transForm Transfer Utility

Release Notes

To upload the data you collect with transForm, you need transForm Transfer Utility (TTU). With TTU you can extract transForm data from Newton and insert it into a database or spreadsheet program on a desktop computer. TTU returns transForm entries in the standard, tab separated format with one line per entry. TTU supports cross platform communications to any computer that can make a simple serial connection. This includes Macintosh, MS DOS, Windows, OS/2, and many others.

To use TTU,

You need the following:

1.	A copy of transForm installed on a MessagePad 100, 110, or 120 running Newton 1.x or 2.0 operating system.

2.	A terminal emulation program that runs on your desktop computer. Sample terminal emulation programs for Macintosh include: FreeTerm, ZTerm, and ClarisWorks. Comparable programs are available for MSDOS, Windows, OS/2 computers, and others.

3.	A serial cable to connect your desktop computer to your Newton.

To initialize TTU,

1.	Launch TTU on Newton and tap RConnectS.

2.	Launch the terminal emulation program on your desktop computer.

3.	Configure the terminal emulation program for

%	9600 Baud

%	8 Data bits

%	1 Stop bit

%	No parity

All commands are typed into the terminal emulation program running on the desktop computer. TTU responds to these commands and performs the appropriate actions on Newton, returning information as needed. Commands may be typed in either upper or lower case letters; TTU is not case-sensitive.

NOTE: transForm is not designed to run concurrently with TTU. Specifically, if you use TTUUs DELETE command and transForm is open, transForm will raise an exception. We recommend that you close transForm before running TTU and using its DELETE command.

To find out what transForm layouts are installed on Newton,

1.	Initialize TTU and a desktop terminal emulation program as described above.

2.	Choose RText captureS (or something similar) in the terminal emulation program to save TTUUs output to a file.

3.	Type RQUERY:S in the terminal emulation program.

TTU will respond with the number of transForm layouts on Newton, and for each of these, the name of the layout, the number of entries, the date the layout was last modified, and its author. Here is an example query and TTUUs response:

QUERY:

LAYOUTS: 2

LAYOUT NAME: Phone Message

ENTRIES: 1

DATE: 1995 12 4

AUTHOR: Jeffrey C. Schlimmer

LAYOUT NAME: Untitled

ENTRIES: 3

DATE: 1995 12 4

AUTHOR:

END:

To retrieve transForm entries from Newton,

1.	Initialize TTU and a desktop terminal emulation program as described above.

2.	Choose RText captureS (or something similar) in the terminal emulation program to save TTUUs output to a file.

3.	Type RGET:S followed by the name of the appropriate transForm layout in the terminal emulation program.

TTU will respond with the names of the transForm fields separated by tabs on the first line, and the values of fields separated by tabs on successive lines, one line for each transForm entry. Here is an example retrieval and TTUUs response:

GET: Untitled

To        From      Phone     Urgent?

Jeff      John      111-1111  No

Sam       Sally     222-2222  Yes

Tom       Theresa   333-3333  No

END:

To delete transForm entries from Newton,

1.	Initialize TTU and a desktop terminal emulation program as described above.

2.	Type RDELETE:S followed by the name of the appropriate transForm layout in the terminal emulation program.

TTU will delete all previous entries for the specified transForm layout and create one blank entry. (transForm requires that each layout have at least one entry.) Deleting all entries cannot be undone, so choose this action with caution. Here is an example deletion and TTUUs response:

DELETE: Phone Message

END:

To report problems with TTU,

send e-mail to newton@eecs.wsu.edu . Please include as much of the following as possible:

%	Model and operating system version of Newton.

%	Amount of memory free on internal and on PC RAM card (if applicable).

%	Version of transForm. (The latest version as of this writing is 0.32.)

%	Number of layouts.

%	Result of RQUERY:S.

%	Whether the problem persists after resetting Newton.

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~schlimme/newton/transForm.shtml