Nebula/nebula.bin/Newsletters/NeXTNuggetNewsDigest/vol.06.03.txt

Internet Message Format | 1993-08-07 | 20KB

Date: Tue, 9 Feb 93 10:03:58 -0800
From: Conrad_Geiger
To: [e-mail]
Subject: v6.3 - NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 6, issue 3, February, 1993

NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 6, issue 3, February, 1993)


             ***  TABLE OF CONTENTS  ***


NeXTSTEP DEVELOPER SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCEMENTS (Fall 1992/January)
 =>    5. Hot Technologies Announces Bar Code Products for NeXT
 =>    6. Bar Code Reader from Silicon Valley Bus Company
 =>    7. Announcing FrontDesk, the Network Message Center
 =>    8. Announces Simpla, a DBKit Adaptor and Management Tool
 =>    9. Micro Decisionware to Provide Database Gateway NeXT
                Applications

All previous 47 Nugget News Digest issues from 1992 are archived at
the Purdue ftp archive site: sonata.cc.purdue.edu under...

In NeXTMailbox format:
      /pub/next/submissions/Nugget_News_Digest_Oct_1992.tar.Z
      /pub/next/submissions/Nugget_News_Digest_Nov_1992.tar.Z
      /pub/next/submissions/Nugget_News_Digest_Dec_1992.tar.Z
      /pub/next/submissions/Nugget_News_Digest_Jan_1993.tar.Z
      etc.

and in text (ascii) format.

Past issues (early 1992 and 1991) also appear in
/pub/next/Newsletters/Nugget on Sonata.


Conrad Geiger
Manager, International NeXT User Group Program (over 420 groups
worldwide)

P.S. To be added or deleted from this distribution or to submit
items for the Nugget Digest, send email to "[e-mail]."



____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

NeXTSTEP DEVELOPER SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCEMENTS (Fall 1992/January)



 =>    5. Hot Technologies Announces New Bar Code Products for NeXT

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Contact:        Robert La Ferla
Telephone:      [phone] or + 1 617 252 0088
Internet:       [e-mail]


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


NEW BAR CODE PRODUCTS FOR NeXT COMPUTERS SHIPPING FROM HOT
TECHNOLOGIES
State of the Art Software Now Available


BOSTON - Hot Technologies (formerly Hot Software) has released
component bar code software for NeXTSTEP computers designed to
improve the quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of
organizations.  BarCodeKit is a comprehensive object library for
adding bar codes to custom applications and Bar-a-Coda is an
application for creating bar codes to use in documents.

        Bar Coding is Everywhere

How many bar codes do you think are within 12 feet of where you are
right now?  You may be surprised at how many you'll find and how many
different types there are.  The symbol that most people will find and
can identify is the UPC or Universal Product Code.  You'll find this
code on soda cans, food products, general merchandise and other
retail products.  But there's a lot more to bar coding than UPC.
There are over a dozen different types and hundreds of uses.

        Bar Codes for Healthcare Applications

Both BarCodeKit and Bar-a-Coda offer all the bar code symbologies
endorsed by the HIBCC (Health Industry Business Communications
Council):

Code 128, Code 39, UPC (Universal Product Code), NHRIC (National
Health Related Items Code), NDC (National Drug Code) Interleaved 2 of
5, Code 16K and Code 49.

        Bar Codes for Library Applications

ISBN (International Standard Book Numbering), ISSN (International
Standard Serial Number), and SISAC (Serials Industry Systems Advisory
Committee) / SICI (Serial Item and Contribution Identifier).

        Bar Codes for Military and Government Applications

Code 3-of-9 (Military Standard) and Code 3-of-9 Extended

        Bar Codes for Inventory Control and Document Tracking
Applications

Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, Codabar, Code 128, Code 93, MSI and Code
11

        Bar Codes for Article and Product Numbering Applications

UPC (Universal Product Code)
  Versions A and E  including two and five digit supplementals
EAN (European Article Numbering) and JAN (Japanese Article Numbering)
  Versions 8 and 13 including two and five digit supplementals


        Bar Codes for Postal and Shipping/Receiving Applications

POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique - United States Postal
Service)
  ZIP Code (Zoning Improvement Plan) and ZIP + 4
  ABC (Advanced Bar Code) with delivery point
  FIM (Facing Identification Mark)
  Parcel and Sack Label
BRM (Business Reply Mail - Canadian Postal Corporation)


BarCodeKit: A comprehensive object library for adding bar codes to
custom applications.

        BarCodeKit allows both organizations and developers to
quickly add bar coding to a custom NeXTSTEP application.  By
combining the power of object-orientation and PostScript into a
comprehensive library of bar code symbologies, BarCodeKit represents
the state of the art in bar coding technology.  Developers can
seamlessly add bar coding to an existing application in a matter of
minutes by using any of the 35 pre-tested and re-usable objects in
the BarCodeKit.  Previously, adding bar codes to an application meant
weeks or months of development effort and incompatibility with
different bar code readers and printers or it meant using costly
proprietary bar code printers.  The BarCodeKit conforms to
international bar coding standards (EAN, ANSI, MIL, etc<) and gives
developers flexibility; bar codes created using the kit can be sized
and rotated to fit a specific area on a label or document and saved
in EPS, EPSI (EPS with bitmap preview for non Display PostScript
computers), or TIFF formats.


Bar-a-Coda: An application for creating bar codes to use in
documents.

Bar-a-Coda is an easy-to-use application for creating bar
codes.  Bar codes can be dragged and dropped into documents or
accessed from any application via the NeXTSTEP Services menu.  Users
can choose from more than a dozen different bar code types including
Code 3-of-9, POSTNET and UPC.  Bar-a-Coda is great for adding ZIP
Codes on envelopes, UPC symbols on products, ISBN numbers on books
and labelling just about anything.


Product Information and Pricing

Call Hot Technologies for a copy of its Complete Bar Coding Solution
brochure and pricing information.  Consulting services are also
available.

Hot Technologies develops, markets and supports component software
and hardware that allows customers to construct automated solutions
for increased productivity.  Hot Technologies is headquartered at 75
Cambridge Parkway, Suite E-504, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142-1238
USA. Telephone: + 1 617 252 0088

Hot Technologies, BarCodeKit and Bar-a-Coda  are trademarks of Hot
Technologies.  NeXT and NeXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT Computer,
Inc.  PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems
Incorporated. ZIP Code and ZIP + 4 are registered trademarks of the
United States Postal Service.


____________________________________________________________________

 =>   6. Bar Code Reader from Silicon Valley Bus Company

The BC-91 is a bar code reader from Silicon Valley Bus Company.  It
plugs into the ADB bus and emulates the NeXT keyboard - when you scan
a bar code, the BC-91 sends an ASCII string on the ADB bus as if it
had been typed at the keyboard.  Normal mouse and keyboard operations
are not affected.  The BC-91 is a stock item designed for the
Macintosh, but it "just works" on the NeXT -- no special software is
required.

The BC-91 comes equipped with an industrial grade wand scanner.  For
more information, please call

        Mr. Avery Dee
        Silicon Valley Bus Company
        408 353-6600
        408 353-1107 (FAX)
        [e-mail]




____________________________________________________________________

 =>    7. Integrity Solutions Announces FrontDesk, the Network
          Message Center

St. Paul, Mn. - Dec.15, 1992 - Integrity Solutions announces the
release of FrontDesk, a workgroup productivity tool. FrontDesk merges
 "While You Were Out" telephone message notes and a traditional
"In/Out" board with the powerful network capabilities of NeXTSTEP.
Designed for a networked workgroup, FrontDesk provides a cost
effective solution to keeping track of telephone messages and
availability of office staff. Non-NeXT users on a heterogeneous
network can also reap the benefits of FrontDesk telephone message
management and availability tracking.

Some of the FrontDesk features include;

 - Client/Server Architecture
 - Integrated In/Out Board and "While You Were Out" Messaging System
 - Optional NeXTMail or ASCII email Message Delivery
 - Hot Keys for Status Updates
 - Operates over SLIP Connections
 - Full RTF Support in all Message and Comment Fields
 - Urgent Messages are Color-coded (User selectable)
 - Type-ahead Selection
 - Message Printing
 - On-Line Help
 - User Defined Personal Profiles
 - Date and Time Stamps for Messages
 - Support for NeXTmail Pictures
 - Icon Animation Alerts for Unread Messages
 - Message Archiving
 - Message Forwarding
 - Secure Mode for Message Privacy
 - Ability to Add Guest Users
 - Heterogeneous Network Support
 - API for Third Party Development


"Before FrontDesk and our network of NeXT computers, we would have to
make a special point of going up the the receptionist  2-4 times a
day to make sure we had all of our current messages,"  said Dr. John
Andrews of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State
University in Ames, Iowa. "Many of our messages would be a few hours
old when we retrieved them," he continued, "FrontDesk has been a
blessing, now we know immediately when a call is received."

A fully functional version of the application which allows two people
to use all of the features of FrontDesk is offered to anyone who has
NeXTMail capability.  The same version will be posted to the Internet
archive sites. This is the full release version of FrontDesk and more
users can be added by simply buying  licenses from local resellers or
Integrity Solutions.

Contact Integrity Solutions for pricing information. There is a
discount schedule for quantity and site licenses.

Integrity Solutions encourages the reseller channel with a generous
discount program for qualified resellers.

For more information on FrontDesk, the FrontDesk Reseller Agreement
or a copy of FrontDesk, contact;

Rodger McBride,
FrontDesk Product Manager
Integrity Solutions
32 Empire Dr.
St. Paul, MN 55103
Telephone: [phone]
NeXTMail: [e-mail]

Integrity Solutions is a custom application developer  located in St.
Paul, Minnesota.  They provide custom software solutions specializing
in Workflow, Database and Executive Information Systems for clients
in the Legal, Law Enforcement, Medical and Corporate environments.
FrontDesk is their first product in a suite of Networked Office
Productivity Solutions.

NeXTand NeXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.



____________________________________________________________________

 =>    8. Sonrisa Software announces Simpla, a Database Kit Adaptor
          and Data Management Tool

Contact:

        Elizabeth Brown
        Sonrisa Software, Inc.
        26500 W. Agoura Road, Suite 203
        Calabasas, CA 91302
        [phone]  Fax[phone]
        [e-mail]


Sonrisa Software announces Simpla, a Database Kit Adaptor and Data
Management Tool for Text and other "Flat" Files

Calabasas, California - December 15, 1992 - Sonrisa Software, Inc.,
announces the availability of Simpla, a low cost, data management
system, based upon the NeXT Database Kit, that provides convenient
relational access to data stored in ordinary "flat" files.

NeXT's Database Kit lets you quickly create custom applications given
sources of data in relational database systems.  Sonrisa's Simpla
adaptor lets you quickly and inexpensively create and access such
sources of data stored in ordinary text and data files ("flat" files)
that are organized relationally. "Relationally organized" means that
the data is held within these files in tables, columns and rows -
just as in relational databases.  The data files can be ordinary text
files that can be accessed by any text editor as well as by the host
of UNIX text processing utilities and tools.

Simpla is specifically designed for developers, sales engineers,
system administrators, and sophisticated end users who want an easy
and quick way to set up small databases for personal or small group
use.  Simpla is well suited for quickly developing demonstrations of
DBKit applications that will eventually interface with other
relational databases as it lets you tailor the data easily using your
favorite text editor, and then add a high quality NeXT user interface
using the Interface Builder and the Database Kit.  For developers new
to DBKit, Simpla is an excellent educational tool for learning more
about it.

A Simpla table consists of a sequence of records.  A record can be a
line of text (tab or comma delimited), or a fixed-length sequence of
bytes, or a series of archived objects.  Or you can write your own
custom class to represent tables in virtually any form you choose.
Simpla supports arbitrarily many tables (DBEntities), each with
arbitrarily many fields (DBAttributes).

Simpla supports the standard DBKit types - integer, float, double,
string, and object.  Simpla also supports a number of special types,
including:

   - decimal     (for numeric values with fixed precision, such as
                 monetary amounts)

   - imagePath   (turns a file name in the database to an image in
                 the DBKit)

   - lineNumber  (gives the line number for each record)

   - comment     (provides access to comment information in a record)

Simpla tables support a wide variety of formatting options, including
optional string quoting, comments, and continuation lines.

All Simpla tables are described in a single table description file
(also an ordinary text file).  The tables themselves may reside
anywhere in the filesystem.  Minimally, a table description file
entry is defined by a table name, a corresponding file name, and a
series of field names for fields in the table.  You can specify
options that further describe the type and format of the tables and
the fields within them.

Simpla handles reading and updating records from the tables, table
locking to support multi-user access, indexing, and sorting.
Applications also have the freedom to access Simpla tables directly -
they need not use the database kit.  Simpla also allows you to
implement a custom record parsing class with four methods - read,
write, read field, and write field.  Records can be read from either
an NXStream or an NXTypedStream.

Simpla has many obvious uses.  In addition to providing a simple
relational database, if you are a NeXTSTEP developer responsible for
designing, prototyping, or demonstrating a NeXTSTEP DBKit application
that will eventually use another relational database, Simpla allows
you to quickly and easily construct a substitute version of the
relational database. Simpla can also be used to access existing data
stored in text files, or to set up local information  you might not
otherwise be able to access as a relational file.  One can envision
numerous other uses for these simple, efficient data management
tools.

Simpla will be available in January 1993.   Sonrisa can also provide
consulting services for those who require more sophisticated custom
database support.

For more information, contact

Sonrisa Software, Inc.
26500 W. Agoura Road, Suite 203
Calabasas, CA 91302
[phone]  Fax[phone]


____________________________________________________________________

 =>    9. Micro Decisionware to Provide Database Gateway NeXT
          Applications

For more information contact:

Micro Decisionware
Michelle Davis
[phone]

The Tierney Group
Bruce Rosner
[phone]

For Immediate Release

Micro Decisionware Announces Agreement with NeXT Computer, Inc. to
Certify NeXT Desktop Applications with the Database Gateway Product
Line

Boulder, CO - December 9, 1992 - Micro Decisionware, Inc. (MDI)
today announced an agreement with NeXT Computer, Inc. of Redwood
City, CA to provide connectivity between NeXTSTEP, NeXT Computer's
object-oriented system software environment, and the MDI Database
Gateway product line.  The agreement also provides for the
certification of Database Kit (DBKit), a NeXTSTEP Release 3 desktop
tool, to access DB2 and other host databases through the MDI
Database Gateway.

MDI Database Gateway Extends NeXT Applications Data Access
This partnership will allow customers using NeXTSTEP to extend data
access to DB2, SQL/DS, and non-relational host data.  NeXTSTEP runs
under MACH, a UNIX-compatible operating system, and offers a flexible
solution for connecting to networks.  NeXT workstations have a high
degree of connectivity to multiple platforms, now extended by the MDI
Database Gateway products.

"This agreement with MDI is strategic for NeXT because it further
expands the range of database options available to NeXTSTEP
developers and users," said Brett Bachman, NeXT's director of
NeXTSTEP product marketing.  "One of the great strengths of NeXTSTEP
Release 3 is DBKit, an object-oriented tool kit that permits NeXT
client workstations to gain easy access to relational databases from
any vendor simply by providing an adaptor to the database.  The MDI
Database Gateway provides just such an adaptor to DB2 and the right
variety of data on IBM mainframe databases."

Currently, the NeXT workstations can access the Database Gateway on
OS/2 using the Microsoft SQL Bridge.  Native TCP/IP connectivity
will be accomplished with the release of the MDI Database Gateway for
the UNIX platform.

Agreement Strengthens MDI's Commitment to Open Architectures
This agreement reaffirms MDI's support of open enterprise
connectivity solutions by integrating robust workstation applications
with mainframe data.  The MDI Database Gateway family of products
allows front-end applications transparent access to both relational
and non-relational mainframe data.  MDI Database Gateways incorporate
unique functionality by permitting bi-directional transfer of data
between mainframe data sources and LAN-based data sources.  In
addition, the Database Gateway provides Data Compression; Connection
Manager, which provides load balancing between multiple gateways; and
Client Services Applications, which allow mainframe programs to
initiate actions with the Database Gateway or Microsoft SQL Server.

Front-end Tool Certification Program Ensures Transparency
The MDI and NeXT partnership is part of MDI's ISV (Independent
Software Vendor) front-end tool certification program.  MDI
established this program to ensure complete and transparent access to
data sources from a variety of both transaction processing and
decision support tools.  MDI has built close relationships with the
industry-leading suppliers of data access solutions to provide
functionality with the Database Gateway products.  The certification
agreement between MDI and NeXT Computer further strengthens MDI's
position as the industry-leading supplier of database connectivity
solutions.


Company Background

Micro Decisionware, Inc., based in Boulder, Colorado, is an
international supplier of open architected, multi-platform database
access tools.  The company has established itself as a leader in the
fields of cooperative processing and client-server computing.  Micro
Decisionware's products are widely deployed in large organizations to
implement solutions which incorporate the power of both the mainframe
and the PC.  Micro Decisionware is dedicated to providing cooperative
processing and data access solutions that integrate end-user
computing with departmental and enterprise systems.  Micro
Decisionware is a partnership company of Safeguard Scientifics,
Wayne, PA.

____________________________________________________________________
continued in issue 6.4