[NTLK] Einstein: New desktop release 2026.10.11

[DoctorClu]

Matthias, awesome work!   My older Macs thank you for this especially...

""macOS deployment target is lowered again. So Einstein should run on 
10.3 Panther again."

Makes me want to install Panther on a Mac and try that out.  :P

Seriously amazed it works that far back.


Greg / Doc Clu


  [NTLK] Einstein: New desktop release 2026.10.11

*Matthias Melcher* m.melcher at robowerk.de 
<mailto:newtontalk%40newtontalk.net?Subject=Re:%20Re%3A%20%5BNTLK%5D%20Einstein%3A%20New%20desktop%20release%202026.10.11&In-Reply-To=%3C071138D4-F426-4851-91DC-C06B1C59B8D8%40robowerk.de%3E>
/Sun Oct 11 06:29:08 PDT 2026/

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Hi folks,

I released a new version of Einstein for the desktop and it has some great new features.

This release now has binaries for Windows Intel and ARM, Linux Intel and ARM, macOS Universal, and macOS Cocoa. All but the Cocoa release feature:


     • Fast start: when you quit Einstein, the Newton goes to sleep and Einstein
saves its state. The next launch continues where you left off, like
waking up a real Newton. Turn it on or off with "Fast start: continue
where Einstein was quit" in the MessagePad tab of the Settings (on by
default). If the ROM, the RAM size, the screen size, the flash file or a
PC Card changed in the meantime, Einstein starts the Newton normally.

     • Save and restore states: the File menu has "Save State", "Save State
As...", "Restore Last" and "Restore From...". Save the state before you
try out a package, and return to it later. Restoring replaces the
Newton's memory, its internal storage (flash) and the contents of the
inserted PC Cards, so Einstein asks before it does that.

This is great for trying out packages: take a snapshot, install and test an app. Don't like it? Return the snapshot as if nothing happened.

     • Hardware Reset and Brain Wipe now reset all emulated hardware, like the
reset button of a real Newton (the memory is kept).

There was a risk in previous version that the Flash would be wiped. This should no longer happen.

     • After "NewtonScript Reboot", the keyboard, the power button and package
installation work again.

Previous versions were sometimes running out of sync, ignoring keyboard an other requests. This should be fixed now.

     • Einstein Prefs, the app that sets up the serial port from inside the
Newton, is now built in (Extras › Einstein). You don't need to install it
any more.

Previous versions did not remember the user's choice across reboots. This is fixed now. Einstein Prefs is still under development and will improve. If you have a previous version, please uninstall it before updating Einstein.

     • macOS deployment target is lowered again. So Einstein should run on 10.3 Panther again.


Some developer and debugging stuff:

     • Monitor: "save " and "load " now work reliably and include
the emulated hardware, the PC Card state and the card contents. "save fast
" writes a fast start file, "load overwrite " replaces card
contents that changed, "checkstate [path]" checks that saving and
loading give the same result.

     • State files have a new format with a checksum. Damaged or edited files
are refused before anything is loaded.

     • Several fixes for threads that changed the same data at the same time,
found with ThreadSanitizer (for example a lost interrupt).
Maintenance Release Notes

     • The unit tests run in their own workflow and are only built with
-D EINSTEIN_BUILD_TESTS=ON.

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