10   Frequently Asked Questions

• What can I do to help you guys?
  Well, as you can see there is a lot to do...
  If you have OS programmatical skills, you can help up with the porting of Escale and the DCL to other platforms such as Windows, Unices, BeOS, etc...
  If you are an AppleScript user, you can develop scripts that link Mac OS applications to Escale
  If you have some great ideas, share them with us, we will be pleased to discuss and implement them
  If you want to donate hardware (especially Newton hardware), test intensively, feel free to do so
  Finally you can send us money so that we do not have to work on other projects ;-)
• Why did you guys work on an outdated technology?
  Well, first, we are not so sure it is outdated. Second, we wanted to complete the transition to Mac OS X. This program should help a lot of Newton users to upgrade their system software. Third, it's a very interesting exercise since we programmed this using technologies from the very core to the most higher interfaces. And last but not least, we are not alone in our desire for such a program to exist.
• Who are you, by the way?
  Although Paul is a famous developer in the Newton community, here is a little biography of the main contributors:
  Paul Guyot is a student in computer science and philosophy. He wrote a lot of software for the Newton, the last one being the extraordinary ATA driver that allows you to mount standard compact flash cards (or MemorySticks, etc...) in the Newton! He wrote the biggest part of this program
  Michael Vacík is something like a designer. He is famous for his hilarious comics and icons. Many programmers owe him a lot. He fixed the original (awful) interface and provided us with ideas and pieces of advice that led Escale to where it is.
  Nicolas Zinovieff is also a student, in computer science as well (with a little biology). He wrote some freeware and contributes verbally whenever he can. He wrote a bit of the POSIX stuff and of the network interfaces, as well as a part of the AppleScript layer. He hosts the CVS as well
  Filip Zawadiak is a Polish {AS/400 / Newton } programmer. He gave us his MNP algorithm to enable serial connection with Escale.
   
  
• It's not that I am complaining, but why is it OpenSource?
  Let us stress something: it is more than OpenSource in the way that to we wanted to be sure that any work on Escale would benefit all users for free. Therefore it is copyleft. There is a copy of the license at the end of this manual, and you can find more discussion on this license on Paul's webpage ( http://www.kallisys.org ). Since everyone can contribute to the development, we hope Escale will continue to evolve, and that people who need such a tool will be willing to comment on the code or improve it (see next steps).
• What are the next steps?
  Ah. Future. We are not fully sure of the priorities, but there are a few points we would like to see realized:
  We would like to support more platforms. The Newton itself can communicate easily, so what we need is respondents. Although we could do part of the work, there are a few platforms that are not as well known to us as Mac OS. So what we need is either helpers or time to learn.
  We would like to push even further the integration within Mac OS X, like synchronization tools that work with stickies, mail clients, iCal, whatever.
  There is a server project based on the DCL to have some kind of faceless Escale that can work with several Newtons and users concurrently. We hope to finish this one pretty soon.
  As for the unforeseeable future, let's hope we will never run out of ideas.