Sloup Mini-Review

by Peter Rand

Sloup is a small (~ 45k) package which works together with a wide variety of desktop-based terminal emulation programs to allow you to quickly transfer text and data between your Newton and your desktop computer via a serial cable. With Sloup, it's easy to type on the Newton using your desktop keyboard, to transfer email or other text to your desktop for reading or processing, or to copy text items from your desktop into a Notepad or NewtWorks documents. Advanced users can use Sloup to transfer entire document folders between the Newton and the desktop, as well as packages and other data types.

What terminal emulation programs will work with Sloup? Any terminal emulation program that runs on your desktop Windows /Mac/ Unix system should work: ZTerm & ClarisWorks for Mac, HyperTerminal and Terminal for Windows as well as programs for Unix and other platforms.

Once you get a hang of the program, it's a breeze to use. I use it to quickly copy text from my desktop to the Newton, and also to type on the Newton using my desktop keyboard. It's also easy to cut & paste text from the Newton to the desktop using Sloup. For example, with the Newton tethered to the desktop, I can open a NewtonTalk digest in my InBox, select all the text, and then tap "Paste" in Sloup. Voila - the entire digest then appears on the screen of my desktop.

Maybe the best news is that Sloup is free for registered users of Newt's Cape or NewtDevEnv, and only $10 for everybody else.

It's a very useful little app that makes sending text to and from the desktop as easy as cutting & pasting, forming a seamless link between the Newton and your desktop.

For those that are interested, I've posted a few screenshots of Sloup in action