Bob Swart is a professional software developer and free-lance technical author using Borland Pascal, C++, and Delphi. In his spare time he likes to watch video tapes of Star Trek The Next Generation with his 9-month old son Erik Mark Pascal.
EMS Professional Shareware Libraries are a comprehensive collection of public domain, shareware, and free products supporting PC professionals in many speciality areas like Pascal, ASM, Windows, (Visual) Basic, Spreadsheets, Databases (Access, dBase, Clipper, FoxPro), and of course C/C++.
Each library consists of a large collection of .ZIP archives (more than 1,600+ different files in the Utility Library for C/C++, on 99 (!) 1.44 MB diskettes or one CD-ROM). The C/C++ Utility Directory is the result of hundreds of hours of data collection, checking, and preparation by C experts Mark Harris and Bill Gerrard.
Typical librarians, such as Harris and Gerrard, are specialists with a strong interest in collecting and organizing information relating to their field (in this case, C and C++). Librarians are typically BBS addicts who like to spend lots of hours calling local and long distance BBSs, online services (such as CompuServe, AOL, GEnie), and FPT sites on the Internet. They download everything relating to their subject area and write descriptions into a database EMS provides. The librarians also enter address, phone, and e-mail information, which EMS then uses to contact the authors for more recent versions, description corrections, etc.
For most of EMS's collections (including the C/C++ Library) the librarian will also enter information on all related commercial products they discover in magazine articles and advertisements. EMS does not place these commercial products on the CD-ROM, but they do maintain contact information and descriptions in the database (included on the CD-ROM, also available separately if you buy the floppies) so that customers have "one-stop shopping" for virtually every C/C++ product that might solve the problem they face that day.
The EMS Library contains programs and complete source code, under the following categories: Arrays, Benchmark, Binary Tree, Bit Manipulation, AI, Bugs, Code Analysis, Communication, Compiler, Container & BIDS, Database, Date/Time, Debug, DOS, Editor, Graphics, Keyboard, Linked List, Mathematics, Memory Mgmt., MFC, Mouse, Multitask, Network, NT, OS/2, OWL, Printer, Screen, Sound, Streams, String, Template, Turbo Vision, User Interface, Virtual Object, and Windows.
But believe me, this library's sheer size would make describing what you could find almost as difficult as finding something in it — if it weren't for the additional database directory EMS supplies for each library. The current database directory consists of a single 1.2 MB dBASE III+ compatible .DBF file. You can view this file with dBase, or use the supplied program from EMS. CUTIL, for use with the C/C++ library, allows you to search for products by vendor, type, product name, or free-text search, and will let you view the contents of the actual ZIP file from within the database index program. Whenever you have one or more hits, you get the product name, file name, release date, size, producer, address (including e-mail), phone/fax numbers, and description.
The Library also includes a README file that contains the names of several dedicated C/C++ BBSs, book publishers, and publications (including C/C++ Users Journal and Windows/DOS Developer's Journal).
The Directory and Library are updated six times per year. Previous purchasers are eligible for a 25 percent reduction from the current list price, which, as of this writing, is $25.00 for the directory and $149.00 for the library on 99 diskettes, or $59.50 for directory plus library on CD-ROM (with many additional products).
EMS also sells a C++ (only) version of the library, which consists of just 772 files on 53 diskettes for $99.50. The $59.50 CD-ROM contains the full C/C++ version, so you'd better buy a CD-ROM player now!
Product Information
Title: Utility Library for C/C++
Librarians: Mark Harris and Bill Gerrard
Files: more than 1,600
Price: $59.50 (CD-ROM), $149 (99 diskettes)
Publisher: EMS Professional Shareware
4505 Buckhurst Court
Olney, MD 20832-1830, USA
+1 301 924-3594, FAX: +1 301 963-2708
e-mail: eengelmann@worldbank.org
Web: http://www.paltech.com/ems/ems.htm