WhiteLight Systems announces release of CrashCatcher 1.0
Debugging utility e-mails comprehensive report when production
software crashes in the end-user's hands.
Introductory offer is valid through January 15, 1993.

PALO ALTO, CA, December 10, 1993 --- WhiteLight Systems, Inc. today
announced the release of CrashCatcher 1.0, a non-intrusive runtime
utility for Objective-C debugging. CrashCatcher not only generates
comprehensive reports on crashes and non-fatal exceptions for
software under development. It continues to watch for errors in
beta-test and production software. When an error occurs, CrashCatcher
automatically sends a comprehensive report to the user's console
or to an e-mail address specified by the system administrator.

Developers using CrashCatcher save most of the time and aggravation
they now incur diagnosing crashes and other error conditions, such
as Objective-C runtime errors, memory access exceptions, messages
sent to freed objects, uncaught NXExceptions, bus errors, segmentation
violations, floating point exceptions, IOT signals, EMT signals,
trace trap signals, and bad arguments to system calls. CrashCatcher
provides debugging information that is impractical to obtain with
gdb. It also generates information that is simply not available,
for example because of the lost frame bug in gdb.

CrashCatcher is especially valuable in debugging errors in software
that is in the hands of end-users. End-users often cannot reproduce
or describe the specific events leading up to the error, or they
cannot send the developer the problematic data because of its
confidentiality. Because of these reasons, end-users currently
report only a small fraction of the software errors they experience,
a serious problem for developers committed to shipping high-quality
products. CrashCatcher helps developers create a closed loop quality
cycle with their end-users.

CrashCatcher accelerates software development by reducing the time
required to diagnose crashes and exception conditions. It also saves
time by reducing the number of problems caused by a specific bug
before it is diagnosed. In addition, it makes development more
predictable by reducing the variability introduced by bug-fixing.
It makes alpha and beta testing faster and more productive. Further,
marketing programs and deployment can be committed in advance with
more confidence.

"Bug-fixing is the most troublesome part of software development.
Beta-testing can be an exercise in frustration. Users often give
up trying to communicate the errors they find to the developers.
CrashCatcher closes the quality loop between developers and end-users,"
said Norman Goldfarb, WhiteLight Systems CEO.

Based on industry statistics, the typical full-time Objective C
developer experiences one crash per ten lines of finished code, at
the rate of six to ten crashes per day. CrashCatcher users save,
on average, at least one hour per day. At a cost per developer of
$75,000 per year ($42 per hour), including overhead charges,
CrashCatcher pays for itself in under a month. This analysis makes
the worst-case assumption that better crash reports do not help
reduce the number of crashes. It also does not value the advantages
of bringing higher quality products to market faster and more
reliably.

CrashCatcher runs on version 3.x of NeXT, Inc.'s NEXTSTEP operating
environment for Intel and Motorola processors. It is available in
object code only.

CrashCatcher is available through January 15, 1994 for an introductory
price of $749 per developer seat. Licenses purchased during the
introductory period receive accelerated volume discounts and incur
no run-time fees. Pricing is also reduced for academic faculty,
students and certain software companies without a shipping product.
CrashCatcher comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. An optional
support and maintenance program provides free upgrades, extensions
to future NeXT platforms, and hot-line support, for a fee of 15%
per year.

The CrashCatcher Evaluation Kit is available from WhiteLight Systems
at the above address. It includes a demonstration application (full
of insidious bugs), a fully-functional library set to expire January
15, 1994, and full documentation. The Evaluation Kit is available
through e-mail at no charge or by mail for $19.95 prepaid.

WhiteLight Systems, Inc. is a privately-held software company
headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

For more information, contact Marina Dellaporta at Whitelight
Systems, Inc., 350 Cambridge Ave., Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA 94306
USA, Email: info@whitelight.com, Tel: (415) 321-2183

Copyright 1993 WhiteLight Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. The
WhiteLight logo and CrashCatcher are trademarks of WhiteLight
Systems, Inc. NeXT and NEXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT, Inc.