For more information contact:

Scott Parkinson
The Hutchison Avenue Software Corp.,
3481 Aylmer, Suite B,
Montreal, Qc., CANADA
H2X 2B4

tel: 514/499-2067
fax: 514/499-3666
net: scott@hasc.ca

***

WSC Investment Services and Hutchison Avenue Software announce the GnatsKit,
a freeware front end bundle for the GNU bug tracking utility.


Q:  What is the GnatsKit?

A:  The GnatsKit consists of a bundle, an application, and a library,
    with source to all.  You can use the GnatsKit in several ways: you
    can simply use the application, or if you want to include Gnats
    report-making capability into your own custom application, you
    simply link against the library and include the bundle into your
    application. You don't need to do anything else, since the objects
    in the library will automatically modify your menu to add the "Bug
    Report..." menu item. It's as simple as it gets, since you don't
    have to write a single line of code to include powerful bug-reporting
    functionality into your application!


Q:  Who owns this kit? Are there any licensing fees?

A:  This kit was developed by Hutchison Avenue Software for WSC
    Investment Services, a Wall St. financial services company. WSC is
    the copyright holder, WSC has generously decided to donate the kit
    into the public domain, but with a catch! If you enhance the kit,
    then they ask that you keep them up to date with your fixes and
    improvements.


Q:  OK, fine, but what the %$*&! is 'GNATS' ?

A:  Gnats is the GNU bug tracking utility. Installing Gnats on your system
    gives you a centralized email-accessable bug report database. The
    intent of the Gnats Kit was to provide functionality like
    BugNeXT.app, but centered around the Gnats database! Gnats has many
    features, including search by email for your clients (so they can
    find out the status of bug fixes without bothering your
    programmers), autorespond (where Gnats automatically informs the
    submitter that their bug report has been received), and others.
    Combining Gnats with the Gnats Kit gives you a world of
    functionality, for an unbeatable price.


Q:  Hey, I thought you said this was free?

A:  I did. It is. :-). You get the full source to the Gnats Kit, and
    don't have to pay a dime.


Q:  So, there's no catch involved?

A:  Well, I didn't say that! In order to compile the source, you'll need
    the HascKit, which is our reusable library of Objective C objects.
    It's pretty cool, and will be announced soon, although it's possible
    to purchase pre-release versions, and have the amount discounted from
    the price of the full release when it's ready... The HascKit has all
    the cool objects that show up in our custom and shrink-wrap apps like
    Phone.app and Invoice.app (amongst others). You still get a full
    double-fat binary for everything in the Gnats Kit though, so you don't
    have to compile anything if you don't want to.


Q:  So, when will you have a triple-fat version ready?

A:  As soon as our HP machine arrives (any day now).


Q:  Where can I pick this stuff up?

A:  You can get the full source and binaries to the GnatsKit, and preliminary
    HascKit documentation and examples (remember, the HascKit is a commercial
    product, and the GnatsKit is freeware) at:

    ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/pub/next/demos/programming/GnatsKit-1.0.gtar.gz
    ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/pub/next/demos/programming/HK-Demos-0.5-gtar.gz
    ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/pub/next/demos/programming/HK-Documentation-0.5-gtar.
gz

    ftp://sonata.cc.purdue.edu/pub/next/submissions/GnatsKit-1.0.gtar.gz
    ftp://sonata.cc.purdue.edu/pub/next/submissions/HK-Demos-0.5-gtar.gz
    ftp://sonata.cc.purdue.edu/pub/next/submissions/HK-Documentation-0.5-gtar.gz

    (Note: hasc.ca is a slow link)
    ftp://hasc.ca/pub/next/GnatsKit-1.0.gtar.gz
    ftp://hasc.ca/pub/next/HK-Demos-0.5-gtar.gz
    ftp://hasc.ca/pub/next/HK-Documentation-0.5-gtar.gz


About Hutchison Avenue Software:

Hutchison was founded three years ago by McGill University graduates to
perform NEXTSTEP software consulting and development for the financial
services marketplace, and continues to offer excellence in software
development. Hutchison's clients include Hewlett Packard, WSC Investment
Services, Telerate Systems, Inc., The American Student Loan Guarantor,
Equinox Capital Management, and Bell Canada.