NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 2, issue 3, March 11, 1992) Table of Contents i. Purdue archive site cleanup I. Hayes Announces Hayes ISDN Extender II. Announcing Engage! from Atherton Software Works III. PUBLISH mailing list IV. How to Order NeXT items for your user group members V. Announcing Hippoplotamus Release 1.0 VI. Printer application: Announcing DOTS for the NeXT VII. Chicago area NeXT Developers VIII. Trident Data Systems in Los Angeles Conrad Geiger International NeXT User Groups Email: user_groups@next.com ____________________________________________________________________ i. Purdue archive site cleanup The sonata.cc.purdue.edu and nova.cc.purdue.edu archive sites has had a little cleanup. If you are looking for files (source code examples, demo programs or user group newsletters, etc.) that used to be in the /pub/next/submissions directory, be sure to look in /pub/next under the following directory structure: docs TechSupportNotes NextAnswers MiniExamples 2.0-release source binaries demos Newsletters sounds snd score graphics fonts images icons ps movies nextlogin tiff eps Literature lore ____________________________________________________________________ I. Hayes Announces Hayes ISDN Extender HAYES MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCTS, INC. P.O. Box 105203 Atlanta, Georgia 30348 404/840-9200 Fax 404/441-1238 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Angie Ciarloni/Peggy Ballard HAYES ANNOUNCES HAYES ISDN EXTENDER - - - - - - Hayes - NeXT Strategic Relationship results in Low-cost ISDN Connectivity for NeXT Computer ATLANTA, GA, 22 January 1992 -- Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. today announced Hayes ISDN Extender, the first telecommunications network interface module that provides ISDN Basic Rate Access as well as analog telephone line connectivity to NeXT computers. This product is the result of the Hayes and NeXT strategic relationship committed to the promotion of ISDN and to providing low-cost, powerful connectivity to NeXT users worldwide. Hayes has also expanded its ISDN Developer Program to include support for the ISDN Extender for NeXT computers. Hayes ISDN Extender provides an 8-pin modular connector to an ISDN Basic Rate line and a 6-pin modular RJ11 connector to an analog telephone line. When used in conjunction with NeXTstep Release 3.0 and application software, the Extender can be used for remote LAN connections, as well as high-speed, digitized voice, data, fax modem, and multimedia applications. Hayes ISDN Extender takes advantage of the NeXTstep object-oriented application development environment, powerful CPU, and DSP port to provide analog telephone network and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) connectivity. "We see customer applications, such as remote LAN connectivity and evolving multimedia applications, driving the need for the higher speed transmission of ISDN," said Hayes President Dennis C. Hayes. "Therefore, Hayes ISDN Extender for NeXT computers with Release 3.0 is a logical and powerful combination. This is the first tangible result from our strategic relationship with NeXT and when Steve and I get together we have no shortage of good ideas. We are very pleased to be working with a company that shares our vision of global connectivity and ISDN." "Dennis and I have worked together over the years to bring technology that has changed the way people work," said NeXT Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs. "And, with this announcement, we are continuing our tradition. This hardware/software solution gives our customers a low-cost, yet very flexible, solution for ISDN connectivity." Hayes ISDN Developer Program is designed to provide qualified third party developers with the support and information they need to develop high-quality applications for ISDN, and to complement the NeXT developer support program for the PhoneKit API. The program includes special product purchase programs as well as access to Hayes Developer Verification and Test Lab, located at Hayes ISDN Technologies in San Francisco, CA. Developers can also use the ISDN applications development laboratory, located in Beeston, Nottingham, England, that was established as a joint effort by Hayes and GPT, Britain's leading telecommunications systems supplier. Hayes ISDN Extender will be available throughout the United States and Canada in April 1992 for an estimated retail price of - and -. The product will be distributed through Value-added Resellers and Dealers who sell NeXT computers as well as Hayes Customer Service. In addition, Hayes anticipates availability of Hayes ISDN Extender in the global marketplace, including France, Germany and Japan as country approvals are obtained and NeXT system software is prepared for support. Hayes ISDN Extender carries a two year limited performance warranty and is backed by the same level of quality support as Hayes modems. Applications consultants and technical support engineers are available through Hayes Customer Service in the U.S. at 404/441-1617 and in Canada at 416/283-2672. Unlimited, free technical assistance is available electronically through "Online with Hayes," an electronic Bulletin Board System, at 404/HI MODEM or 800/US HAYES, as well as Hayes Forums on CompuServe and GEnie information services. NeXT Computer, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets professional workstations based on the pioneering NeXTstep object-oriented system software. NeXT computers are used to develop mission-critical custom applications and to run these applications alongside breaktrough productivity applications. NeXT is headquartered at 900 Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, California, 94063. For further information, customers and potential customers are encouraged to call 800-TRY-NeXT. Best known as the leader in microcomputer modems, Hayes develops, supplies and supports computer communications equipment and software for personal computer and computer communications networks. The company distributes its products through an international network of authorized distributors, dealers, mass merchants and original equipment manufacturers. ### ____________________________________________________________________ II. Announcing Engage! from Atherton Software Works The intelligent NeXTstep utility that let's you create your own custom dock for organizing applications and files. Engage! is a flexible utility program and tool for extending the capabilities of the NeXT Workspace Manager Application Dock. With Engage!, you can create your own multi-level dock for quick, convenient access to your programs and files. Its unique *levels: feature allows users to organize applications as well as files into logical groups or *titled: levels. Additionally, Engage! allows users to place their custom dock anywhere on the screen. Engage! is the intelligent approach to personalizing your NeXT Workspace for the way you work. Features include: - Multi-level dock for launching applications and opening files - Versatile dock tiles include programs and files as well as folders - Easy *drag-and-drop: feature for adding and removing dock tiles - User-defined dock level names for titling groups according to workflow - Flexible display for positioning dock (right, left, up, down, free form) - Unique *flip: command feature for displaying hidden dock tiles - Commands for sorting, searching and inspecting dock tiles in any level - Preferences command including option for Hide on launch - Screen saver utility - Fine tune positioning of Engage! dock using cursor arrow keys Engage! is a fully compliant NeXTstep application with built-in support for international localization. The application currently requires System Software Release 2.0 or higher from NeXT Computer, Inc. This software product is sold on a per user license basis. For more information, contact Atherton Software Works, 77 Marsh Road, Atherton, California 94025 at (415) 321-3720 or Fax: (415) 321-3650. ____________________________________________________________________ III. PUBLISH mailing list The following is sent to all that join the new Publishing mailing list: (It give details on how to join.) Welcome to the PUBLISH mailing list. You or someone acting on your behalf sent a request to the PUBLISH maintainer asking to be added to this mailing list. You are now on that list. This introductory message is being sent to new readers to inform them of a few essential facts. Here are the relevant Internet mail addresses for PUBLISH: publish@chron.com submissions publish-request@chron.com requests to be deleted & added Before sending a request to be deleted from the list, check with your local "postmaster" to see if you are receiving the messages via a local redistribution alias. If you are, then your local postmaster can remove you from the list far more effectively and quickly than I can. This list is NOT moderated! Anything mailed to the submissions address will be echoed to everyone on the list. Every potential poster is on his or her honor to not abuse this list! Messages sent to this list are archived, but are not yet publicly available. Do not ask for old messages - the archive will eventually be made available and an announcement will be made. Please DO NOT mail "please remove me" requests to the submissions address! The PUBLISH mailing list is for discussion of the role of computers, specifically workstations, in book, magazine, newspaper, and other publishing. It also covers specific publishing-related implementation questions, including, but not limited to: * Printing and Scanning * Raster Image Processing * Text Tools * Image Processing * Document management * Available Software and Hardware * High-Bandwidth Interfaces * Integration with Personal Computers It is NOT a programming or system administration forum, although discussion will sometimes touch on these subjects. The charter of this list is certainly subject to modification through the general agreement of the members. Other suggested topics are welcome. Please publicize this list! The more people that are on it, the more useful it will be. ____________________________________________________________________ IV. How to Order NeXT items for your user group members Several groups have asked how to order NeXT t-shirts for their groups: The following NeXT items are available from the Company Store: NeXT Pencils $ 20.30 (Box of 100) NeXT Cross Ballpoints $21.15 NeXT Decals $ 75.00 (Box of 100) NeXT T-Shirt $ 5.65 (Preshrunk 100% cotton Sm, Med, Lg, XLg) NeXT Glass Mug $ 1.70 NeXT Leather Exec Folder $ 54.50 NeXT Sweatshirt $ 19.20 NeXT Tote-Bag $ 6.25 NeXT Turtleneck $ 19.20 NeXT Mouse Pad $ 9.67 Phone: 1-800-288-0443, inside the US or 408/739-9655, international call FAX: 408-746-2399 Credit Card, Check, or Company PO The Company Store 3073 Corvin Dr. Santa Clara, CA 95051 ____________________________________________________________________ V. Announcing Hippoplotamus Release 1.0 Hippoplotamus release 1.0, or hippo for short, is now available by anonymous ftp. Hippo is a histogram management and display package based on n-tuples written in ANSI C. The ftp server machine is... unixhub.slac.stanford.edu (134.79.112.16) The file is a compressed tar file of 380KBytes at the location... /pub/sources/hippo.1.0.tar.Z In the file are all the sources, makefile for five flavors of UNIX plus VMS, documentation in PostScript form, test program, sample hippo files, and of course a README file. Instructions for installation are in both the README file and the chapter 5 of the Reference Manual (HippoRef.ps file). Hippo has been tested on the following platforms... - NeXT OS 2.1 - SunOS 4.1 - AIX 3.1 on RS/6000 - ULTRIX 4.1 - SGI - VAX/VMS - VM/CMS Please read the end of the README file, or the end of chapter 5 of the Reference manual for procedures for reporting bugs and for making comments, suggestions, etc. to the hippo development group. Also, please register the fact that you are using hippo by sending mail to hippo_comment@ebnextk.slac.stanford.edu If you do that, then we can send you announcements of bug fixes, updates, etc. Please give Hippoplotamus a try and let us know what you think. Good luck. ____________________________________________________________________ VI. Printer application: Announcing DOTS for the NeXT *** Announcing new printer driver demo program for the NeXT...Dots *** (A demo version of this app is located on the nova.cc.purdue.edu archive server under /pub/next/2.0-release/demos/Dot.tar.) Below is from the Dots-Demo.README file: ___________________________________________________________________ This is a demo version of Dots, a printer driver system that allows printers from various vendors and technologies to be used with the NeXT(TM) computer, from 24-pin dot-matrix to laser printers. Not every possible printer is supported, but the most popular are all there: * NEC Pinwriter(TM) * Epson(TM) * Oki Microline(TM) * IBM Proprinter(TM) * HP DeskJet and LaserJet(TM) * Canon BJ300/330/10(TM) Dots is easy to use and install, and gives you the finest quality output from your printer. It supports all paper sizes that make sense on your printer. Pages come out in the right order, scaled to fit the useable part of the page if you want it that way, preceded or followed by a banner if you want one, plus lots of other bells and whistles you'll probably not notice at first glance, but that you'd bitterly miss if they weren't there. This demo version does everything the full version does. In fact, it does more than the full version: it even prints it's logo at the bottom of each page. It also lacks a manual, of course. To use this demo, untar the package to produce Dots.pkg (skip this step if you received a package named Dots.pkg instead of the file Dots-Demo.tar), then use Installer.app to install it in your system. You must be root to install Dots. After installation, you'll find the application Dots.app in the directory /LocalApps. With Dots.app you can configure your printer just as you would configure a PostScript(TM) printer using PrintManager. You won't see PostScript printers listed in Dots.app's window, only Dots printers. You can configure a new printer using the `New' button, or change the configuration of an existing one with the `Configure' button. The configuration includes some more options than PrintManager, such as the baud rate, the port (you can specify any character special file as the printer's port), the resolution, etc, but should be pretty intuitive (I'm open to and grateful for criticism!). More than one resolution is supported per printer. If you configure more than one printer of the same brand on the same port, but with different resolutions (say, Canon_High for a Canon BJ300 at 360 dpi and Canon_Low for the same printer at 180 dpi), Dots will use both names as aliases for the same printer, and select the resolution according to the name you chose in the PrintPanel. You cannot declare two printers of different brands on the same port. Through the `Customization...' button in the configuration panel you can access the advanced options of Dots, such as selecting when to print the banner page (if at all), whether to reduce the page to fit the printable area of your printer or not, and whether to invert the page ordering or not. You can also use the sliders in this panel to calibrate the software's top and bottom unprintable margins of the page (left blank) to those the printing machinery actually can't reach. Take into account that all you can do about margins is calibrate them, there's no changing them, since they're a mechanical feature of your printer. This software is Copyright 1991, 1992 by Federico Heinz, all rights reserved. Of course, you are encouraged to try out this demo, put it at it's pace with your favorite applications, show and give it away to friends. Dots is currently (Feb 5, 1992) shipping in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and can be purchased from any NeXT dealer. A version with an English manual will be shipping soon. For more information contact Federico Heinz Consulting Hohenfriedbergstr. 11 W-1000 Berlin 62 F.R. Germany Tel: (+49 30) 784 98 64 FAX: (+49 30) 784 99 64 e-mail: federico@louis.actis.de (please include your e-mail address when using it) Dealers please contact FFN Systemtechnik GmbH Ruhlsdorfer Strasse 23 O-1530 Teltow F.R. Germany Tel: (+37 3351) 41 192 FAX: (+37 3351) 41 157 ____________________________________________________________________ VII. Chicago area NeXT Developers ******* Attention NeXT Software Developers! ******** Management Information Search is looking for software developers proficient in NeXTstep and interested in full time professional positions at various banks, trading firms, and financial institutions in the greater Chicago-land area. Job entails development of custom business-oriented applications in the NeXTstep environment. Requirements: - Proficiency in developing applications in the NeXTstep environment. - Strong experience in C, object oriented programming in ObjC, using Interface Builder, AppKit, and graphical user interfaces. - Experience in at least one or two large application development projects in NeXTstep. - Enthusiasm for developing NeXT software. For more information, contact: Tara Kearney Management Information Search 327 South LaSalle, Suite 500 Chicago, IL 60604 312.939.7676 312.427.6229 (fax) ____________________________________________________________________ VIII. Trident Data Systems in Los Angeles Trident Data Systems is looking for a few exceptional: "NeXTperts" Trident is located in the heart of Los Angeles, close to LAX. If you enjoy working with the best, TDS is where you want to be. We are presently looking to jump into the commercial integration business with NeXT as the platform of choice. We are looking for you to help us get there fast. We offer very competitive salaries, and a great benefits package. If you are the person we describe below, please mail me your resume (NeXT mail encouraged). My internet address is Dalessio@mailman.tds.com. Senior NeXT Net Info/Network Engineer Candidate will possess 3-5 years experience with the NeXT environment. Working experience in leading and developing NeXT administration/network management a must. Useful skills also include a working knowledge of UNIX/Mach System Programming. Working knowledge of objective C is needed. Candidate will be a lead source for Net Info implementation questions and design interpretation. Senior NeXT Developer Candidate will possess 3-5 years experience with the NeXT Environment. Will be a leading source for NeXT developer design questions and design/development knowledge. Candidate will be well versed in Objective C and object-oriented programming, relational database design utilizing the NeXT, a working knowledge of SQL, and 2 years of business applications development in the NeXT environment. If you are the person we describe above, please mail me your resume (NeXT mail encouraged). My internet address is Dalessio@mailman.tds.com ____________________________________________________________________________ end