3 ms·

Are there any open source Newton codebases around? I would like to get a feel for what working with them actually looked like.

soapdog 11y ago
there is an emulator called Einstein. It supports mac os x and android among others. you still need a ROM to run it. The newton platform is amazing and the community is great. check out newtontalk.net mailing list and the UNNA (united newton archives). Thanks to some amazing homebrew developers the newton got support for Wifi, SATA and Bluetooth. Not bad for a machine from 1994. The newton is the road not taken. I always wonder how the world would look today if instead of if Apple focused on the newton instwad of iMacs and iPods... would love to see a modern successor.
veidr 11y ago
I belatedly open-sourced Dash Board for Newton, my popular 1997 UI enhancement app: https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS The README there also walks through the process of getting all the emulators and whatnot running on a modern machine so that you can build it (or other Newton software). Because Newton software source code was composed of many small NewtonScript files in a proprietary binary format (with resource forks!), I also exported t he source code into a text format that can be read more easily: https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS/blob/master/Dash%20Board/DashBoard2013.proj.text https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS/blob/m...
- kanwisher 11y ago
  Great post I enjoyed reading your github on your newton code
- Gracana 11y ago
  > And just to be ridiculous, Minspector features a Newton version of a Mac OS 8-style window, complete with zoom, resize, and minimize, so Mac-based Newton programmers will feel right at home. Man, that threw me for a loop. I saw that window and for a moment thought the Newton was way more than I ever realized. [edit] Just finished reading the whole README. What an awesome story. I'm really glad you took the time to share your project and it's history.
- girvo 11y ago
  That was an amazing story, thanks for sharing it! It's great to see more and more computing history saved for the future.

soapdog 11y ago

there is an emulator called Einstein. It supports mac os x and android among others. you still need a ROM to run it. The newton platform is amazing and the community is great. check out newtontalk.net mailing list and the UNNA (united newton archives). Thanks to some amazing homebrew developers the newton got support for Wifi, SATA and Bluetooth. Not bad for a machine from 1994. The newton is the road not taken. I always wonder how the world would look today if instead of if Apple focused on the newton instwad of iMacs and iPods... would love to see a modern successor.

veidr 11y ago

I belatedly open-sourced Dash Board for Newton, my popular 1997 UI enhancement app: https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS The README there also walks through the process of getting all the emulators and whatnot running on a modern machine so that you can build it (or other Newton software). Because Newton software source code was composed of many small NewtonScript files in a proprietary binary format (with resource forks!), I also exported t he source code into a text format that can be read more easily: https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS/blob/master/Dash%20Board/DashBoard2013.proj.text https://github.com/masonmark/Dash-Board-for-Newton-OS/blob/m...

kanwisher 11y ago
Great post I enjoyed reading your github on your newton code
Gracana 11y ago
> And just to be ridiculous, Minspector features a Newton version of a Mac OS 8-style window, complete with zoom, resize, and minimize, so Mac-based Newton programmers will feel right at home. Man, that threw me for a loop. I saw that window and for a moment thought the Newton was way more than I ever realized. [edit] Just finished reading the whole README. What an awesome story. I'm really glad you took the time to share your project and it's history.
girvo 11y ago
That was an amazing story, thanks for sharing it! It's great to see more and more computing history saved for the future.