[NTLK] Retro Apple Printer Emulation to get data from Newton

[Elias Basse]

Thanks Matthias,

I will certainly go through that repository.  I was looking for some easy
way to get notes mostly out of the newton.  I would love to cross-compile
an easy tool to manage what NCX did, however since most of that was for the
apple platform, I think it could be used as a reference to port to
something that would work for other platforms/languages.

I know it will be an undertaking, but I will start to look into it and
reach out off-list to you for a few pointers and tips.

Thanks for keeping NCX alive!  I migrated away from apple in about 2018 but
still have a lot of old gear and NCX was the best, even better than the
original connection kit/utilities on the old 5300cs I used to run.

In an ideal world, I would love to have my phone and newton connect to each
other so I can go offline, but still share what I create while offline when
needed with others.

Best Regards and Many Thanks!

Elias



On Tue, Sep 15, 2026 at 5:27 AM Matthias Melcher <m.melcher at robowerk.de>
wrote:

>
>
> > On 15. Sep 2026, at 11:53, Elias Basse <kd5jfe at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Group,
> >
> > Has anyone experimented with emulation of an old serial printer to get
> data
> > out of their newton?
> >
> > I found a github project that I am going to start looking at
> > https://github.com/manybitsbyte/retroapple-printers to see if this will
> > work for the newton.
> >
> > This would be a basis of adding to another project that I am working on
> to
> > recreate the newton connection kit and its features for modern operating
> > systems with modern code base for those of us that are running other OS's
> > such as windows or linux (NCX was what I used to use on the old macbook).
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Elias
>
> Hi Elias,
>
> not directly related, but Einstein can print directly to the host
> printers, if all you need is to print out a few pages, nd you can sync
> between your Newton and Einstein.
>
> As for NCX, the source code is available on GitHub and is OpenSource. I
> have been able to compile it for modern macOS. NCX includes
> newton-framework, which in itself is quite complex and in its original
> repos compiles for Intel only, not for ARM64.
>
> https://github.com/newtonresearch
>
> newton-framework is needed to compile NewtonScript and tow read and write
> the Newton Streming Format, which in turn is needed for implementing NCX
> and interpreting the data that is downloaded. NCX (nad NCT for that matter)
> contain a full NewtonScript compiler and bytecode interpreter.
>
> I have put a lot of work into newton-framework, making it compile on
> ARM64, fixing a few bugs, adding CMake support, but the repository is
> somewhat ad hoc, and no longer in good sync with Simons original code.
>
> https://github.com/MatthiasWM/newton-framework/tree/restructure
>
> If you start writing NCT for other platforms, that would be great. Maybe
> you can write a cross platform version for everyone? I have deep knowledge
> of the protocol (my Dongle implements large parts of it), and I'll be happy
> to help out.
>
>  - Matthias
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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