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Excel 3.0 and E/NS 1.3 + the latest gossip
For Christian,
You *must* have 3.0a or greater. Vanilla 3.0 (i.e. no "a") does not
have the system calls that tell the 040 to flush the cache at
appropriate times. Hence it doesn't run on Quadras with the cache
on, nor does it run on '040 based NeXTs. Presumably it would run on
an '030 based NeXT. There's always a chance that the german version
is sufficiently different that it will have problems even when
current, but the non-"a" version of Excel 3 just won't work.
For people waiting for Executor 1.3,
We have sent copies to everyone in our registration database. If you
are in the US and haven't gotten a copy yet, we probably don't have a
current address for you. If you are outside the US, there still may
be some copies of 1.3 en route.
When we first started selling Executor, we did not include
registration forms, because all copies were sold by us, so we just
plugged people into the database as we sold copies. We changed that
when we started selling through dealers and other intermediaries (our
original way of doing things didn't work well with purchasing
departments).
I checked and couldn't find a registration entry for Jack Hodges,
although I know he is a legitimate Executor owner and I could a copy
of the invoice that Executor was sold under. His copy was sold right
when we were making the changeover, so someone over here probably
screwed up. I've entered Jack's information into our registration
forms database and a copy of the 1.3 update will now be sent to him.
If you should have received a 1.3 update, but have not, please
contact us. "questions@ardi.com" is the best e-mail address for
that.
For everyone,
Executor has been torn apart and reassembled since E/NS 1.3 was
produced. We have changed the memory layout so that E/NS,
Executor/DOS and Executor/X-Windows/Alpha are more alike than before.
That doesn't directly affect how Executor works, but it did mean that
there weren't any new experimental Executor releases for a while.
We're in the process of testing the new configuration and adding ADB
support, getting rid of the read-only attribute for SCSI hard disks
(and powerbooks), and fixing serial port access. E/NS 1.3a should
have those mods, but I can't predict when it'll be out.
Beyond that we want to spruce up accelerated graphics and introduce a
sequence for recording events so that all the forms of Executor can
self-test themselves on hundreds of programs automatically. This
feature should also greatly help with the reporting of repeatable
bugs, even ones that take relatively complex sets of typing/mousing
to hit the bug. Regressive testing is long overdue.
We're also trying to figure out the best way to make our known-bugs
database available to users. So far, the folks that run
ftp.cs.unm.edu don't mind us using their machine, so we'll probably
put something out there. We want to put enough information out there
that will allow you to see bugs being tracked, but not dump a lot of
noise there. It is also important that whatever we send out there be
sent automatically so it stays timely.
After the ADB, SCSI, serial port and accelerated graphics mods have
been made, tested and released as an experimental version, we will
re-evaluate E/NS's price and our distribution scheme. It's been
almost a year since NeXT stopped making hardware. The transition has
been very hard on many NeXT ISV's, and exceedingly hard on us. We've
weathered the storm and are pleased to be growing, once more.
Executor/DOS is starting to get good press. On Monday of this week a
review of E/D was in the Miami Herald. I'm told it was favorable,
but I didn't see it. Today E/D was demoed on a TV news program in
Dallas.
Executor/DOS is gaining ARDI attention with OEMs. It's public
knowledge that DEC has lent us an Alpha so we can develope
E/XW/Alpha. Without mentioning names, two large chip manufacturers
are interested in ARDI technology for a variety of projects, and a
major PC clone manufacturer would like to bundle a spruced up copy of
E/D 1.0 with their machines. All three of those deals are moving
forward, albeit slowly because of the holidays.
If you have a DEC Alpha running OSF/1 and would like to be an
E/XW/Alpha beta tester, let me know.
Happy Holidays,
--Cliff