[NTLK] Searching for Jerome Vernet's application IrDAPackageInstaller

[Vladislav Korotnev]

I remember trying to use that package back in the day but never got it to
work reliably.

IIRC, the IrDA implementation of the Newton doesn't support OBEX which was
the common way of transferring files back in the day e.g. between
cellphones. They communicate using their own bespoke protocol on top of
IrDA.

On which note, if there is a way to beam packages without having to
bootstrap something like IrDAPackageInstaller, it may be worth investing
time into figuring out that protocol instead. For example, the ESP32
microcontroller is very cheap and modern but also supports infrared
transceivers on a hardware level with DMA and all that fancy stuff, so if
it was possible to make a package installer device with that.. :-)

Best regards

On Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 02:25 Matthias Melcher <m.melcher at robowerk.de> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Newtinos,
>
> maybe someone has an idea. I am loking int understanding NewtonOS's
> Infrared port. I read the FAQ, but it seems that not much was done with
> Sharp IR and even less with IrDA. Was it promised by Apple but never
> completely implemented? Can it do the same that a serial connection can do?
> And what tools exist out there to actually use IR?
>
> I saw Jerome Vernet's application IrDAPackageInstaller mentioned
> somewhere. Is Jerome still around? Would he be willing to publish the
> source code?
>
> Happy to hear anything more about IR
>
>  - Matthias
>
> PS: to explain, I found a Hama IrDA USB device for very little money on
> eBay, and I even found the tech manual for. I am curious if this is a way
> to circumvent the "Dongle of Unobtainium" with an 8$ junk device that was
> probably thrown away by the thousands in 2009.
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