NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 4, issue 10, August 17, 1992)
This is vol. 4, issue 10 of the 1992 NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST - a
collection of items of interest for the 15,000+ NeXT User Group
members.
Please direct your comments and feedback on the content of
this NeXT news to: nugget@next.com.
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
__________________________________________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Archetype's New Document Engine Provides Object-Oriented Tools
II. Announcing SuperDebugger 2.9
III. How to Access Purdue FTP archives via email
IV. MIDIapolis has a Special Offer for NeXT User Groups
V. Athena Design seeks Technical Support Representatives
_________________________________________________________________
I. Archetype's New Document Engine Provides Object-Oriented Tools For
Fast Development of Publishing Applications
BOSTON, MA, July 10, 1992-- Archetype,Inc., of Waltham, MA, a
developer of publishing productivity software, today released the
beta version of Archetype Document Engine, an object-oriented
development tool for NeXT computers that enables developers and users
to quickly build modular, expandable publishing applications.
Archetype introduced its Document Engine (DE) at Seybold Seminars
'92. The DE Developer Kit, including a Beta version of the DE and
some sample applications based on the DE for NeXT computers, is
available from Archetype. Archetype plans to make the DE
available on all popular platforms. Archetype will place the DE
specification in the public domain.
Modular Publishing Applications
The Archetype Document Engine provides a toolkit of ready-to-use "DE
objects" (objects are the fundamental building blocks of
object-oriented programs) that can be dynamically linked to form
fully-featured publishing applications. "Just as the hardware
industry began with a flood of proprietary architectures and
operating systems, the software industry today is highly fragmented
and inefficient," said Paul Trevithick, president of Archetype. "Each
massive, monolithic application today is custom written and
proprietary. Users are presented with complex applications containing
hundreds of features, yet these applications are still not flexible
enough to meet the needs of vertical markets," he noted. "We are
moving towards a day when users or in-house development groups will
create their own custom applications from libraries of pre-written
objects, much like snapping Lego blocks together," he added.
How Does The Document Engine Work?
The DE provides developers with an overall "Document Architecture"
and a library of compatible sub-objects. Potential applications
include page layout, workflow managers, database publishing, forms,
report writer, word processing, signature imposition, and page
dummying. The DE-objects managed by DE are polygons, circles, bezier
curves, pages, groups, rules, and pictures. Developers can add new
DE objects to the DE to extend its capability at run time.
Any application created using the DE is compatible with other DE
applications. For instance, a report from a DE-based word processing
application can be used as-is by a DE page layout application without
modification, even when used on a different hardware platform. The
report from the word processor looks exactly the same on the layout
application, right down to the same line breaks, formatting, and type
faces. This high degree of document interchange is currently
unavailable with other software systems today.
Archetype, Inc.
Archetype, Inc. specializes in productivity software for computer
publishing users. In addition to the Document Engine, Archetype
also offers InterSep, an image management environment and PostScript
productivity enhancer.
Additional Contacts: (617) 890-7544 Paul Trevithick, President & CEO
Sue Robertson, Exec.VP Product development Jan Melvold, International
Sales Manager. Internet e-mail: info@archetype.prospect.com.
Archetype is a registered trademark, and InterSep is a trademark of
Archetype, Inc. All other products mentioned herein may be
trademarks of their respective companies.
__________________________________________________________________
II. Announcing SuperDebugger 2.9
Version 2.9 of SuperDebugger is now available for ftp from
nova.cc.purdue.edu and cs.orst.edu under:
/pub/next/2.0-release/demos/SuperDebugger2.9.tar.Z (nova.cc.purdue.edu)
/pub/next/demos/SuperDebugger2.9.tar.Z (cs.orst.edu)
More information about SuperDebugger is provided below. If you have
any problems getting or using the demo version from the ftp-site,
please let me know. Also, if you would like more information about
SuperDebugger, please send the request to info@impact.com.
Henry Hsu
hhsu@impact.com
Impact Software Publishing, Inc.
156 East 33rd Street, New York, NY 10016
1-800-822-3385
TEL: (212)686-3512
FAX: (212)686-0727
SuperDebugger, a GNU Debugger Front-End:
SuperDebugger provides an intuitive graphical user-interface to the
GNU debugger gdb provided by NeXT. SuperDebugger features graphical
display of program counter and breakpoints, point and click setting
of breakpoints and displaying of variables, an editor that can be
used to display or modify source files, user definable macros,
monitoring of variables in a separate window, and savable debugging
environments. SuperDebugger also provides a complete set of keybindings
to allow a user to easily control program execution and examine data.
Version 2.9 of SuperDebugger includes the following new features as
compared to Gdb 2.3:
1. Rich Text can be displayed in the Source Text.
2. Double clicking on compilation errors will select the line of the
source file that caused the error.
3. Emacs control editing keys can be used in the input panel.
4. A Mouse Activate option has been added to allow SuperDebugger to be
activated by placing the mouse in one of its windows.
5. Works fully with both NeXTStep 2.1 and 3.0.
6. Compile command can be set using a new preference feature.
__________________________________________________________________
III. How to Access Purdue FTP archives via email
Many of you have email access only and below is described a way for
you to retrieve public domain applications from the Purdue archive site:
cc.purdue.edu.
Send mail to archive-server@cc.purdue.edu whose body contains a list of
commands (see the commands below).
PURDUE UNIVERSITY COMPUTING CENTER
NeXT ARCHIVE SERVER
LIST OF COMMANDS
The following is a partial list of commands and their descriptions
supported by Purdue University Computing Center for the NeXT archive
server. They are listed here in alphabetical order.
help Sends a general help file for file submissions and
requests.
submission Putting the key word 'submission' in your subject line
(and only in your subject line!) will tell the archive
server to send the enclosed document to the archive
moderator for inclusion into the archives. NeXT
attachments are welcome. Please include a description of
your submission and the minimum release required to run
your software.
index [archive...]
"Index" mails to you a listing of the files in the specified
archives. If an archive is not specified, then the index of the
available archives will be sent.
path <mail-path> "Path" is used to override the mail path that the
archive server chooses from the header of your mail
message. You should use this whenever you know that
the return address of your message will not be useful
to the archive server. The archive server only knows
about internet domain. This means that the archive
server understands name@site.edu, but NOT
name@site.bitnet or name@site.UUCP. There are two
sites on campus which can forward to UUCP addresses
and one which can forward to bitnet addresses. The
two UUCP sites are "purdue" and "pur-ee". The bitnet
site is "vm.cc.purdue.edu" (known on the BITNET side
of the world as PURCCVM).
To route mail to a UUCP site, I'd suggest first omitting the "path"
directive and letting the archive-server attempt to guess. However,
if your mail is not returned (or is returned with errors) you might try
wellknownsite!yoursite!yourname@uunet.uu.net
or
wellknownsite!yoursite!yourname@ee.ecn.purdue.edu
or
wellknownsite!yoursite!yourname@cs.purdue.edu
If you have any doubts about your mail address, you should ask
your system administrator for a correct domain style address.
Two examples uses of "path" are
path mrd@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
path wellknownsite!yoursite!yourname@uunet.uu.net
send <archive> <file..>
"Send" mails to you the files in the specified archive. All of
the files that you request will be sent to you archived together
(see "archiver"), possibly packed (see "pack"), possibly encoded
(see "encoder") and split up into messages that are small enough
to be mailed (see "size"). If you specify an archive and do not
specify any files, then all of the files in that archive will be
sent. You may have as many "sends" in the body of your mail
message as you wish.
encodedsend <archive> <file...>
"Encodedsend" is identical to the command "send" except that the
files are guaranteed to be encoded (see "encoder"). This is
useful if you know that the return message will go through EBCDIC
based computers.
archiver <archiving-method>
You may specify the method of archiving (merging a group of files
into one large file) the files with "archiver". By default, files
that are mailable are simply stuck together with the text "cut
here" between files and; non-mailable files are archived via unix
tar. The available archiving methods are:
arc (the PC program)
none (the files are simply stuck together)
shar (Unix sh script)
simple (the files are separated by "cut here" - default)
tar (Unix Tar - default for non mailable files)
zoo (Unix, VMS, PC's)
dclshar (VMS, creates a file you can unpack with @FILE.COM)
nextmail (NeXT mail format)
pack <packing-method>
You may specify that the files be packed (compressed) before
delivery. This has the advantage that the mail files will be
smaller. By default the files are not packed. The available
packing methods are:
compress (the Unix command compress)
none
# This site does not support compact.
compact (the Unix command compact - slower than compress)
encoder <encoding-method>
Non-mailable files must be converted to something mailable. By
default this is done with "uuencode". You may also specify that
the files must be encoded with the command "encodedsend." The
available encoding methods are:
uuencode (default)
btoa
# This site does not have rscs as an encoder.
rscs
size <max-file in bytes>
The archive server splits files up so that they are smaller than
this limit. This is done because many sites have a maximum mail
size limit. A value of 0 means that there is no limit. The
archive server has a default size limit of 300000 bytes. You may
change this if you know that you have different limits. Most (but
not all) uucp sites have a limit of 100000 bytes. Internet and
Bitnet sites should set this to 300000 bytes.
length <number>
Many mailers will truncate long lines. To overcome this the
archive server encodes files that contains lines that are longer
than 130 characters (see "encoder"). If you know that your mail
files will not be truncated then you can set this value to
something larger.
limit <number>
The archive-server limits the amount of data that will be returned
by any one request. This limit is very large. By using this command
you may lower this limit. This is typically done to prevent errors
by the user.
search <string> <archive> <file...>
You may search through the archive for a string. A string is
considered to be any sequence of alphanumeric characters; case
does not matter. If you only provide an archive name then all of
the files in the archive will be searched. You will be returned
all lines that contain the string.
find <string...>
You may search for file names that contain the given string. Case
is significant in the string. You will be returned all file names
that match the given string.
EXAMPLE
Here is an example message that you could send to the archive-server.
It gives an example of all the supported commands.
------
help
path mrd@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
index latex-style res.sty
encodedsend latex-style res.sty res-sample.tex
send isetl
archiver tar
pack compress
encoder rscs
size 200000
length 80
search resume texhax texhax.89.001 texhax.89.002
find resume
-----
APPENDIX
1) Files are considered mailable if they do not have any lines longer
than 130 characters and do not have any characters other than tabs,
carriage returns, newlines, vertical tabs, formfeeds and characters
between space through tilde (using ascii ordering).
2) If you have problems or questions, you should send mail to
archive-management@cc.purdue.edu
3) If you have an archiving, packing, encoding program that runs under
BSD Unix that I do not have and you would like me to support then
please send it to me. It is very easy to incorporate it into this
package.
4) The archive server was written by Michael DeCorte. It consists
of groups of Bourne shell and awk scripts designed to work under
BSD Unix based computers. There are no restrictions on its
redistribution provided the copyright notice is left intact. The
original sources for the archive-server can be obtained via anonymous
ftp to sun.soe.clarkson.edu or by sending messages in the format
given above to archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (of course you
won't get any of the modifications this site has added for NeXT
support). Any further inquiries can be sent to
archive-management@cc.purdue.edu.
5) Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
How to Submit to the Purdue Archive Site:
Submissions to: archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the
subject line 'submission'
__________________________________________________________________
IV. MIDIapolis has a Special Offer for NeXT User Groups
Hello NeXT User Group members,
MIDIapolis Systems is developing high-quality sound, music, MIDI,
multimedia, and graphics software for NeXT computers. We are dedicated to
the NeXT platform and are working hard to bring out quality products as
fast as we can. Currently we have three products available. We are offer-
ing these products at a special discount to NeXT User Groups only for a
limited time.
SoundBursts are digital sound collections or the NeXT Computer.
They allow you to add high quality sound to a variety of NeXT applications.
Two SoundBursts collections are available - Effects and Percussion. WarpIt
is an image manipulation application developed by Black Adder Research and
distributed by MIDIapolis Systems. WarpIt allows image transformations
and animation creation including warps, rotations, scales, perspectives,
shears, and mirroring.
You NeXT user group is authorized to purchase one single-user copy
of each of these products at more than 50% of the retail prices. This offer
is valid until September 20th, 1992. To respond please send the enclosed
form and a check from your NeXT user group checking account to:
MIDIapolis Systems
Attn: User Group Offer
3208 W. Lake St. Suite 133
Minneapolis, MN 55416 USA
Phone: 612-822-1604
These copies may be used for your user group library, for news-
letter review (we'd appreciate a copy of the newsletter if reviewed) or
for public auction to raise money for your group. If you wish to be
sent copies of the brochures for these products please indicate the
number below. If your user group has a newsletter, please indicate that
below also.
Please do not hesitate to call with questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Gerard T. Schwarz, President, MIDIapolis Systems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NeXT User Group Special Offer - Valid until September 20th, 1992
------------------------------------------------------------------------
User Group: ___________________________________________________________
Name & Title: __________________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City: ________________________ State: ______ Zipcode: __________________
Country: ______________________ Phone: _________________________________
Group's main focus: ____________________________________________________
No. of members: _______ No. of brochures: ______ Newsletter: Yes No
Item (check those you are ordering) Retail Special Ordered
SoundBursts: Effects collection CALL FOR PRICES
SoundBursts: Percussion collection CALL FOR PRICES
WarpIt: Image manipulation application CALL FOR PRICES
SHIPPING IS FREE IF IN THE UNITED STATES!! Call if outside the U.S.A.
CHECK AMOUNT ENCLOSED: $ _____ . ___
MIDIapolis Systems
3208 W. Lake St. Suite 133
Minneapolis, MN 55416 USA
Phone: 612-822-1604
__________________________________________________________________
V. Athena Design seeks Technical Support Representatives
Athena Design seeks customer service representatives to help with
technical support of the Mesa spreadsheet. Qualifications include
1-2-3 or Excel experience, williness to work and be self-motivated,
good phone personality and manners, and the desire to work in a
fast-paced start-up organization. If you are interested, please
send a resume by mail to Athena Design, Inc., 17 Saint Mary's Court,
Boston, MA 02146. Please do not phone or send e-mail.
__________________________________________________________________
end