Web Extensions

for Newton 2.0 & NetHopper* 2.0

)J1996 by Ray Rischpater.  All Rights Reserved.

version 1.0, 960817



What is it?

Web Extensions for Newton 2.0 use the NetHopper API (available from http://www.allpen.com/nethopper-api) to extend the functionality of your Newton in two useful ways.  Primarily, I wrote the package to give me quick access to AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com); with this package installed, in addition to finding materials on your Newton PDA with the Newton Find slip, you can also select a Web option, which performs an AltaVista search on the topic you've entered.  It'll also provide some quick-launch tools from the default caret menu, so you can easily select and browse a URL you've noted down (in the notepad or on someone's name card, for example),



Web Extensions requires a Newton 2.0 running NetHopper 2.0 or later.  It has been tested on an MP120 and an MP130.



Cool!  How do I use it?

Install the Web Extensions package on your Newton.



To find a topic with AltaVista:

%	Touch Find

%	Enter the topic into the Find Slip.

%	Touch the radio button labeled "Web (AltaVista)"

NetHopper will launch, connect to the internet, and request a list of URLs about the topic you've entered.

Tip:  Any of the advanced AltaVista characters (such as * or +) may also be entered in the Find slip.



To use the caret extensions:

First, touch the caret in an editable field to bring up the caret's punctuation menu.  You'll see the additions from Web Extensions below the space icon.

% Touch the small icon with a dot leading to the little caret to select the text from the last space to the caret and use it as a URL to be viewed with NetHopper.

% Touch the small icon with the little caret leading to the dot and NetHopper's Go To Icon to select the text from the last space to the caret and use it as a URL to be viewed with NetHopper.

% Touch the larger icon with the dot leading to a dot and NetHopper's Go To Icon to select the range around the caret between spaces and use it as a URL to be viewed with NetHopper.

Tip:  Add a "Web" field to the Name Cards stack to store your contact's URLs.  You can then use the default caret menu to easily reach their URLs when you need to.



Wait a minute!  I don't have NetHopper!

I won't hold that against you.  You can get more information about NetHopper from AllPen Software, Inc. (http://www.allpen.com) or order a copy from Landware (http://www.landware.com).



In case you hadn't heard, NetHopper is one of the Web Browsers available for the Apple Newton, featuring full forms support, caching, and support for Newton 2.0 features such as the transports and rotate features.



This is cool!  What do I owe you?

Nothing.



Folks are beginning to tell me pretty regularly I ought to charge for the stuff I write, but I'm pretty lazy about collecting, and anyway, this one was pretty easy.  



I'd like to ask you, though, if you've any suggestions, feel free to drop me email at dove@lothlorien.com.  I may not respond right away, but rest assured I'll read your feedback and take it under advisement.



Legal Stuff...

You may freely reproduce and redistribute this work, provided that this readme remains with the work, and provided that you do not charge for redistribution, save connection charges billed by on-line services such as AOL and Compuserve.  (User's groups please take note of this and contact me prior to redistribution; odds are I'll gladly give you a license to redistribute this in freeware/shareware collections for your organization, but I'd like to talk to you first...)  However, the original copyright for the software remains with the author.



As this package is given to you free of charge, you agree that the author cannot be responsible for the repercussions of using this work.  No warranty is made, expressed or implied, regarding this package, including fitness of purpose or reliability.  While reasonable efforts have been made to determine that this package operates as intended with no ill effects, the author and distributors make no guarantee of any kind.  As this software manipulates undocumented data structures (the Newton 2.0 find slip and default caret menu), it is conceviable that this software will not run on future versions of the Newton operating system, and/or may cause data loss and/or device failure.  Please be prepared to operate this software at your own risk.



NetHopper and AllPen are registered trademarks of AllPen Software, Inc.  Newton and Messagepad are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.  Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.



Revision History

2 - Bug fix - fix the -48807 thrown when using the caret occasionally. 



1 - Initial release.