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Item 6680749 93/05/14 11:35
From: CONRAD_GEIGER@NEXT.COM@INET# Internet Gateway
Subject: Xanthus Ships Questor Spreadsheet for NEXTSTEP
News:
For more information, please contact:
Jesper Lundh Xanthus P.O. Box 20161 S-161 02 Bromma, Sweden Phone:+46-8-635 30
62 Fax:+46-8-98 70 67 Email:questor@xanthus.se
Xanthus International Ships Questor, the State-of-the-art Spreadsheet
Application for NEXTSTEP
Stockholm, May 14, 1993 - Xanthus International AB today started to ship
Questor, its spreadsheet application for the NEXTSTEP computing environment.
Aimed at everybody that has been waiting for a high quality matrix-based
spreadsheet application tailored for the NEXTSTEP environment, Questor offers
the ease-of-use of traditional spreadsheet applications combined with the
extra power offered by NEXTSTEP.
For example, Questor can easily retrieve data from relational databases like
Oracle and Sybase using the Database Kit in NEXTSTEP and display the data in
full color charts that can be placed in other documents and automatically
updated by the Object Linking mechanism of NEXTSTEP.
"Questor brings the power of the Database Kit to everybody," says Jesper
Lundh, marketing manager at Xanthus."Questor will increase the productivity of
anybody with a computer running NEXTSTEP on their desk."
Questor is the perfect tool for all the things traditionally done with
spreadsheet applications, like budgets, scientific calculations, creating
tables and charts for presentations etc. In addition to the basic spreadsheet
power, Questor comes with user interface objects like buttons and sliders as
well as a powerful and easy-to-use scripting language called QScript. These
tools will allow users to customize spreadsheets to perform very specific
tasks.
The open architecture of Questor, with an extremely powerful API, also lets
users control spreadsheets from other applications written in Objective-C. In
addition, Questor can control any other application with a Speaker/Listener
interface through the QScript language.
QScript is an extended version of Xanthus Common Language (XCL), a uniform
scripting language used in all Xanthus software products with scripting
capabilities. XCL gives you a uniform scripting syntax and a common set of
basic functions. In addition, XCL allows you to write external functions in
XCL or in Objective-C that can be used by any XCL-based application from
Xanthus.
Selected Questor features: - A structured scripting language - QScript with an
"intelligent" editor including automatic pretty-printing and programming
support. QScript allows you to customize your worksheet to perform very
specific tasks.
- Input controllers like buttons, text-fields and sliders can be drag-and-
dropped anywhere on a worksheet and connected to QScript code or directly to
cells by control-dragging.
- Output objects like graphs and gauges can be drag-and-dropped anywhere on a
worksheet and connected to cell areas by control-dragging for continuous
updating.
- Many graph types are supported, including bar, stacked bar, line,
combination, stock, area, stacked area, scatter (xy-plot) and pie.
- Hot-links to the business graphics application Graphity from Xanthus.
Graphity is a business graphics application from Xanthus that supports 3D
graphs.
- Seamless connections to SQL databases like Oracle and Sybase using the
Database Kit in NEXTSTEP.
- Timers that can trigger complex calculations, database queries, and any
other event at regular intervals.
- A powerful double-directed API that allows Questor to easily control and
send data to other applications. The API also makes it easy for other
applications to control Questor and to feed data into worksheets.
- A ToolBox that includes object palettes and a number of other tools that
removes the need for modal panels for filling, searching and sorting data. The
ToolBox also includes complete scripting support.
- Full support for user palettes. You can easily create new palettes with
customized graphs, graphics and control objects.
- Drawing tools that allows you to draw directly on the worksheet.
- Images and sound can be drag-and-dropped anywhere on a worksheet to create
stunning documents with graphics and sound effects.
- Reads the WKS, WK1 and SYLK file-formats, which enables you to import
worksheets from Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Improv, Microsoft Excel and Wingz.
- Writes the WK1 file-format, which enables you to export worksheets to Lotus
1-2-3, Lotus Improv, Microsoft Excel and Wingz.
- Full support for Lotus 1-2-3 bracket macros.
- Multi-level undo. All commands can be undone and the number of undos are
user defined.
- Powerful report layout functions that gives you total control over the
layout of your document, including direct manipulation and drawing tools.
- Full support for object linking. Graphs, cell areas and graphics can be
copied and linked into other documents for continuous updating.
Questor is not a port from another computing environment and has a true, well
designed NEXTSTEP user interface.
Questor is available now for NEXTSTEP (NeXT and Intel) through selected
resellers worldwide.
Xanthus International, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, is a privately
owned software development company that specializes in the NEXTSTEP platform.
Questor is the fourth in a series of general-purpose productivity tools for
NEXTSTEP. In May 1992, Xanthus started to ship its first product CraftMan, the
multimedia programming tool for the NEXTSTEP. The second product was LaserMan,
a tool for controlling Laser Disc Players and other devices from a NEXTSTEP
computer. The third product was SplitBuilder/Receiver, a tool for sending
large files via NeXTmail. LaserMan and SplitBuilder/Receiver started to ship
in September 1992. Xanthus International was founded in 1990.
NeXT and NEXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT Computer Inc.
=END=