I haven't seen the newton zengine yet, but I can answer some of these other
questions, I bought a newton about six weeks ago and I love it.
> Like, how do you get the data onto it,
It has a PCMCIA slot that can hold a modem, an IR port (though I don't
think many people use this for anything but newton->newton comm, and a
serial port.
I use the serial port to send software, syncronize my data with my desktop,
etc.
> how much data can it hold,
The current version has 2meg of internal storage, I think about 1.3 of that
is available to the user. I also have an 8meg PCMCIA card that I keep big
stuff on.
> how long can it run on a set of batteries,
On rechargables I get a couple days, on alkalines you can get an amazing (to
me) week or two.
> how much info can you see on the screen,
It's 240x320 pixels, can hold a good sized chunk of text.
> can you scroll back to see past
> moves, etc? Also, if someone wanted to tweak the code, how tricky would
> that be? Would you need to buy a development package for the newton?
Can't answer the first two, but there is a $50 shareware compiler for newton
development, as well as the $300 commercial version (that I would try, but
it's only available on the mac thus far).
> >However, having a touch screen and never having to type is *wonderful*.
> >
> >Basically, the UI I've worked up lets the user tap on any word in the
> >'output area' and have it appear as the next word in their 'input area'.
>
> But don't you still have to write most verbs? How about something that
> keeps track of all the words that have been used previously. That way,
> you would only have to write out each verb once (and the obvious ones
> could be given already, like 'north,' 'south,' etc.).
That'd be how I'd like to see it, space permitting..
-- ____________________________________________________________________ jesse montrose <jesse@spine.com> http://www.hooked.net/bin/jesse.home After seven years, I was sent home to my family. Little man, I give the watch to you.