more Seattle
oriented, so I had to purchase a lot of old and rusty distortion pedals.
Recently I've also had visions about becoming the Orson Welles of
QuickTime movie directors; anyway I'm afraid developers will see strange
things on the forthcoming PIE Developer CDs...

PR: To set it straight, is it Reg or Ned the Llama?

KS: Our DTS group is actually divided about this thing, one half says Redge,
the other Ned. I belong to the Ned political wing.

PR: Care to let our readers in on the whole story about Reg/Ned?  Or as much
as we can print?  ;-)

KS: Let's say that in order to protect the persons that inspired the llama
story we can't publish it until the year 2020, so until then the case is
closed. Anyway, check out the beginning of Monty Python's Holy Grail for
more clues.

PR: Did you get any of those "virtual pizzas" promised to you on the
InterNet?

KS: No. Hmm, then again I want to lose weight.

PR: Having worked on large-scale, "crunch-mode" project myself, my first
reaction to the recent front-pageTimes article on the Newton s
development was "they re (the Times) making some of this up, right?"
There has been a lot of negative press (in general) directed towards the
Newton, Apple, and the whole concept of PDAs, and I wondered what your
thoughts on the matter were.

KS: This always happens when someone releases a new concept--this is
especially true of Apple, who usually gets a lot of attention in the
press. The idea of a PDA is very much over-hyped to the degree that many
assumed that the first PDAs would have the functionality and performance
of a high-end workstation. And this will actually happen, but as with
any evolving technology, we had to start from one point. Most of us
don't know the future, but we all--including our developers--are keen on
inventing the future, because this is the way to create products instead
of predicting what PDAs look like ten years from now.

 The first time I saw a Mac 1984 I laughed--a typical reaction from a
UNIX hacker used to Megabytes of hard disk and memory. This time I don't
want to do the same mistake.

PR: Do you feel like the Newton was released "too early"?  Personally, I
don t, but the subject has been brought up time and time again.

KS: This all is subjective; our competition certainly didn't think we
launched the product too early, quite the contrary :-).  Looking at the
general press we now have the conception that Apple invented the PDAs.
This might be true or false, but being in the front certainly
established Newton as the product people think of when talking about
PDAs--including cartoons and Saturday Night Live. And while others have
to start from a certain point we are now in the position of refining and
improving our product, and that's a very good position, because you
never know what the product perception is until you release the first
version.

PR: Is the often-cited parallel between the MessagePad and the Mac 128K
(released in 1984) a fair comparison?

KS: It's not fair because Apple learned a lot about the launch of a new
product with the 128k Mac. If we look at the way we started the (Newton)
developer side, we had documentation, tools and support in place day one
for the general public, and for a selected group of pioneers before
that. Another more excellent example is training; two months after
release we have a fully functional five-day training course that is used
in Europe, Japan, US and Australia.

 Finally we are more global concerning support and developer relations--
the Apple subsidiaries have been connected to the project since the
beginning.  This is just in the area of the Developer Information Group,
the department where I work.

PR: Marketing emphasis has been placed on the Newton s communication
abilities, but when most people go to a store, the salespersons tout the
handwriting recognition--not the idea of the "one stop inbox".  Will we
see a more "communications oriented" approach at the "point of sale"?

KS: This will happen, especially when we have a far better infrastructure
concerning wireless communication, including IEEE standards for office
LANs and WAN wireless protocols (CDPD for instance). The fortunate fact
is that the wireless future is months from now, not years. And that
means that we are ready to create solutions based on Newtons as the
premier interface to wireless applications.

 Here's a good example.  As a DTS lead I'm constantly worried about the
email numbers-- how many emails are open in our email database. A simple
Newton application would issue an SQL call over the ether, query for
open emails in the database, and send me the results within seconds. And
I would be re-assured that we indeed do a good job. Same with phone
numbers, how many times have I tried to find a phone number, no white
pages around, and time is money. A simple query using the wireless
services would have saved my day.

PR: I d say a lot of us are looking forward to seeing some of these ideas
become reality.  Thanks for giving us some of your time, Kent.

KS: May the llama be with you.



Views and Reviews

Games on the Newt
Erica Sadun

Although there is still not a lot of software available for the Newton, a few
fine shareware games have shown up and a few not-quite-so-fine ones as well.
My favorites among these rather sparse pickings include Yahtzee, Black Box,
24 and Morphion. All are freeware and available from most ftp Newton sites.

Both Yahtzee and Black Box are Newton versions of games originally published
by game companies elsewhere.  I expect to see other game transfers in the
future--hopefully, someone will port Milles Bourne soon!  Both of these
programs rely on point and tap technologies which reduces the frustration
level of trying to enter information strictly by writing.  No matter how much
we love our Newts, alternatives to writing are always welcome. (To be honest,
I must point out that Yahtzee does let you write in scores, but you can
achieve the same results by simply tapping on the text area next to the
scoring sheet).

Yahtzee is the classic dice game which can be played anywhere you have five
dice and a score sheet.  It melds perfectly with the Newton notepad metaphor
because it is essentially a pen-and-paper game to begin with.  The rules are
simple and the scoring is laid out for you as you go.  The game runs solidly,
takes up very little memory, and is infinitely playable as you sit at
airports.  The only bug I found is that the "upper score bonus" when you
reach
over 63 points is not shown explicitly (I suspect there was not enough screen
space) but is added in correctly when running.  So if you do get 5 sixes, it
is sometimes better to take this as your "six" score rather than your
"Yahtzee".   On a score from one to five lightbulbs, Yahtzee rates a solid
four (recommended).

Black Box can be a bit confusing at first, especially since I had never
played
the solid (three-space reality) version or the Mac version from which this
was
adapted.  The idea of the game is to figure out where four balls are located
by "shooting beams" through a black box and seeing how they reflect.  If you
infer all the locations of the balls correctly, you win.  Options allow you
to
set the number of balls.  The number of shots you have used are recorded to
test your efficiency at problem solving. Once you get going, though, its a
lot
of fun to test yourself against the machine--I must admit I almost always
miss
the location of one or two of the balls but I'm getting better.  When you
think you have solved the puzzle, you will probably want to make your guess
soon to minimize the number of shots--however the patient analytic types can
ignore this sort of machismo mentality and work things out more
systematically.

There is a lot of sound in Black Box and some of the sounds are pretty
annoying--on the other hand, the sounds are helpful and positive so I don't
recommend turning the volume down completely while playing.  The interface is
not always helpful in discerning which action you wish to do and sometimes
(very rarely) it can refuse to shoot your beam at all for a few seconds of
tapping and getting that awful error sound. I don't recommend this as an
airport game because the sounds will probably disturb your compatriots and on
the plane you will not be able to hear them.  On the other hand, it makes a
fine hotel game. Black Box is both challenging and fun and rates three
lightbulbs (good).

I have to admit from the start that I wrote twenty-four myself.  Its a car
game I used to play in college where you try to figure out how four numbers
can be added/subtracted/multiplied or divided to get twenty four.  For
example, if you are given the numbers 5, 5, 1 and 1, its pretty easy to
figure
out that 5*5 - 1*1 = 24.  But how about 7, 9, 1 & 8 or 7, 7, 1, & 2?  Every
puzzle has at least one answer and if you give up, the program will give you
a
solution.  This game is lots of fun to play in competing groups or if you
simply want to teach a child. Obviously, I would recommend it highly but your
tastes may vary.  So out of modestly, I would rate my game to be three
lightbulbs (good).

Morphion is my favorite game among this crowd and rates the coveted five
lightbulbs (must-have/highly recommended).  Its a solitaire game in which you
try to draw as many lines as you can.  You can only draw lines along sets of
five dots.  So for example, you could connect (where o is a dot and _ is a
space)

o o o _ o    OR
o o _ o o    OR
_ o o o o

BUT NOT

o _ o _ o    OR
o _ _ o o

You can draw lines in any direction: up, down, diagonally--and you soon learn
how wonderful it is to be able to turn the Newton screen to line things up to
better see which lines are unconnected! To draw a line, just tap on the first
dot of the line, drag to the final dot and release.  Morphion does have some
bugs about tapping existing lines and getting points, but you are not
obligated to cheat.  Playing by the rules yields its own reward.

Every time you connect a line, the missing dot is filled in and it gives you
more dots that you can create more lines on.  I tend to fizzle out in the mid-
seventies of lines but I am told there people out there who have hit the
hundred mark and some close to the two-hundred mark! Morphion is free, fun
and
highly recommended.

SUMMARY:
Yahtzee
 Freeware, about 30k
 4 lightbulbs
 Author:  S. Leifer
Black Box
 Freeware, about 50k
 3 lightbulbs
 Author:  C. Colapietro
24
 Freeware, about 40k
 3 lightbulbs
 Author:  E. Sadun
Morphion
 Freeware, about 20k
 5 lightbulbs
 Author:  H. Lamiraux

Do you have Newton software you would like to have reviewed?

Send it to:
Erica Sadun
112 Hampshire Court
Avondale Estates, GA 30002

or electronically to:
[e-mail]


MobileMath by MobileSoft
Mark Underwood

One of this things I always thought the Newton should do is this:  you write
in an equation, select it, tap "Assist", and the answer gets filled in for
you.  Thanks to MobileMath, that is now a reality.

MobileMath extends the Newton s Intelligent Assistant with over 80 new
"verbs", such as "solve", "average", "multiply", "tax", "sin", and other
mathematical chores.  These verbs break down into five categories:  General
Arithmetic, Math and Trigonometric, Statistics, Financial, and Date/Time.
Some examples:

solve 3 + 4
multiply 23.45 by 56.78
average 34 56 23 14
npv 0.09 -1200 560 450 860 (net present value)
weeks before 11/25
days until 3/15/94
tax 5% $125.65   (gives total amount)

MobileMath is not just for the mathematically inclined, however.  If you ve
ever tried to divvy up the cost of a meal with a group of people, you ll love
the "tip" verb.  Enter "tip 15  23.56  4" to find out how much each member of
a party of four will have to pay on a $23.56 meal, including a 15% tip!  If
you can t remember the order of the arguments for a problem, entering the
verb
alone makes MobileMath show them to you.

Once it finds a solution, MobileMath brings up a floating "answer" window
that
has the text of the answer already selected--you can then drag the text
anywhere you like.  You can move the answer window around to place it out of
the way, as well.

An example I could never get to work was the simplest--according to the
manual, you should be able to enter "3+2=", tap Assist, and get an answer.
Doing this on my version (1.0) yielded a message "The Assistant cannot
interpret this".  So I always had to use the "solve" verb on simple math.

Another problem I had was if I did a synchronize using the Newton Connection
software for the Mac, wiped the card, then restored it from the backup, the
MobileMath application didn t come back!  I had to re-install the app using
the diskette.

Despite these problems, MobileMath is definitely worth a look if you do a lot
of "on the fly" math, or just want to keep your power lunches straight.  And
if you haven t taken advantage of MobileSoft s offer for early Newton
Adopters, now s the time!  For just $10 (in the US, $15 in Canada, and $30
overseas) in shipping and handling, you can get a copy of the $79 product!
The offer is supposed to last until 1/31/94, or until 5,000 of them are sold.

Fax your name, Address, Phone, Fax Number, E-Mail address, Newton Serial
Number (required), and diskette format (Mac or DOS/Windows), along with your
credit card information, to the number listed below.

"Guided Tours" of MobileMath are available on the major on-line services, if
you d like to see it in action.

MobileSoft Corporation
307 Orchard City Drive, Suite 207
Campbell, CA 95008
Fax:  [phone]
E-Mail:
AppleLink: MOBILESOFT
CompuServe:  71062,754
America On-Line:  MOBILESOFT

Code Samples

Finding the Missing Formula
Jennifer Minge
minge1 - AppleLink
[e-mail] - InterNet
73541,716 - CompuServe

Copyright c 1994 Jennifer Minge
All Rights Reserved

The press the Apple Newton MessagePad has received makes you believe that the
product is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Ads for the Newton claim
that it writes, it faxes, it organizes, it schedules, it reads mail and sends
mail, and to top it all off it learns the way you think!  But the engineers
who developed the Newton failed to include the ginsu knives -- that one
calculation that you as a user are unable to do on the Newton.

The current Newton MessagePad provides four built-in formulas to do financial
calculations or to convert measurements.  But if you need to something more
than calculate a loan payment, convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, or figure the
exchange rate for a foreign currency, this article is for you.  I will show
you how to write that elusive fifth formula that you wish the original Newton
engineers had included but didn t.

The Formula
To demonstrate creating a user-defined formula, I first needed a formula.
The
formula that I have selected calculates the number of days between two user-
supplied dates.  The two dates are entered in the format:  MM/DD/YYYY.  The
formula used is:

DBD := ND2 - ND1;

ND1 := (Y1 -YB)*365 + ( numDays MB to M1 ) + DT1 + (Y1 - YB) div 4 ;
ND2 := (Y2 -YB)*365 + ( numDays MB to M2 ) + DT2 + (Y2 - YB) div 4 ;

where:

M1  Month of the first date
DT1  Day of the month of the first date
Y1  Year of the first date (i.e. 1962)
M2  Month of the second date
DT2  Day of the month of the second date
Y2  Year of the second date (i.e. 1962)
MB  Base month (January)
YB  Base year (1st year after 1904)
ND1  Number of days in first date since base date (January 1, 1904)
ND2  Number of days in second date since base date (January 1, 1904)
DBD  Number of days between the dates

Creating the Formula Template
To conform to the user interface design for formula templates, we will need
to
create a specialized version of the protoRollItem which will draw the rounded
frame and title.  Start by creating a new proto template (called
protoFormulaRollItem) which contains a protoRollItem and a single
clParagraphView which will contain the title.  For the protoRollItem add two
evaluate slots called borderShape and borderStyle.  Set borderShape to nil
and
set borderStyle to a style frame with a penSize of 2.

Drawing on the Newton is a simple two-part process. First you call a function
(in this sample MakeRoundRect) to create a shape which returns a shape
object.
And then you call the method DrawShape() to draw the shape.  In addition to
the shape object, DrawShape() accepts a second parameter which is a style
frame which we defined using the borderStyle slot.  We will create the shape
in the viewSetupDoneScript and then draw the shape in the viewDrawScript.
The
following are code snippets for the viewSetupDoneScript and the
viewDrawScript:

viewSetupDoneScript
func()
begin
 // make the shape used to draw the border
  constant borderIndent := 4;
  constant borderDiam := 10;
  local bounds := :LocalBox();
  borderShape := MakeRoundRect(borderIndent,
 borderIndent+2,bounds.right-borderIndent,bounds.bottom-1,borderDiam);

// use overview string for border text unless it's explicitly specified
 if NOT self.text then self.text := overview;

 if height<> bounds.bottom AND NOT IsReadOnly(self._proto) then
   self._proto.height := bounds.bottom
 else
   self.height := bounds.bottom;
end

viewDrawScript
func()
begin
  :DrawShape(borderShape,borderStyle);
end


Creating your own formula
Once you have created the formula template you need to create a user proto
with the just created protoFormulaRollItem as the main view.  Create two text
slots called overview and text.  The overview slot displays the title shown
in
overview mode while the text slot contains the title shown when your formula
is expanded.

Next add child views to customize the formula template as you need.  For this
example, create four evaluate slots (ND1, ND2, YB, dayArray) and set the
value
for each to nil.  We will need to add a staticText which will explain to the
user that the dates need to be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY and three
protoLabelInputLines called dayOne, dayTwo, and results.


Writing the formula
To calculate the number of days between the two dates, you need to add a
script called calculateDays.  To make sure the user does not enter an invalid
month or day create another script called checkValues.  The code snippets for
these two scripts are listed below:

calculateDays
func()
begin
   if StrLen( dayTwo.entryLine.text ) = 10 and StrLen( dayOne.entryLine.text
)
= 10 then
   begin
      DBD := ND2 - ND1;
      SetValue( results.entryLine, 'text,  NumberStr( DBD ) );
   end;
end

checkValues
func( month, day )
begin
   if ( month < 1 or month > 12 ) or ( day < 1  or day > 31 ) then
   begin
      GetRoot():SysBeep();
      return nil;
   end;
   else
      return 1 ;
end

As the user inputs a date in either of the two fields, the textChanged Script
parses the data into a month, day, and year and checks for valid entries.  If
a date has been entered in both fields then the number of days between the
two
is calculated and displayed in the results slot.  The textChanged script for
one of the dates is displayed below:

textChanged
func()
begin
   local m1, dt1, y1, count;

   SetValue( results.entryLine, 'text, "" );
   count := 0;

   if StrLen( self.text ) = 10 then
   begin
       m1 := Floor( StringToNumber( SubStr( self.text, 0, 2 ) ) );
      dt1 := Floor( StringToNumber( SubStr( self.text, 3, 2 ) )  );
      y1 := Floor( StringToNumber( SubStr( self.text, 6, 4 ) ) );

      if base:checkValues( m1, dt1 ) then
      begin
         if M1 = 1 then
            count := DT1;
         else
         begin
            for index := 0 to M1 - 2 do
               count := count + dayArray[index];
            count := count + DT1;
         end;

         ND1 := (Y1 -YB)*365 + ( count ) + 1 + (Y1 - YB) div 4 ;
      end;
      else
         SetValue( self, 'text, "" );
      base:calculateDays();
   end;
end


Installing the Templates
The formula template that you just created is installed in your InstallScript
in your Project Data.  The template is installed by adding it to the global
array FormulaList.  Once added to the global array, your formula will show up
next time Formulas is opened.  The following is the install script in the
Project Data:


InstallScript := func(partFrame)
begin

  //install formula template in formulaList
  //global
  partFrame.formulaTemplate := Clone(partFrame.theForm.PT_DaysBetween
 FormulaItem);
  AddArraySlot(FormulaList,
 partFrame.formulaTemplate);

  //if Formulas is open - force update to
  // show our entry
  if GetRoot().formulaRoll.viewCObject then
GetRoot().formulaRoll:RedoChildren();

end;


Conclusion
It is extremely easy to add your own customized formulas to the global array
formulaList.  The process involves three steps.

Step 1: Create a specialized proto using protoRollItem.

Step 2: Create a user proto with the specialized proto as the main view.
Add
child views to customize your formula.

Step 3: Install the formula in your InstallScript in your Project Data.

[Editor s note--Because of the way additions to the root view are handled,
you
need to keep the formula "installer" package in your Extras Drawer for as
long
as you want the new formula to be active.  When a hard reset is done,
additions to the root view are "lost"--but each package s Install script is
then re-executed, which will add the new formula back.  Deleting the
installer
package will cause an error (-10401) if you try to access the Formulas before
doing a hard reset.  Jennifer is looking into a way to avoid these
restrictions, and we ll pass the revisions along when she has them!]

Jennifer s full source and package for the "Days Between Dates" formula
extension can be found on the NANUG "Best Of" Disk #5, or can be obtained by
e-mailing the author or NANUG.

(Bio)
Jennifer Minge is an independent consultant doing Newton programming in her
hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.  Previously she was a Network Engineer for
Apple
Computer working in Cupertino, California and later worked as a Systems
Engineer in Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia.



Tips, Hints, and Secrets;
NANUG Members

>From Tom White:  [[e-mail]]
  For the best Newton prices, try mail order.  Often these are even lower
than
the educational discount. (Of course Developer discount seems to be the best
but I don't know about it-Tom)  (I do--it s about the same as the best
educational for the Newton line-Mark)

  Several people have had good luck with other kinds of cases.  A good place
to look is in camera shops.  Specifically, the Tamrac "Two Way Stretch
Traveller" (Model 221) is supposed to provide a nice fit for the Newton and
another pocket for accessories.

  There are many reports of increased performance in doing operations
(searches, etc.) when NOT limiting the scope to certain folders, but instead
searching all folders.

  Easter Eggs:
 Find "Elvis" with Assist
 Set your country to "Graceland".  The next time you restart, or power up
after a sleep, you ll get a different start-up screen.  Remember to set your
country back before you do any real work ;-)
 Restart.  Tap Undo.  When you see the error dialog ("Nothing to Undo"),
tap the Overview button, then on the first "Newton" entry.  Now tap the Info
button for the date:  7/20/69 2:35 am.  That s Neil s first step.
 Insert the "Getting Started" card.  In the NotePad, write "schedule
Happy Hour Fri", then tap Assist.  Apple is notorious for their Friday
"bashes".

>From Mark Underwood:
[[e-mail]]
  Best Handwriting Tip #1
Select either "cursive" or "printed" in the Handwriting style--not "both".
Newt will still recognize the other kind of writing, but you should pick
whichever style you use the majority of the time.  Adjust the "recognize my
handwriting" and "transform my handwriting" just to the left of mid-way, try
a
few sentences, and see what you think.

  Best Handwriting Tip #2
Go through every letter in the Letter Styles and watch closely how they re
drawn on the screen.  Mark those you don t use as "rarely".  Now try a few
sentences!

  Best Handwriting Tip #3
Don t use the handwriting "game" on the Getting Started card to improve your
recognition, because it forces you to write too quickly as the game
progresses.  Your writing style is changed as you "bear down" on the screen
to
get a better looking word, and since the Newt uses strokes and the timing
between them, you can actually ruin your settings!  If you need word
practice,
use the Handwriting Practice in the Prefs.

  Best Handwriting Tip #4
If these tips seems to confuse your Newt instead of help, tap on "Configure
for guest user" in the Handwriting Style, then try a few sentences.  If you
get better results this way, you need to reset the letter preferences,
recognizers, and letter styles, then follow tips 1 - 3 again.  Yes, it will
take a little bit, but it s worth it!

  Word Recognition Tip #1
The Newt starts out with a 10,000 word dictionary that s more business
oriented than technical, so you probably found a lot of "simple" words aren t
known.  Please take the time to add them as you run across them!  Always tap
on a "mis-read" word and see if the real one s in the alternates list--yes,
the Newt does learn from you, but you have to teach it!  It can t guess for
you, or read your mind.

  Word Recognition Tip #2
There s nothing wrong with editing your word list (the default user
dictionary) and tapping in words ahead of time, especially if you have a few
frequently mis-read words, or if you have a couple of words close enough to
each other that you consistently get them swapped in the recognition process.

Tap on the small open book icon on the pop-up keyboard to view and change the
word list.

  To copy text or graphics to the clipboard, but leave the original text in
place, select the item, tap twice (leaving the stylus down on the second
tap),
and then drag the item up to the top.



:Messages
Scott Portis

The Newton MessagePad (MP) is now in the hands of more than 70, 000 users
since its shipping in the fourth quarter of 1993.  If you are reading this
first issue of _protoReality,  your MP is probably an integral part of your
every day life.  Couldn't live without it.  Can't see how you ever did.  On
the other hand, some of you may be dissatisfied.  I have seen both -- even
felt both.

Through user and developer feedback, improvements can continue to be made to
the Newton concept.  The ultimate success or failure of the Newton depends on
how the public accepts it as a viable and useful personal productivity tool
and on how well Apple listens and responds to the feedback.

_protoReality is striving to create a monthly, electronic, worldwide
information source on the Newton for developers and "power users."  It is
created and distributed freely by NANUG (North Atlanta Newton Users Group),
from Atlanta, GA.  This column, :Messages, is dedicated to making the Newton
technology, and _protoReality, better and more accessible.  We want to hear
your ideas, your gripes, your wishes.  We want to show others what you have
accomplished, and easier ways to get there.  We want this publication to be
both useful and interesting to you.  We want the folks at Apple to have some
feedback.

Letters may be sent to _protoReality via the InterNet at:

[e-mail]

directly through AppleLink at:

SCOTT.PORTIS

or through the mail at:

Scott Portis
C/O _protoReality
3044-C Spring Hill Rd.
Smyrna, GA 30080

We cannot guarantee a response to every letter, but we will do our best.  We
will publish a subset of the letters that we receive in the :Messages column.

A FAX telephone number may be provided in the future if there are enough
requests for one.



The Sharper Knife
Elaine Barrett

Since the arrival of the Apple Newton, we have heard all the great things it
is capable of doing and other uses that will be available in the near future.

There has also been a lot of talk about Apple doing a bad job with the Newton-
-and most of those giving the Newton bad press have not even used the Newton.

How is someone able to say the handwriting recognition is bad if they have
never used a Newton for more than a couple of hours?

You can t always believe what you read or hear.  If you read a story in your
local paper about someone having gone on a shooting rampage, injuring people
right and left, you d believe it.  If that same article appeared in one of
the
Tabloids you would blow it off as just another bogus article.  You have to
watch who is giving you the information.  They may be very reputable with
other information but having never used a Newton puts them into the tabloid
category.

Another type of people giving bad reviews are those going only by hearsay.
You probably played the Rumor game when you were younger, where someone
starts
a phrase that gets spread around the room or group and most of the time, when
the last person has gotten the message, it is not even close to the original.

Then there is another group--those that tried the Newton, didn t like having
to teach it their handwriting style or take the time to learn how to unleash
all of the Newton's power.  Many of these people have already put their
Newtons back on the market.

Suppose you have been looking at buying a truck and you have only owned cars
in the past.  You look around to pick the truck you want, then you buy it.
You drive the truck for a couple of weeks, but bit by bit you realize that it
drives like a truck (and not a car).  If this new truck owner thought like a
lot of those fair-weather Newton owners, he or she would promptly take the
truck back, and (of course) complain to anyone who would listen.  Most sane
people would see the time needed to adjust to the way it drives as
well-spent.
But there are some people who, once they have gotten to know the truck and
enjoy driving it, never go back to those they bitched to, to say that it was
not the truck s fault, but the operator s?  No, they let them think it s
still
a lousy product, so when they go to the dealer, they ll stay away from that
model like the plague.

All current and prospective Newton owners should allow enough time to learn
all there is to know before passing judgment.  This isn t a Newton-only
thing.
It s more like a "new technology" thing.  There was a vocal crowd about this
size when the first IBM PC came out--and one about twice as large when the
Mac
debuted.  When adopting new technology, the trade off is between the
advantages of the increased productivity and the drawbacks of living on the
cutting edge.  Most of the time, if you have a little patience, you find the
cutting edge isn t as serrated as you thought.  Remember:  all good things
come to those that wait.



Want-Ads, Classified, and Cork Board

- -

The Manitoba Macintosh Developers Association is proud to announce that they
are allocating a portion of their FTP server for Newton software, docs,
source-code, etc.  Since this is a brand new site, we have no software as of
yet.  So, if you are developing any Newton software, or have some favorite
shareware, please upload it to:

        ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca
        /Mac-Develop/Newton/Incoming

and please notify:

[e-mail]

This site is also used for Macintosh software development, so if you are
interested, check it out as well.  Please limit transfers to off peak times
if
you can!
--
David A. denBoer
University of Manitoba
[e-mail]
Computer Services -- User Services
[e-mail]
Micro Resource Centre Consultant

- -

Along those same lines:

Tom White [[e-mail]] adds these locations:

University of Iowa
newton.uiowa.edu
/pub/newton
*UPLOADS* -> /submissions
comments - [e-mail]
(This one is very nice, with a FAQ directory full of goodies)

UIOWA MIRROR:
ftp.uni-erlagen.de
/pub/Newton
(For those on the other side of the Atlantic)

sumex-aim.stanford.edu
(The BIG Macintosh site!)
/info-mac/nwt
(Popluar)

Free California Newton BBS:
[phone] 3 lines 14.4 v32
(?????  - got me)

ftp.apple.com
(Of course!)

information on PCMCIA card and other general stuff:
csd4.csd.uwm.edu
/pub/Portables
(Nice info on PCMCIA stuff, and other 'portable' stuff)

- -

!!! Newton & Sharp PDAs !!!
Software and hardware accessories
for the Newton MP and Sharp EP

  Utilities programs
  Game packs
  Memory cards
  PDA cases
  N-Draw   -  Drawing program
  N-Stand   -  Desk stand
  NiCd Battery Conditioner

Call, fax, or write for information
NEWT ENTERPRISES
4075 American Way, Ste. 170
Memphis, TN 38118
[phone]
[phone]  fax

- -

Tom writes again:

--- Begin ramble ---

Has anyone but me wondered about some glaring omissions in the Newton
dictionary?  I am occasionally surprised when my Newton refuses to recognize
a
word after repeated attempts, finally typing it in, and then realizing it is
because it is not in the dictionary.  The dictionary does not seem to be one
of the things that is expanding in the OS upgrades either - many glaring
omissions remain in 1.11.  Some of my favorite examples:

Many people have complained about how the Extras drawer has no hierarchical
filing structure for storing applets.  Apple took this one step further and
completely left "folder" out of the dictionary!  This came as a big shock to
me since folders are actually part of the built in applications (with the
painful exception of the ToDo list).

When I first got my Newton, I was desperate for text to test out my
handwriting recognition, so I started to copy a random page from the built in
"How Do I" help screens.  I was very disappointed until I realized that my
Newton wasn't recognizing "tap" because it too was omitted, even though it
appears about three times on *each* help screen!  I guess even if a word is
in
ROM a few hundred times, it's still not necessarily a safe bet.

After these experiences you may begin to think that the PIE folks just
weren't
doing their homework.  Well, I can guarantee you that if they were, it never
made their ToDo list since "homework" is also missing! ;-)

--- End Ramble ---