Nebula/nebula.bin/Newsletters/NeXTNuggetNewsDigest/vol.04.18.txt

Text File | 1993-01-27 | 19KB | 487 lines

NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 4, issue 18, September 15, 1992)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

      I.  HOT SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES SERIAL PORT KIT
     II.  NeXTSTEP Article in InfoWorld
    III.  NeXTSTEP Review in DBMS Magazine
     IV.  Announcing the release of Stuart2.4
      V.  Trirex has openings for 2 Senior Programmer/Analysts
     VI.  Relief Consulting Announces 3D Modelling and Animation
    VII.  NeXT Systems Engineer openings in Boston and Philadelphia
   VIII.  Sybase NeXT Developers Wanted in New York City
     IX.  NeXT Programmer Analyst Wanted in Chicago

____________________________________________________________________

This is vol. 4, issue 18 of the 1992 NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST - a
collection of items of interest for the NeXT User Group members.
There are more than 379 NeXT User Groups in 38 countries on all
continents around the world.

To submit articles or announcements to appear in the Nugget
Digest, please send your contributions to the following address:

    [e-mail].


Conrad Geiger
Manager, International NeXT User Groups


____________________________________________________________________

I.  HOT SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES SERIAL PORT KIT;

Serial Port Control Objects Complement Hot Software's Bar Code
Products

July 21, 1992

SAN FRANCISCO - Hot Software today introduced a comprehensive object
library for controlling serial devices in  custom applications for
NeXTSTEP computers.  The SerialPortKit is designed to help
organizations and developers control a variety of serial devices such
as label printers, bar code readers, magnetic stripe card readers,
modems and data acquisition devices.


SerialPortKit allows both organizations and developers to quickly add
support for controlling a serial device to a custom NeXTSTEP
application.  The kit contains a generic serial port object as well
as objects for controlling specific serial port devices.

SerialPortKit joins Hot Software's recently introduced BarCodeKit, a
comprehensive object library for adding PostScript and TIFF bar codes
to custom NeXTSTEP applications.  BarCodeKit contains every major bar
code type in use today, making it the most complete bar coding
package available on any computer platform.

Object Kits Work With Hot Software's Peripherals

Objects in both the SerialPortKit and BarCodeKit communicate with Hot
Software's BarCodeBox, a hardware interface that allows users to
connect bar code wands, scanners and card readers to their NeXTSTEP
computer for fast, accurate and secure data entry.


The BarCodeBox interface comes bundled with Wand-a-Bar, an
application to configure and drive bar code readers. Wand-a-Bar
allows customers to enter bar coded data directly into a Lotus Improv
spreadsheet or any NeXTSTEP application.  BarCodeBox also comes with
Bar-a-Coda, an easy-to-use application for creating bar codes for use
in documents.  Bar-a-Coda is ideal for adding ZIP codes on envelopes,
UPC symbols on products, ISDN numbers on books and labeling any other
printed materials.

Another object in the SerialPortKit connects to Hot Software's AM-ID,
which is an Automatic Magnetic Identification Device for reading
magnetic stripe cards.  AM-ID is an external insertion type card
reader that is great for customer account identification, adding
security to NeXTSTEP applications and for self-service credit card
billing for desktop publishing service bureaus.

Availability and Pricing

The Hot Software SerialPortKit is scheduled for release in the fourth
quarter of this year, and BarCodeKit is scheduled for release in the
third quarter.  Both object kits will be available directly from Hot
Software.  Beta versions of the object kits are available now to
customers who purchase Hot Software's BarCodeBox or AM-ID magnetic
stripe card reader.  When SerialPortKit and BarCodeKit begin shipping
in volume, Hot Software will offer free upgrades to customers who
have purchased beta versions.


Hot Software develops, markets and supports component software and
hardware that allows customers to construct automated solutions for
increased productivity.  Hot Software is headquartered at 75
Cambridge Parkway, Suite E-504, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142-1238.
Call Hot Software at + 1 617 252 0088 for further information or for
a copy of the company's brochures.



Hot Software, SerialPortKit, Wand-a-Bar, AM-ID and BarCodeBox are
trademarks of Hot Software.  NeXT and NeXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT
Computer, Inc.  Improv is a registered trademark of Lotus Development
Corporation.


____________________________________________________________________

II. NeXTSTEP Article in InfoWorld

Below are some excerpts from a very positive article on NeXTSTEP in
the August 24th edition of InfoWorld, which profiles the work being
done at WilTel and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

InfoWorld, 8/24//92   --  Enterprise Computing Section
"Corporate Developers Finding Simplicity in Objects"

"Object-oriented systems hold the promise of streamlining development
cycles while still allowing developers to create sophisticated
applications...A recent IDC survey of 1,600 IS managers indicates
that nearly half of them are moving to object-oriented systems...NeXT
Computer is one of a handful of companies selling an object-oriented
programming environment.  Users range from investment banks and stock
traders to telecommunications system designers and law enforcement
agencies."

"'Programmers felt NeXTSTEP was the only viable choice,' says Vince
Jordan, WilTel's director of software development.  'What we're
building here is a step above anything I've seen on the
market.'...The benefits of object technology far outweighed
procedural programming -- especially in the amount of time it takes
to build and test the application, Jordan says.  'Others who have
built similar systems told me I'm doing in two years what would
otherwise take four to eight years,' he says.


"NeXTSTEP takes some of the drudgery out of programming by providing
tools that shield the designer from the complexities of the
underlying system...'I can sit down with a user and in 30 seconds
build a screen full of information based on data retrieved from an
existing database on the network.  Normally this would take two weeks
of procedural programming,' Jordan says."

"'Applications are not only getting done faster, but they're getting
done better.  Developers can move to a prototype quickly,' says Neal
Hill, an analyst with Dataquest."

"'When companies write new programs, they want them to work with the
existing programs' says Phil Towne, of Boss Logic.  "If they upgrade
their machines, they want the software to be easy to upgrade.  For an
MIS department to do this is like walking in cement.  You can't make
changes without knowing if it will screw up the code.  With objects,
you can't screw up the code.'"

____________________________________________________________________

III. NeXTSTEP Review in DBMS Magazine

DBMS magazine has an 8-page review of NeXTSTEP and DBKit in the
September 1992 issue.  The review was very positive, discussing each
feature of NeXTSTEP, as well as taking a step-by-step look at how to
build a client/server database application with DBKit.  You may
notice that the author is one of our object developers.   Below are
some excerpts from this review.

DBMS, September 1992
"NeXT's Tools for Database Developers"
By Gary Lang

"The still-evolving NeXT software expected to hit the market this
fall targets the "custom app" market for the newest object-oriented
tools.  Anticipated users are those who build in-house applications,
typically on workstations such as Suns or Hewlett-Packard systems.
NeXT shines in this area P neither Sun nor HP has object-oriented
application development tools as integrated with the entire system as
those introduced by NeXT."

"The benefits of object-oriented programming are by now a familiar
litany:  encapsulation, reuse, architectural cleanliness, and so
forth -- all motherhood-and -apple-pie concepts for most software
managers and developers.  They have been a cornerstone of NeXT from
its debut -- that the company has integrated object-oriented concepts
into the operating system itself shows that NeXT has taken them more
seriously than many vendors."


Comparing NeXTSTEP to Other Database Technology

"...the NeXT environment has the integrating quality common to most
graphical user interfaces, so the types of features found in the
dBASE Command Center are provided by the file manager in NeXTSTEP and
the multitasking nature of UNIX.  For example, the dBASE screen
builder is a simple editor that is used to build database forms on a
character-based display.  There isn't really any internal notion of
screen 'objects', but users can lay down common screen elements such
as text fields, boxes, and lines.  NeXT's Interface Builder provides
the tools to lay down not only standard AppKit objects such as panels
(which are frequently used for forms in a database application) and
text fields, but also buttons, scrolling text fields (with mixed
typefaces and sizes), check boxes, and sliders.  Also...you can add
custom interface objects to the palette."

"Part of dBASE IV's suite of application-building tools is the
application generator, which lets you create application objects and
link them with menus, windows, and other functions...A key difference
between this older product and the newer technology embodied in
NeXTSTEP is that in NeXTSTEP you create real, live objects that
already know how to allocate, position, draw and interconnect
themselves.  No code is generated except that needed to define the
object's classes in the application.  The benefit is that you only
need to manage the code you write to enhance the behavior of the
objects; the rest is provided by NeXTSTEP.  Because these objects are
shared by the entire system, you and your users benefit from an
enormous amount of integration between your custom application and a
shrink-wrapped product."

"NeXT acknowledges from the start that its system was not for
everybody.   NeXTSTEP and DBKit's strength is not heavy duty,
downsized product operations such as payroll check production, where
performance is paramount.  Rather, their advantages are in user-
interactive applications and in building applications that may change
 frequently.  NeXT's new capabilities for database connectivity,
coupled with the robust functions of true object-oriented
applications development, will be valuable assets for database
application developers."


____________________________________________________________________

IV.  Announcing the release of Stuart2.4

Stuart is the mildly popular shareware NeXTSTEP DEC VT100 terminal
emulator.  Stuart has just been released to the ftp archive site
sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and currently resides in the directory
pub/next/2.0-release/demos.  Don't let the "demos" part fool you,
though - it's a fully enabled version (it's in demos because that's
where commercial software goes).

Stuart2.4 has a large number of improvements over Stuart2.3 and
Terminal[23], too many to list here - see the Features section of
the online manual for a list of them.  A short list is in order,
though:

 o  Online manual with easy navigation and searching.

 o  Custom window titlebars can be dynamically set from the shell
    using xterm-style OSC sequences, or from the user interface.

 o  Improved file drag&drop support.

 o  Per-window shelves for easy access to files and directories.

 o  Revised Preferences and New/Preferences panels, along with a
    Runtime inspector panel.

 o  Meta-key support for non-QWERTY keymaps.

 o  Quite a number of bug fixes (see the Fixes.rtf file in the
    distribution).

And the list could continue.  Rather than accost you with pages of
advertising hype, I'll let you download it and decide for yourself.
If you spend more than a couple minutes a day at a shell prompt,
it should be well worth your time.

If you are unable to ftp, please drop me a note and I will attempt
to get the distribution to you via email.  Either NeXTMail or
uuencoded tar.Z is fine by me - whatever is best for you.  Note
that the distribution is around 300k, in case that'll make a
difference with your email paths.

Scott Hess
12901 Upton Avenue South, #326
Burnsville, MN  55337
[phone]
[e-mail]    or    [e-mail]


____________________________________________________________________

V.  Trirex has openings for 2 Senior Programmer/Analysts

Trirex Systems, Inc., a leading consulting and software development
company has an immediate opening for 2 Senior Programmer/Analysts on
the  NeXT platform to work on the development of Executive
Information Systems.  Experience  with developing applications using
NeXTSTEP and Sybase is a  must. Any exposure to DBKit is a plus. Both
contract and full time  applicants will be considered. Positions are
located in Seattle, WA and Westport,CT.

If you are interested please contact:

Sonjoy Jethmalani or Kimberly Morris
203 221 4605         212 856 9843

Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Trirex Systems Inc.
315 Post Road West
Westport, CT 06880




____________________________________________________________________

VI.  Relief Consulting Announces 3D Modelling and Animation for NeXT

VERSATILE DEVELOPMENT
10121 Portland Avenue East
Tacoma, Wa  98445-3953

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Monte Grubb
[phone]  or  via NeXTmail at [e-mail]

RELIEF CONSULTING AND DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCES THREE DIMENSIONAL
MODELING AND ANIMATION SOFTWARE FOR NeXT COMPUTERS

    SEATTLE, Wa.,  September 1, 1992 - Relief Consulting and
Development today introduced Tesseract, a three dimensional modeling
package for NeXT computers.  Tesseract takes full advantage of the
newly incorporated RenderMan objects to provide an interactive three
dimensional modeling and animation environment.

    A full set of drag and drop quadratic shapes, light sources
and euclidean solids are implemented with possibilities of an
"expandable object palette(s)".  In addition, complex spline outlines
can be extruded or rotated into shapes that can be used in
conjunction with any shader.

    This software package also incorporates constructive solid
geometry and parametrized shapes which allow partial or truncated
sections of shapes to be grouped to form unique shapes and objects.
These new objects can then be saved and added to the users
"expandable object palette".  Full cut, copy and paste features are
also supported between multiple scenes.  The development of custom
surface, light  and displacement shaders are in progress but will not
be announced at this time.

    "We expect to be one of the leaders in three dimensional
modeling and animation software on the NeXT" said John Feiler,
president of Relief Consulting and Development.  John was the sole
author of the NeXT front-end to the highly acclaimed mathematical
program, Maple V.  Relief Consulting is located in Seattle,
Washington.


Price and Availability

    Tesseract (v0.9) is expected to ship October 1,1992.  A
one-time introductory price will be offered at $XXX, which includes a
free upgrade to Tesseract(v1.0) due out in late December.  List price
is expected to be around $XXX with site licenses available.  An
educational price of $XX is offered, but only by electronic
distribution.

Note: A slightly disabled demo version will be available from the
archives.  Demo mode will allow a one time photorealistic rendering
of a scene with a maximum of 15 shapes.  Simple animation will not be
disabled.


If you have any questions about anything listed in this message,
please contact me at [phone].

Sincerely,

Monte W. Grubb
Versatile Development


Trademark Information

NeXT, the NeXT logo, NeXTSTEP, NeXT Computers, NeXTstation, NeXTcube,
NeXTdimension, NeXTmail, Interface Builder, and Workspace Manager are
trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.


____________________________________________________________________

VII. NeXT Systems Engineer openings in Boston and Philadelphia

JOB SUMMARY:
Provide Pre-sales technical support to the NeXT Sales Organization.

PRINCIPAL REQUIREMENTS:
Support Sales Representatives on sales calls.  Prepare and give
presentations that show NeXT features and benefits.  Team with the
Sales Representative to qualify opportunities and establish account
plans and strategies.

Resolve pre-sales technical questions by understanding, analyzing and
researching problems. Analyze customer requirements and propose best
possible NeXT solution.  Deliver custom software development
demonstrations.  Develop prototype systems and benchmarks.
Administrate UNIX evaluation systems in a heterogeneous environment
and deliver informal training to technical evaluators.

EDUCATION / EXPERIENCE:
B.S. Computer Science or Electrical Engineering.  M.S. preferred.
Five or more years experience in system development.  Experience in a
sales environment highly desirable.

Intimate knowledge of the Unix Operating system from a development,
administrative and systems programming perspective is mandatory.
Prior NeXT experience desirable but NOT necessary.

Please send your resume to...

    Mike Owens
    NeXT Computer, Inc.
    150 Clove Road
    Little Falls, NJ 07424
    Fax: [phone]
    Email address: [e-mail]




____________________________________________________________________

VIII.  Sybase NeXT Developers Wanted in New York City

Immediate Contracts: NeXT Developers

    - 1 yr. work experience
    - 3 month to 1 yr. assignments
    - NY Metro Area

Background needed:

    - S/P/A, NeXT, Business Application exp a+
    - S/P/A, NeXT, Transaction Processing exp
    - Sybase is a plus, 70% Prog 30% Analysis

Contact Debbie Ostrow at 908-321-8600 or 908-494-3331
-or-
FAX resumes to 908-321-8600
Email: [e-mail]



____________________________________________________________________

IX.  NeXT Programmer Analyst Wanted in Chicago

Title:                    Programmer/Analyst

Area:                     Chicago

Company:                  Consulting

Requirements:             NeXT Computer, Strong C

Education:                Degree strongly preferred

Experience:               1 yr Commercial on NEXT
                          3 yrs total preferred

Salary:                   40K-50K


*********************************************************************


To Apply:          FAX resume to Tom Gugger - [phone]
                    or
                   MAIL resume to Tom Gugger
                                  Eagle Group
                                  P.O. Box 8167
                                  Sylvania, OH 43560

                     or CALL Tom Gugger - [phone]


____________________________________________________________________
end