NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 2, issue 2, March 11, 1992) Hello, This is the second issue of the 1992 NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST - a collection of items of interest for the NeXT User Group members. There are more than 270 NeXT User Groups in 33 countries around the world. If you wish to start a new NeXT user group locally or if you have a NeXT User Group but have not registered it, please send email to user_groups@next.com. conrad _____________________________________________________________________ NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST, vol. 2, issue 2, March 11, 1992 Table of Contents i. 1992 Winter AppWrapper magazine I. 3rd party developers committed to NeXTstep 486 II. At the Beep Software for your Telephone III. Jiro's Review of Engage IV. NeXT position in NYC Conrad Geiger International NeXT User Groups Email: user_groups@next.com ____________________________________________________________________ i. 1992 Winter AppWrapper magazine The free 65 page issue of the Winter 1992 AppWrapper has already been mailed out and you should be receiving your copy if you are a subscriber. If you are currently not receiving the AppWrapper, a yellow pages of shipping NeXT 3rd party applications, and wish to be placed on the mailing list: send email to nugget@next.com with the following information and format: your first name, last name, organization or company, street, suite, city, state, zip, country, phone number ____________________________________________________________________________ I. NeXT Third-Party Developers Who Have Committed to a NeXTstep 486 Product The following developers have committed to a NeXTstep 486 product: Adobe Systems Incorporated Contact: LaVon Collins or Russ McCann (415) 961-4400 Altsys Corporation Contact: Meaghan Hogan (214) 680-2060 Appsoft, Inc. Contact: Emily Brower (415) 585-8113 Atherton Software Contact: Jayson Adams (415) 321-3720 Conextions, Inc. Contact: Ed Kodinski (508) 475-5411 Digital Instrumentation Technology, Inc. Contact: Liz Shrum (505) 662-1459 HSD Microcomputer U.S., Incorporated Contact: David W. Peter (415) 964-1400 Lighthouse Design Ltd. Contact: Jonathan Schwartz (800) 366-2279 Lotus Development Corporation Contact: Jeanne Heston (617) 577-8500 Marble Associates, Inc. Contact: Ray Bloom (408) 436-7299 Metaresearch, Inc. Contact: Lee Buhler (503) 238-5728 Modernsoft Contact: Chip Goodman (415) 328-2221 OTI Contact: Eric Bergerson (212) 227-6767 Pencom Software Contact: Pam O'Neal (512) 343-1111 RightBrain Software Contact: Joyce Dickerson (415) 326-2974 Sarrus Software, Inc. Contact: Andy Turk (415) 364-1432 Software Ventures Contact: David Hindawi (415) 644-3232 Stone Design Corporation Contact: Andrew Stone (505) 345-4800 Visual Understanding Systems, Inc. (VISUS) Contact: Bob Thibadeau (412) 488-3600 White Pine Contact: Scott Darling (603) 886-9050 Wolfram Research, Inc. Contact: Jane Rich (217) 398-0700 WordPerfect Corporation Contact: Royce Bybee (801) 225-5000 ____________________________________________________________________ II. At the Beep Software for your Telephone At The Beep is a NeXT Computer-based telephone answering machine and dialing system. It contains all of the features of sophisticated stand-alone answering machines and adds extended features only possible with an attached computer. At The Beep takes full advantage of the NeXT Step graphical user interface and sound features. Calling the Demonstration System: Feel free to call the demonstration At The Beep system at (512)219-9468 and leave a message stating your name, company and preferred method of communication: telephone, postal mail or electronic mail (NeXT Mail or text-only). Suggestions: SES Computing is geared toward providing full solutions for customers. We would be happy to discuss any needs you have. It will be possible to add new features to the existing system or to provide custom software for your particular need. SES Computing 13206 Jenner Lane Austin, Texas 78729 Phone: (512) 219-9468 Electronic Mail: If you would like to contact us send either text or NeXT electronic mail to: mbrown@math.utexas.edu Note: We are not affiliated with The University Of Texas. The math department has been kind enough to provide this Internet address to us for email purposes. ____________________________________________________________________ III. Jiro's Review of Engage Atherton Software Works' Engage! ================================ Along with the boom in the number of shipping NeXT applications, there has suddenly been an explosion of interest in application launch utilities. I don't think that this is pure coincidence. As the number of applications increase, the eleven spaces in the Workspace Manager dock seem to suddenly not be enough. Even when you add the extended capabilities of the File Viewer "shelf" there doesn't seem to be enough room for all of your applications, not to mention files and folders. To fill the gap, several application launch utilities have been released. Their basic function is the same: to extend the dock by allowing the user to place their most used applications in the same place. Some have more features that extend the basic concept of application launching into the realm of organizational tools for both files and folders. There are currently three shipping, commercial application launch utilities: Atherton Software Work's Engage!, RightBrain Software's LaunchPad and Aurora Software's QuickStart. Today I am reviewing what I believe to be the best of the three, Engage!. Reviews of the other two will follow closely after this one. INSTALLATION ============ Engage comes on one 3.5" HD floppy disk. It occupies 550 kb and is not compressed or packaged (just drag and drop it into your /LocalApps directory). A printed manual is not available, all help is through the on-line help system. The registration process requires you to type in a 17 digit authorization code, your name, and your organization. GENERAL IMPRESSION ================== Engage was written by Jayson Adams, formerly of NeXT Computer. Two years ago, Jayson created the first application launcher, AltDock, which he released for free (and which still works, although somewhat crankily on System 2.x). He also wrote NewsGrazer, the premier USENET news reading application, which is also available for free. He has recently formed Atherton Software Works in order to commercially market his applications. I personally feel that it is high time that he started to make money for his efforts and talents. And it is also time he got the recognition from the business community that only a commercial software company could provide. The original AltDock extended the Workspace dock by providing an "alternate dock" where applications could be organized and launched. Unlike the traditional (original) dock, AltDock let you place applications either in a haphazard free-form style or in a careful gridded pattern. It didn't do much beyond launching applications, however. Jayson rewrote AltDock to create Engage. In doing so, he really thought about what features were necessary in an application launcher. He also thought deeply about how to cure the organizational problem plaguing many NeXT users. To a great degree, I believe that he has come up with a really innovative and intuitive solution to both of these problems. Engage is a free form application launcher. You can place applications anywhere on the screen. When you move the Engage icon, the applications move with it. To get a feel of how this works, imagine taking the Workspace dock and being able to drag the entire dock around anywhere on the screen, not just up and down. Also imagine the ability to place applications *anywhere*, not just in the horizontal strip. Once you place an application in Engage, you can launch it by double-clicking on it, or set it to be auto-launched when Engage launches, just like the Workspace dock. You can also add both files or folders to Engage, not just applications. What's more, you can drag files onto Engage application to launch them (drop-and-launch). For example, you can launch TIFF or EPS files by dropping them onto the Icon or Scene tiles in Engage. Normally, double-clicking would launch your preferred application for that file type, but by using drag-and-drop, you can override that preference. This may be handy for folks who use common files types among different applications. What's even neater is that you can "preview" the contents of TIFF and EPS files within Engage. The contents show up thumbnail size within the file's little "tile." The only other application that does that is Portfolio, by RightBrain Software. Portfolio uses slightly larger icons and organizes the files differently (in vertical scrollable windows). Look for a review of Portfolio soon. Engage has the notion of multiple dock "levels." These are different sets of applications and files. You can flip between the levels and also name them. When you change levels, usually all of the tiles change, but you can also make some permanent (if you find you an application or document available all of the time, for example). In my own case, I have one level devoted to drawing tools (Diagram!, Create, IX-Scans, TypeView, and FontInstaller). Another level has writing tools (FrameMaker, WriteNow, Quotations). Other levels have developer's tools, communication tools, misc. tools and auto-launched tools. It doesn't take a power user or a hacker to quickly find how useful these levels are. Graphic designers will find they can organize all their TIFF and EPS files in different levels and look at their contents without having to launch them. This is a quick and easy way to store and preview click-art, for example. You can easily drag-and-drop files from Engage into your favorite drawing application, as well. Business people would love this feature since they can have all of their sales reports, form letters, info sheets, etc. in different levels -- a much neater way to organize them than using the File Viewer's "shelf." You can also have folders in Engage if you like to have things in folders. You can flip between levels by clicking on tiny buttons in Engage's main icon. You can also type in level names directly onto the icon (very intuitive). You can search and sort among levels easily (just in case you have made a 100 level dock and forget where Acme-app is). This ability to have multiple levels, along with the free form placement of applications and icons makes Engage really unique. There are still more features.... There is a "flip" button next to the "level switch" buttons on the Engage icons. Clicking on the "flip" button will rotate all of the icons 180 degrees onto the other side of Engage. I usually have Engage right up next to the side of my window and it is a simple way to hide and unhide everything. Unlike AltDock, LaunchPad, or the other application launchers, Engage shows the running status of applications just like the Workspace Manager. That means that applications that aren't running have three dots in the lower-left corner of their icons. These dots disappear when the application is launched and reappear when it is quit. I am surprised that none of the other launch utilities provide this feature. Jayson tells me that it was a lot of work to include this feature. I don't doubt him, but it sure is worth the work. I hope the other developers of launch utilities also include this feature in their programs. It is too easy to forget if you are running an application. Also amazing, Engage is a first-class replacement for the dock. Engage does not simply launch the applications through the Workspace Manager and let them create their own application icon on the desktop, like LaunchPad and QuickStart. Rather, it actually acts like the Workspace dock by retaining the application icon in the Engage dock. No more application icons littering the bottom of your Workspace! This is just fantastic! Somehow Engage manages to hide the icons because if you quit Engage without logging out, all of the application icons will appear again (at the bottom of the Workspace, sigh...). Engage provides BackSpace screen saver support. I'm not too sure why Jayson put this in since if you have BackSpace modules, you also most probably have BackSpace. However, his screen save does have the neat feature that when the screen saver terminates (due to you moving the mouse or pressing a key), it briefly flashes the time in large letters. Otherwise, I'd advise you use an independent screen saver since Engage does not provide for any of the individual module customizations that some others do. Jayson isn't sure whether he is going to keep this feature and improve it, or if he should drop it altogether. Now would be a good time to fax or e-mail him comments concerning this feature. The online manual is well-written and clear. It uses screenshots to help illustrate techniques. Engage does not ship with a printed manual, which is just fine with me. PROBLEMS ======== I encountered a number of user-interface problems. None of them are serious nor did they hamper my use of the application. They are listed below. I was annoyed that I couldn't select multiple applications so that I could inspect them together. I had gone to the trouble of making a whole "level" of applications that I wanted auto-launched. Since Engage wouldn't let me select all of them and set auto-launching in one step, I had to select each, modify its auto-launch attribute, go onto the next, etc. Another minor problem was that Atherton used the Helvetica typeface to print the authorization code on the back of the diskette. It was very hard to distinguish between zeros (0) and capital O's; the digit one and the letter l. This caused me to mistype the code in incorrectly. I hope that future software designers reading this article will choose fonts with more distinguishable characters, or better yet, won't use the letters and numbers 0 and O, 1 and l in their authorization codes. Atherton Software Works is aware of the two problems and the bug noted above (after reading the draft of my review) and is working on them. Another problem that I experienced was that it was difficult to tell what programs were running if they were in another level of Engage, since Engage doesn't leave the application icons floating on the bottom of your screen. Some may not like this behaviour, in this case you are stuck to one level in Engage. I would like a Preference (global and local) to select whether Engage will retain the application icon or if it will let it float on the bottom. Additionally, the folder behaviour is not great. You cannot drag-and-drop files into Engaged folders. Double-clicking on the folder opened up a new File Viewer on that folder, there should be an option to direct the current File Viewer to simply go to that folder instead. It does not try to calculate the size of folders, either (this should be an option as well). Some additional work needs to be done on the folder support. There is no index to the online help. The online-help is located within the Engage application wrapper itself and isn't easily placed in Digital Librarian (unless you know how to open application wrappers). UPGRADE POLICY ============== Atherton has not finalized its upgrade policy yet. It will most probably be along the lines of the other major NeXT software companies in that minor revisions (1.0->1.1, etc.) will be the cost of shipping while the major revisions (1.x->2.0) will be a nominal amount. CONCLUSION =========== Engage is the organizer you need to make some sense out of your messed up NeXT file system. I personally have applications strewn everywhere (/LocalApps, ~/Apps, etc.) and have files strewn everywhere in all sorts of places. Although I talk a lot about the importance of organization, I speak as one who suffers from chronic disorganization. Engage is a real boon to me since it relieves much of the pain of being disorganized. Even organized people will love it since who wants to flip through multiple folders just to find one file? Applications fit in well into Engage and launch perfectly. TIFF and EPS files fit in smoothly and even preview. You can have folders in it. You can have any other file types. You could organize all of your form letters in Engage and drag-and-drop them onto Engage applications, for example. Engage is a simple concept that Jayson has taken really far. It is extremely powerful, yet not over featured. In fact, I would just rather not have my real dock and would like to replace it permanently with Engage. This is one third party application that NeXT should license and sell with every system in place of the ordinary dock. Judging by the looks that Jean-Marie Hullot (creator of Interface Builder) and William Parkhurst (Director of Software at NeXT) had on their faces when Jayson demoed it to them at NeXTworld, I hope to see some Engage-like features in the System 4.0 Workspace Manager. (This is utter speculation, by the way.) In the meantime, you should all pull out your plastic, phone NeXTConnection and order Engage. Very highly recommended. (Actually NeXTConnection does not sell Engage at the time of writing of this article (1/29/92). Atherton Software tells me they are still in negotiations with NeXTConnection. Until then, you should contact Atherton Software directly to purchase Engage.) Summary for Atherton Software Works' Engage! ============================================ Application Type: Application launcher and screen saver Version Tested: 1.0 v36 (review copy) JiroRating: ***** (Excellent) Languages Supported: English (only) File Formats Supported: Any application Any document type or folder Can preview .tiff and .eps Contact for information: Atherton Software Works 77 Marsh Road Atherton, CA 94025 Tel: +1 415 321-3720 Fax: +1 415 321-3650 Email: info@asw.com For Sales: NeXTConnection 9 Mill Street Marlow, NH 03456 Tel: +1 800-800-NeXT Fax: +1 603 446-7791 - Jiro Nakamura jiro@shaman.com Group Leader FuNK -- Finger Lakes NeXT Users Group Version 1.0 Created: January 29, 1992 Last Modified: January 29, 1992 ____________________________________________________________________ IV. NeXT Developers for New York City Job Title & Location NeXT Developers, NYC NeXT Developers NYC Interesting startup company, still small but with big growth plans, looking for experienced NeXT developers. Will work on innovative financial applications. Programming environment is Objective C. Permanent positions, not contract. Send a resume along with salary information to Nyla Irvin Directions: Ascii text preferred via email. Any Mac or PC word processor format on 3.5" diskette is OK to and so is clear and legible hard copy (large font sans serif is best for OCR scanning) Fax is last choice but OK too (doesn't scan) Nyla Irvin Scientific Placement, Inc. Box 19949 Houston, TX 77224 713-496-6100 713-496-6802 fax BIXmail: Scientific Internet: SPI@uunet.uu.net Compuserve: 71250,3001 GENIE: D.SMALL6 CONNECT: NPA5411 Ascii text via email preferred. Immigration status: We are never able to assist individuals holding F-1 or H-1 visas. Without exception, you must be a U.S. or Canadian Citizen or have a Permanent Residence Visa. New graduates: Employers utilize the college placement offices to hire new graduates. They do not employ recruiting firms for this purpose. We are unable to assist recent graduates. David A. Small, President Scientific Placement, Inc., Box 19949, Houston , TX 77224 713-496-6100 713-496-6802 (fax) spi!das@uunet.uu.net -or- d1580@applelink.apple.com Compuserve: 71250,3001, AppleLink: D1580, Genie: D.SMALL6, AOL: DaveSmall ____________________________________________________________________ end