NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 4, issue 8, August 17, 1992) This is vol. 4, issue 8 of the 1992 NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST - a collection of items of interest for the 15,000+ NeXT User Group members worldwide. Previous Nugget Digests are located in the /pub/next/Newletters/Nugget directory on the Purdue archive server site: sonata.cc.purdue.edu. Conrad Geiger Manager, International NeXT User Groups __________________________________________________________________ *** Nugget August Monthly Survey Question *** If you like receiving the NeXT Nugget News Digest, please complete the following brief survey question: How would you rate the information contained in the NeXT Nugget News Digest on a scale of 1 to 5? (PLEASE SEND YOUR REPLIES AND SUGGESTIONS TO nugget@next.com.) _ 1 ( POOR, please include suggestions below) _ 2 ( BELOW AVERAGE, please include suggestions below) _ 3 ( AVERAGE, please include suggestions below) _ 4 ( ABOVE AVERAGE, please include suggestions below ) _ 5 ( EXCELLENT, please include suggestions below) Ideas and Suggestions for improvement: ________________________________ Thank you, conrad __________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Data General, NeXT Announce Relationship II. A letter from NeXTedge III. NeXT Europe Computer Directory: Summer 1992 IV. User Interface Guidelines for 3.0 available via anonymous FTP V. Connextions Announces NeXT-to-IBM Connectivity VI. Announcing MathGraph VII. nPOINT, LTD ANNOUNCES Frontface MODELER FOR NeXTSTEP VIII. NeXT Software Developer Positions Available: Modernsoft IX. NeXT Financial Trading Systems Position open __________________________________________________________________ I. Data General, NeXT Announce Relationship FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Allison Thomas Stephanie Bigusiak Allison Thomas Associates Data General (818) 981-1520 (508) 898-4293 Data General, NeXT Announce Relationship WESTBORO, Mass., August 4, 1992 - Data General Corporation and NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced a relationship in which Data General will resell NeXT workstations with AViiON servers. In addition, the two companies will cooperate in the further development of advanced client/server solutions. "Our AViiON servers combined with NeXT's revolutionary object-oriented workstations will offer the best client/server solution in the industry," said Ronald L. Skates, president and CEO of Data General. "As our customers move their strategic business applications to client/server systems, they can use AViiON servers to guarantee availability and security of their data and NeXT workstations to access this data effectively." "We think this collaboration will open up new markets to NeXT and expand our overall distribution capability," said Steven P. Jobs, chairman and CEO of NeXT. "This is especially important as corporate America re-engineers its business processes to achieve greater productivity." Client/Server Solutions for Mission-Critical Applications Using NeXT workstations and AViiON servers, companies can provide their users with database-driven custom applications. Data General's AViiON servers support the industry's leading relational databases, including Oracle, Sybase, Ingres and Informix. These high-availability servers, in combination with disk arrays, offer data security and back-up products that preserve the integrity of customers' data, even in the event of equipment or power failures. NeXT's workstations run NeXTSTEP, the industry-acclaimed object-oriented environment that enables corporate customers to create and deploy their mission-critical custom applications five to 10 times faster than ever before. In addition, NeXT's new Database Kit of objects allows even faster creation of client/server applications that rely on intensive database usage on the server, and provides a single, consistent interface to SQL databases from multiple vendors. As part of its complete client/server solution, Data General will also port NeXT's NetInfo to its AViiON servers by the end of 1992. NeXT recently began licensing the source code for NetInfo, its network administration software. NetInfo lets system administrators manage users, machines, file systems and other network resources on UNIX networks, and can be ported to any UNIX-based computer. Based on a distributed, extensible database, NetInfo gives system administrators a much more flexible and manageable access control scheme than with other UNIX network administration tools. NetInfo ported to AViiON will provide top-quality support of heterogeneous NeXTSTEP/AViiON environments by AViiON servers. __________________________________________________________________ II. A letter from NeXTedge We at NeXT recognize that the transition to our new developer support model may not be easy for everyone. NeXT has been the only computer manufacturer in the industry providing direct, personal developer support free of charge for trained individuals. We maintained it for as long as we could. Unfortunately, although our developers are as important to us as ever, it's just not economically feasible to continue to provide this level of support without recovering some of our costs. On one hand, developers now need to pay for individual support. On the other, you'll soon see an increase in NeXT's efforts to provide proactive support for the wider NeXTSTEP developer community. We're augmenting the resources NeXT provides -- such as NeXTanswers, the support bulletin, MiniExamples, and technical papers. And we're significantly stepping up efforts in the company's direct contributions to community and on-line support mechanisms, including user groups, comp.sys.next, archive servers, and dev-next. You may also have noted that Anderson Financial Systems recently posted to the net an offer of free direct support through e-mail. Although NeXT does not formally endorse Anderson Financial Systems, we're pleased to see such an option available. The main issues raised on the net last week included the new support pricing, the quality of support, and the lack of recourse for smaller development organizations. New Pricing NeXT support prices were set in order to recover NeXT's costs of providing support. Generating a profit from developer support is not our intent. The annual Developer Hotline subscription and the 6-Pack are already discounted for registered third-party developers. In order to better provide for smaller organizations' support needs, we have also discounted the price on Pay per Incident for registered third-party developers by 30 percent, which means $XXX instead of $XXX. And remember, the Pay per Incident charge doesn't increase if it takes us days or weeks, and several phone calls or e-mails, to solve your problem. Quality of Support Thanks to the net's discussion last week, we think we have a better understanding of where our support weaknesses have been in the past. NeXT wants to encourage this kind of dialogue in the future through developer_comments@next.com, an escalation path that provides you with a method for letting us know immediately if you have any problems with the support you receive through the Developer Hotline. There's also a sister e-mail address, sysadmin_comments@next.com, for comments about system administration support through the System Support Hotline. Even if you haven't had a problem with support, you can use these addresses simply to talk to us and let us know what you think. (Of course, you're welcome to tell us about good experiences, too.) You can submit bugs to NeXT via bug_next@next.com. Smaller Organizations In some cases, programming and administration problems scale downward as the number of systems decreases. Because the price of a hotline subscription doesn't scale downward for fewer engineers or machines, we know that the hotline won't always be a viable economic solution for smaller organizations. That's exactly why we developed the 6-Pack and Pay per Incident support options, and why we're trying to make as much information as possible available via community and on-line resources. Our Commitment Our commitment is to provide high-quality, competitive products and to participate actively in supporting the worldwide NeXTSTEP developer community. We will continually evaluate our product offerings and prices in order to deliver the highest possible value. We appreciate your feedback and welcome further comments to developer_comments@next.com. Thank you for developing on NeXTSTEP. NeXTedge NeXT's service, support, and training team __________________________________________________________________ III. NeXT Europe Computer Directory: Summer 1992 By request, here are the locations and contacts for the European NeXT offices: Paris: NeXT Computer France Le Technopolis 175 rue Jean Jacques Rousseau 92138 Issy les Moulineaux cedex France Tel : +33 1 46 45 20 20 Fax: +33 1 46 45 58 69 Munich: NeXT Computer Germany Oskar-Messter-Strasse 24 8045 Ismaning Germany Tel: +49 89 99 65 31-0 Fax:+49 89 961 23 92 Dortmund: NeXT Computer Germany Joseph v Fraunhofer Str. 27 4600 Dortmund Tel: 02317589250 Fax: 0 2317589251 London: NeXT Computer UK Ltd 1 Heathrow Blvd 286 Bath Road West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 ODQ Tel: +44 81 565 0005 Fax: +44 81 565 0016 Milan: NeXT Computer Italia Edificio G Via Roma 108 20060 Cassina de Pecchi , Italy Tel : +39 2 95 30 25 10 Fax: +39 2 95 30 25 60 Amsterdam: NeXT Computer Benelux p/a Nedlloyd Districenters Uiverweg 1118 AA Schiphol Zuid The Netherlands Tel: +31 20 653 0333 Fax: +31 20 653 0348 Startskottet 100756 AB Stockholm: NeXT Computer Sweden Kanalvagen 10A 19461 Upplands Vasby Sweden Tel : + 46 7 608 89 30 Fax: + 46 7 608 21 66 Copenhagen: NeXT Computer Denmark A/S Kongevejen 71 DK-2840 Holte Denmark Tel :+ 45 45 41 22 00 Fax:+ 45 45 41 13 10 Geneva: c/o Alexander Lamb Software Design Tel: +41 22 735 9603 Fax: +41 22 735 9880 __________________________________________________________________ IV. User Interface Guidelines for 3.0 available via anonymous FTP The latest version of NeXT's User Interface Guidelines document (.rtfd) is now available for anonymous FTP from sutro.sfsu.edu [130.212.15.230] in the directory pub/UIGuide_July_92/. This supersedes the previous draft release already on the archives. -rw-r--r-- 1 712563 Jul 28 15:45 UserInterface.squfold "Squash"ed directory tree -rw-r--r-- 1 534 Jul 28 15:55 README Instructions on how to UnSquash the above -rwxr-xr-x 1 139264 Feb 10 16:26 UnSquashOnly* (In case you don't already have it) Addison-Wesley will publish the final version in hardcopy form as part of the NeXTSTEP 3.0 documentation set. Thanks to Kathy Walrath for making these files available to BANG and for permission to redistribute them electronically. BANG P.O Box 1731 Palo Alto, CA 94302 info@bang.org (415) 327-BANG The Bay Area NeXT Group is an organization that provides a forum for information exchange concerning the NeXT marketplace and computer technology in general. __________________________________________________________________ V. Connextions Announces NeXT-to-IBM Connectivity Connextions Announces NeXT-to-IBM Connectivity Products Connextions has announced their 5250Vision product, which connects NeXT computers to IBM's Application System 400. The 5250 product offers NeXT-to-IBM connectivity in heterogeneous network environments using the TCP/IP protocol. Connextions also announced Release 3.0 of the 3270Vision product, which offers new functionality and services to its users. In a separate announcement, Connextions introduced Network Palette, an object library for developing distributed network applications on NeXTSTEP computers. It offers a complete object interface to the 3270Vision and 5250Vision products. Contact: Ed Kodinsky (508) 689-3570 __________________________________________________________________ VI. Announcing MathGraph Dr. Michael J. Mezzino, Jr., chairman of the University of Houston Clear Lake's Department of Mathematics and a NeXTSTEP developer, today announced MathGraph, a general mathematical graphical display object. In the form of a loadable object palette, MathGraph is an object class that lets users control and display a variety of graphical models using fixed or variable data in two-dimensional and three-dimensional formats. It also manages data, data scaling, axes, axis labels, data plotting and limited animation. Contact: Dr. Michael J. Mezzino, Jr. Phone: (713) 331-6624 Email: mezzino@gauss.cl.uh.edu __________________________________________________________________ VII. nPOINT, LTD ANNOUNCES Frontface MODELER FOR NeXTSTEP FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: nPOINT, Ltd. 8026 North Washington St. Niles, IL 60714 info@nPOINT.COM +1.708.825.7278 nPOINT, LTD ANNOUNCES Frontface MODELER FOR NeXTSTEP Frontface IS A 3-D MODELER FOR NeXTSTEP AND USES PIXAR'S DE FACTO INDUSTRY STANDARD RENDERMAN. Chicago, July 28, 1992 -- nPOINT, Ltd., of Niles, IL, introduced today Frontface, an intuitive and elegant program for generating three-dimensional models on a NeXT workstation. nPOINT made the announcement at the computer graphics industry's SIGGRAPH convention, being held here. Frontface provides an easy way to build complex and beautiful three-dimensional images. It works with any software that supports the RenderMan Interface, Pixar's de facto industry-standard rendering specification. "Finally, there is a superior way to directly manipulate three- dimensional models," said Kurt Stephens, nPOINT's president. "We've paid close attention to the RenderMan Interface specification so that an end-user will get all the power of using RenderMan in an intuitive, object-oriented NeXTSTEP application." One of Frontface's most powerful capabilities is full support for "clip objects." Similar to clip art in the PostScript world, 3-D objects can be created, saved, and copied, providing an effortless way to reuse previous work. "Clip objects are not a new idea," said Jens von der Heide, nPOINT's Vice-President of Marketing, "but I think we've raised the paradigm to whole new plateau." Other Frontface tools allow 3-D text manipulation, shape extrusion, surface manipulation, and many more operations. The RenderMan Interface is a software standard for 3-D scene description. It is a series of procedures which transfer the description of a scene to a rendering program. The description of the scene is output to a file format called RIB, the RenderMan Interface Bytestream. RIB is a platform-independent way to transfer information regarding 3-D scenes. The RenderMan Interface has been adopted by many of the leading computer graphics companies and has become a de facto industry standard. The process of creating an image described by the RenderMan interface is generally completed in two steps. The first is to create a scene in a software application such as Frontface, which may include the description of the shape surface textures, or other characteristics of an object. The second step, provided by rendering software, is to translate the description into a final image. NeXTSTEP Release 3.0 includes Pixar's Quick RenderMan and PhotoRealistic RenderMan, two implementations of RenderMan renderers. "For the first time," said Mr. Stephens, "the Quick RenderMan software that displays the image on the screen works almost exactly the same way as the PhotoRealistic RenderMan software that produces your final image. That's a beautiful and powerful feature of the RenderMan implementation on the NeXT platform. It allows a Frontface user to really explore the full potential of 3-D graphics." Frontface will ship early in the fourth quarter. It will be available directly from nPOINT and through authorized dealers. nPOINT, Ltd is a privately held company founded in 1991 to bring new powerful tools for graphics and publishing to the professional workstation market. --- For more information, contact Jens von der Heide nPOINT, Ltd. 8026 N. Washington St. Niles, IL 60714 Phone: +1.708.825.7278 or info@nPOINT.COM. Frontface is a trademark of nPOINT, Ltd. RenderMan and Pixar are registered trademarks of Pixar. Quick RenderMan, PhotoRealistic RenderMan, and RIB are trademarks of Pixar. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. NeXT and NeXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. __________________________________________________________________ IX. NeXT Software Developer Positions Available: Modernsoft Modernsoft, Inc. was founded in 1989 to develop and market software products that help senior executives and analysts understand and direct complex businesses in dynamic environments. By using object- oriented and proprietary technologies, these products overcome the limitations of existing decision support and executive information software by minimizing the on-going involvement of programmers and maximizing ease-of-use and reusability of previous work. The resulting Enterprise Workstation family of software products will be, for many large organizations, the most capable software available for strategic information management management and decision-making. To learn more about this phenomenal opportunity for NeXT developers, please contact Peter Strell, VP Research and Product Development at Email: modsoft!peter@uunet.uu.net Phone: (415) 328-2221. Modernsoft, Inc. Suite 200 200 Page Mill Road Palo Alto, CA 94306 __________________________________________________________________ IX. NeXT Financial Trading Systems Position open Wanted for full time position at financial consulting firm: Experienced NeXT applications programmer for work on Financial Trading Systems. Finance background in derivatives and/ or mortgages helpful but not essential. Salary + bonus and good benefits package. Salary negotiable. Contact Randy Johnson at (213) 362-0330 or fax resume to (213) 362-1990, attn: Randy Johnson. __________________________________________________________________ end