Item    3452830                 93/04/02        08:39 
From:  CONRAD_GEIGER@NEXT.COM@INET#    Internet Gateway 
Subject: Athena Design Announces Mesa for
         NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors

News:

For Immediate Release

Contact: Tracy Kugelman Mesa Spreadsheet Phone: (617)734-6372 Email:
info@athena.com

Athena Design Announces Mesa for NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors

BOSTON - Athena Design has announced that on March 31, 1993 Mesa version 1.4
shipped for NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors as well as NEXTSTEP 3.0.  Mesa, the
only commercially available traditional spreadsheet designed exclusively for
NeXTSTEP, has been updated to include customer-suggested new features.  Mesa
will ship with multi-architecture binaries allowing our product to seamlessly
work in a mixed environment of NeXT machines and NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors
(NS FIP).

"The port to NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors has been simple.  Mesa is the first
commercially shipping app for use on NS FIP.  This version of Mesa continues
our commitment to bug free software that's delivered on time," said David
Pollak, President of Athena Design, Inc.

New features have been added to Mesa 1.4 which include the following:

Lotus .wk1 write 20/20 Read SYLK file read and write Linear regression and
matrix math Enhanced object library Worksheets can now be annotated with
geometric shapes and rich text


These product enhancements are added to Mesa's other features which include
full SQL connectivity to Sybase databases, MScript, 1-2-3 and Excel style
functions, and Drag and Drop colors, fonts and patterns.


Mesa includes features found in no other spreadsheet in the world:

"" Formula Inheritance - allows a formula to be entered in one place in the
worksheet and shared by many cells.  This means that worksheets are faster to
develop and easier to maintain.

"" Visual Report Builder - allows spreadsheet ranges and graphs to be placed
in professional-looking reports.

"" MOLI - Mesa Object Library Interface - allows custom programs to interface
with spreadsheets.  MOLI enhances the creative capabilities of Mesa.

"Mesa goes beyond and above the call of duty for a third party app and enables
the end user to expand upon and utilize provided functionality in ways other
NeXTSTEP apps only hint at.  All this and the most excellent support I have
ever encountered," said Vince Jordan, Vice President of Technology for the
Object Technology Group of Systemhouse.

All current users of Mesa are entitled to upgrade to 1.4 free of charge.  We
are continuing our commitment to the NeXTSTEP operating environment and will
continue to offer one year of upgrades for each unit of Mesa along with
unlimited technical support. Mesa's price remains unchanged $499 suggested
retail for the commercial package, and $99 suggested retail for educational
version.

Athena Design was founded in 1989 by David Pollak to provide a fulfilling and
enriching work environment through the creation, sales and support of high
quality, bug free software for the NeXTSTEP operating environment.  In 1991
Athena Design released CultureShock, a game played all over the world. 
CultureShock is also available for NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors and is
available free from selected archive sites.  For more information about Mesa
please contact us at 1.617.734.6372 or info@athena.com.

                                       - 30 -

NeXTSTEP  is a trademark of NeXT, Inc.  Lotus 1-2-3 is a registered trademark
of Lotus Development Corp.  Excel and SYLK are registered trademarks of
Microsoft.  20/20 is a registered trademark of Computer Associates.  Sybase is
a registered trademark of Sybase Inc.