Names Overview Hack 1.12 docs



Blurb



NOH is an auto part that hacks the overview of Newt's built-in Names app to show the entries in a way I like better. Entries that are sorted by last name are listed as <Lastname>, <Firstname> and entries that are sorted by company are listed as <Company> (<Firstname> <Lastname>). If it does anything else, it's a bug.



Intro



You should be aware that NOH is a hack. It messes around with undocumented internals of Newt's Names app. It appears to work correctly on my US-version MP0, 110, and 120 (OS versions 1.05 and 1.3). It has also been tested and appears to work on a German MP120 and a German MP100 running the German OS 1.3 and a French MP120 running French OS 1.3.



It may or may not work on any other Newts. It is extremely likely to break on future Newtons and may well break under future OS revisions. It does try to make sure that things are as it expects before it installs the hack, but I'm sure that there are any number of situations that I haven't thought of that could cause problems.



NOH may well be incompatible with other apps that hack Newt's Names app.



For that matter, just because it appears to work for me doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of bugs left in it.



NOH takes about 700 bytes of the NewtonScript heap when it's installed.



NOH must be installed on Newt's internal store. If it isn't, you'll get "Newton still needs the card you installed" messages when you remove the card that it's installed on. Having to install it on the internal store may be annoying, but the app is only a little more than 7K in size and it would have to eat a fair amount of the NewtonScript heap if it could be installed on a card.



NOH will slow down the display of the names overview slightly.



NOH should display the proper abbreviations for phone number types on English, French, and German Newts.



Price



NOH is free. The source code is free too.



Legal stuff



NOH is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2. A copy of that license must always be distributed with the software. You should note that the license disclaims any warranty on the program.



NOH (the software that this documentation describes) and this documentation are all Copyright ) 1995 Matthew Dixon Cowles and his licensors. All rights reserved.



Apple and Newton are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. NewtonMail and MessagePad are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.



Use



Just install it. NOH is an "auto part". It won't show up as an icon in your extras drawer. When it's installed, it adds the hack to the Names overview and when it's removed it puts things back the way it found them.



Support



I am always delighted to get feedback from users. I would be glad to hear comments, thoughts and suggestions about the documentation, feature requests, bug reports, expressions of praise, and lucrative job offers. If you are reporting a bug, please try to be as specific as possible about the actions that lead up to it. If you are expressing praise or making a job offer, please try to be as generous as possible.



Support for NOH is only available by mail, preferably e-mail. My e-mail addresses are:



NewtonMail, eWorld: MattC (@eworld.com)

AppleLink:          MONDO (@applelink.apple.com)



If you don't have an e-mail account, please send a note by the postal service to:



Matthew Dixon Cowles

4501 Park Glen Road, no. 345

St Louis Park, MN  55416

USA



Acknowledgments



Danke to Wolfgang Scheele for help with testing, the list of phone number abbreviations for German Newts, and for suggesting leaving a little space between the name and the phone number. Merci to Francois Contenay for help with testing and for the list of phone number abbreviations for French Newts.