OS/2 Shareware BBS: 16 Announce/16-Announce.zip/pendos.zip/PENDOS.ANN

Text File | 1993-08-01 | 6KB | 114 lines

IBM ANNOUNCES NEW VERSION OF PenDOS; ADDS POWERFUL PEN
CAPABILITIES TO MOST DOS APPLICATIONS

June 30, 1993

IBM's Personal Software Products (PSP) division today announced
a new version of the PenDOS** system for pen computing.  With
this release PenDOS is now available from IBM directly to
end-users for the first time, in addition to being pre-loaded
on a variety of pen-based computers from other vendors.

PenDOS Version 2.2 brings a broad range of pen-based
capabilities, including handwriting recognition in any one of six
languages, to DOS applications.  PenDOS also allows developers to
design sophisticated pen-based applications using virtually any
popular DOS development tool, or to add pen-based capabilities to
existing DOS applications.  It is ideal for developers who desire
high performance pen computing in a low-overhead DOS environment.

Direct availability to end-users of PenDOS also makes it an
excellent upgrade option for existing owners of pen-based
computer users who wish to make use of DOS applications.

Other PenDOS capabilities include: integrated,
user-trainable handwriting recognition which can adjust to
individual handwriting styles; a pop-up handwriting window which
adds recognition capabilities to most traditional non-pen-aware
DOS application; standard and user customizable gestures; and a
pop-up keyboard.  For the first time, PenDOS now includes support
for opaque tablets, and integrates pen-based applications for
expense reporting and sending handwritten faxes.

PenDOS is multilingual, with versions that support six
popular languages: English, French, German,  Italian, Japanese
and Spanish.

"PenDOS is an excellent add-on for people who have already
purchased pen-based computers," said PSP Marketing Director Wally
Casey.  "With PenDOS, these pen computer users can take to the
road with the same DOS applications they use at their desks.  In
this way, PenDOS allows users to do much, much more with the
pen-based computers they already own.

"PenDOS also offers developers an easy way to create
pen-based applications using their existing DOS development
tools," Casey said.  "Many of these developers can even use
PenDOS to transform their existing desktop applications into
pen-based applications."

PenDOS offers one of the fastest and most accurate
handwriting recognition engines available today.  PenDOS's
handwriting recognition engine is user trainable, allowing users
to improve accuracy by tailoring the system to their unique
handwriting characteristics.  A set of handwriting gestures can
be used to control applications.  Since these gestures are a
subset of those available in IBM's Pen for OS/2* product, it is
easy for users to move between different pen-based systems.
Gestures can also be user-defined to execute menu commands or
macros in both pen-based and traditional applications.

Advanced add-on capabilities for PenDOS are available from
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).  One such module is
signature capture and verification modules that can be used to
create applications which accept a user's signature, then analyze
that signature to determine if it is authentic or a potential
forgery.  Such a module offers a high level of accuracy by
utilizing a sophisticated signature verification algorithm.

PenDOS also allows users to operate most mouse-enabled DOS
applications using the pen as a mouse.  For these applications, a
PenDOS handwriting recognition window can quickly be called up
which will accept handwriting and pass it back to the application
as traditional text.  A pop-up on-screen keyboard also allows
users to enter traditional text, numbers and commands
using the pen.  For developers, PenDOS capabilities can be
accessed from any DOS application development environment through
the PenDOS application programming interface (API).

Applications for both sending handwritten faxes and for
expense reporting ship with PenDOS.  The freehand fax application
enables users to quickly hand write and fax notes using their
pen-based computer and any Class 2-compatible fax modem.  The
expense reporting application makes it easy for users to record
and tally their expenses while traveling.

PenDOS is now available to both end-users, OEMs, ISVs and
systems integrators. Single unit end-user pricing is $89.  Volume
discounts are available for OEMs.

PenDOS has the following minimum operating requirements: an
80386SX computer running DOS 5.0 or higher; a pen sensor
(digitizer) integrated with a display or a digitizing tablet; 2MB
of RAM and 1MB of hard disk space for most versions, with 4 MB of
RAM and 1MB of hard disk space required for the Japanese version.
Support is provided for a wide range of hardware, including
select pen-based computers from IBM, NCR Corp., Samsung
Electronics and Dauphin Technology, Inc. and select external
digitizing pads from ACECAD, Kurta, CalComp, Wacom, Appoint and
FTG Data Systems.

A PenDOS developers tool kit is available to assist ISVs and
corporate MIS to develop their own PenDOS applications.  In
addition, IBM has scheduled a series of one-week workshops to
help developers both create pen-based applications and also add
pen capabilities to existing applications.  For more information
on these offerings call IBM at the following numbers: end-user
sales, [phone]; OEM sales, [phone]; and developers'
assistance [phone].

*    Indicates trademark or registered trademark of
     International Business Machines Corporation
**   Indicates registered trademark of Communications
     Intelligence Corp.