FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Don Yacktman (801)221-0344 Don_Yacktman@byu.edu ANNOUNCING THE RELEASE OF THE MISCKIT VERSION 1.2.8 Update to Kit of Free Objective-C Objects Is Now Available PROVO, UT, Oct 31, 1994 -- A new maintenance release of the MiscKit has just been publically released. It contains many new objects and fixes all of the problems reported since the previous release. The MiscKit may be obtained via ftp to any of the following sites: ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/pub/next/classes/objects/MiscKit1.2.8.s.gnutar.gz ftp://ftp.et.byu.edu/pub/next/misckit/MiscKit1.2.8.s.gnutar.gz ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/pub/comp/platforms/next/Developer/objc/misc kit/MiscKit1.2.8.s.gnutar.gz There is also an accompanying binary package which is built for Intel and Motorola machines, available only at: ftp://ftp.et.byu.edu/pub/next/misckit/MiscKit1.2.8.NI.b.gnutar.gz.README The byu site always has the most recent official MiscKit distribution available in /pub/next/misckit and older versions are archived in /pub/next/misckit/old. The MiscKit is an easy to install kit consisting of Objective-C objects, Interface Builder palettes, bundles, and other useful programming resources. All the resources in the MiscKit have been donated by various Internet personalities for the benefit of other NEXTSTEP programmers. Objects include data structures (string, tree, stack, queue, priority queue, linked list), interface widgets (find panel, textfield, button and slider subclasses, clock and calendar views, icon wells, progress pie/bar), macros, other useful objects (lock file, log file, time, stopwatch, serial port, colors, subprocess, remote subprocess), frameworks for building complex interfaces (MiscSwapKit, MiscInspectorKit, InfoMenuKit) and even some useful example applications...plus much more! To make the MiscKit more attractive to developers, use of the MiscKit resources is absolutely free of charge, no matter how the resources are used. Redistribution of the MiscKit is also encouraged. Many developers are reluctant to use objects which are under the GNU "Copyleft". As a result, the MiscKit has its own license which allows developers to reuse the code freely, even in commercial projects. Everything possible has been done to encourage the use of the MiscKit to speed development efforts. Any developer who has generally useful objects, palettes, or other programming resources and would like to donate them to the MiscKit effort is welcome to do so. Contact Don_Yacktman@byu.edu for information on how to prepare a MiscKit submission. By making a submission to the MiscKit, a developer can avoid the hassles of packaging up a formal distribution of their resources and in turn help add to a growing centralized pool of useful resources. Also available are several MiscKit-based mailing lists. The first list is for those who are interested in participating in the development of the MiscKit. Anyone who is interested in following the discussion should send mail to misckit-request@byu.edu to be placed on the list. Send mail to misckit@byu.edu to post messages to this list. The second MiscKit mailing list is for distributing announcements of new MiscKit releases. Anyone who would like to receive e-mail notification of new MiscKit releases should send mail to the MiscKit administrator, Don_Yacktman@byu.edu, and request to be placed on the MiscKit release list. Anyone on the development list already receives notification of new releases and should therefore not ask to be added to the release list. Two other lists are mentioned in the MiscKit's top level README.rtf file. The MiscKit has evolved from the DAYMiscKit and several objects released over the past few years by Don Yacktman and other USENET personalities. Don Yacktman Don Yacktman is a graduate student at Brigham Young University, working towards a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He acts as the MiscKit administrator in his spare time between class and various NEXTSTEP consulting projects. # # # # All trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. The MiscKit is in no way affiliated with Brigham Young University. Specific changes: V1.2.8 10/31/94 Maintenance and update release: Made more refinements to the Makefiles, fixed profile target, and fixed build/runtime problems with DragViewTest app. Added -plainTextForRTF and -(BOOL)isRTFText to MiscString. Added MiscDistributor object to MiscTee palette and created a test app to demonstrate its use. Added MiscDateView palette. Added MiscRuntimeExtensions Object category, MiscTextExtensions Text category, MiscString_ExtendedParsing MiscString category, and added to the MiscListExtensions List/Object categories. MiscSerialPort2 in Temp area. Fixes to MiscReadOnlyColorWell, MiscArrowButton, MiscMatrix, MiscDragView, MiscLock, MiscStringArray, MiscParseTable, MiscDictionary, MiscMailApp, MiscThreeStateButton, MiscString, documentation. [More details about the bug fixes and additions can be found in the MiscKit's History.rtf file.]