A set of object-oriented numerical tools that allows you to do complicated operations on vectors and matrices in the same manner as with built-in types has been announced by Rogue Wave, a Seattle outfit that specializes in object-oriented numerics. All of the standard C arithmetic operators such as "+" and "+=" have been extended to include vectors and matrices, and so have the C functions such as cos( ) and abs( ). The set also includes new functions for statistics and numerical modeling applications, as well as a complex number class. Fast Fourier Transform server classes allow you to take the FFT or inverse FFT of any length series (real or complex). By using the inheritance property of C++, the company claims, new classes can be created from the Rogue Wave classes to do specialized tasks. The package includes a user's guide and reference manual. The cost is $150. Reader service no. 21.
Rogue Wave P.O. Box 85341 Seattle, WA 98145-1341 206-523-5831
The C-scape Interface Management System and the Look & Feel Screen Designer have been announced by the Oakland Group. C-scape, Version 3.1, runs in either text or graphics mode, which means that C-scape menus, windows, and so on can appear on top of VGA graphics, and that graphics such as a PCX file image can appear inside a C-scape window. CGA, VGA, EGA, and most modes of Hercules are supported. C-scape is built upon the Oakland Windowing Library (OWL), which manages windows management, automatically tracks visible and hidden screen portions, supports as many windows as RAM can allow, and lets you write hidden windows.
The Look & Feel is new, and lets you design screens and run them in simulate mode, and then convert them to C code or save them to screen files that are callable at run time. All code is portable among DOS, OS/2, QNX, Xenix, Unix, and VMS.
C-scape supports DOS and OS/2 (in the same package), Microsoft and Borland C, and includes source code (for Unix and Xenix implementations, too). The Unix version supports color, and X Windows support should be available by the time this issue hits the streets. The Phar Lap DOS Extender and Rational Systems DOS/16M are also supported, as well as Zortech's C++ 2.0. The DOS version with the Look and Feel Screen Designer is $399, without $299. The Unix/Xenix version costs $999. Reader service no. 22.
Oakland Group, Inc. 675 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139-3309 800-233-3733
An MS-DOS advanced-overlay linker that supports CodeView, .RTLink/Plus, has been released by Pocket Soft. The nested overlay capability of this product supposedly allows the creation of substantially smaller memory images than are possible with Microsoft's linker overlay feature.
.RTLink/Plus also provides a link-time Profiler for performance analysis at user-adjustable timing intervals; the .RTL (run-time library) allows a group of .EXEs to share code from language libraries, third party libraries, and user's libraries, which prevents duplicate storage of common code; memory caching in extended or expanded memory for overlay swapping supposedly increases the speed of overlay handling on equipped systems; and Periscope, SoftIce, and MagicCV are supported. The list price is $495. .RTLink is identical to .RTLink/Plus, except that .RTLink does not provide the CodeView and Profiler features, and costs $295. Reader service no. 23.
Pocket Soft, Inc. 7676 Hillmont, Ste. 195 Houston, TX 77040 713-460-5600
The C Programmer's Toolbox for Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) has been announced by MMC AD Systems. The Toolbox has 20 new tools that complement the existing MPW tools. The list includes: CDecl, which translates and composes C declaration statements and cast operators; CFlow, which determines a program's function hierarchy and the composition of a program's run-time library, and includes an ANSI-compatible C preprocessor that allows inactive code sections to be ignored. CFlow also has the ability to process any number and size of C source files through a virtual memory system that uses temporary disk storage space when main memory is exhausted. CHilite highlights and prints C source files, as well as comments, keywords, Toolbox calls, function calls, macro calls, and definitions and/or user-defined symbols. And CLint checks for latent programming errors, including variable type usage, conditional and assignment statement usage, arithmetic operations in conditional expressions, and more. Some other tools are CPrint for reformatting, CXref for cross referencing, Cpp for preprocessing, Cat for concatenating input data streams, and CharCnt for counting input, characters, and so on.
The Toolbox works with any Macintosh with MPW 3.0 or later. MPW C is not required. The Toolbox works for C code generated by MPW C 2.x/3.x, Lightspeed C/Think C, Aztec C, all common PC C compilers, engineering workstations and Unix C compilers. It sells for $295. Reader service no. 24.
MMC AD Systems Box 360845 Milpitas, CA 95035 408-263-0781
Version 3.0 of Star Sapphire Common Lisp is now being shipped by Sapiens Software. One of the few versions available for IBM and compatible PCs, Common Lisp is a general purpose, modern programming language, and the company claims it is "programmer friendly," encouraging greater productivity.
Star Sapphire Lisp supports the use of up to 8 Mbytes of extended or virtual memory, and includes a resident Emacs editor and online help for the whole language. The built-in incremental compiler and debugger supposedly speed program development. The product includes source code examples, including the Towers of Hanoi and the Colossal Cave Adventure, which demonstrate how to write programs in Lisp. An IBM PC, PS/2, or compatible with 640K memory and a hard disk are required. Version 3.0 is available for $99.95. Reader service no. 25.
Sapiens Software P.O. Box 3365 Santa Cruz, CA 95063 408-458-1990
Two new control packages that are designed to make programming in Microsoft Windows and OS/2 Presentation Manager more efficient are Standard Control Pak and Tools Control Pak, by Eikon Systems. Each of these products offers three graphical, high-level, reusable software objects for use in the client area of windows or dialog boxes.
Jerry Weldon, one of Eikon's development engineers, claims that "high-quality graphical objects such as these can take weeks or months to refine and perfect, especially when you realize that each Control Pak consists of thousands of lines of source code."
In the Standard Control Pak, the Arrow window class can be used in place of the push buttons provided with Windows and OS/2 PM. The Palette window class provides a displayed set of predefined colors, and the Picture window class offers a variety of border styles for displaying bitmaps and metafile pictures.
The Tools Control Pak includes a Ruler window class for defining the position and spatial orientation of graphical objects, a Slider window class for selecting values from a range, and a Toolbox window class for selecting an operating mode from a rectangular array of small bitmaps, the limit of which is determined by available memory. The Standard Control Pak for Windows retails for $125 without source code, and $475 with; for OS/2 PM the cost is $225 without code, and $675 with code. The Tools Control Pak is $175 without source code, $525 with code. If a control is to be incorporated into any publicly distributed application, the source code must be purchased (but is royalty free). Reader service no. 26.
Eikon Systems, Inc. 989 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Ste 260 Foster City, CA 94404 415-349-4664
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), a group of hardware and software companies involved in computer graphics and displays, has adopted and published standards for Super VGA BIOS Extensions. This standard specifies a common software interface for Super VGA video adapters, providing a simplified means of accessing extended video modes such as 640 x 480 resolution in 256 colors. The standard follows the 800 x 600 16-color mode and 8514/A standards approved last year. Within the next couple of months, DDJ will publish an in-depth discussion of the VESA BIOS Extensions, along with related articles on 16-bit VGA and Super VGA. For copies of the standard, contact in writing (or FAX) the VESA office. Reader service no. 31.
VESA 1330 South Bascom, Ste. D San Jose, CA 95128-4502 408-971-7525 (voice) 408-286-8988 (FAX)
A cooperative development effort to provide field-updatable BIOS capability for AT, MCA, and EISA-based personal computers has been announced by Intel Corporation and Phoenix Technologies. With Intel's 1-Mbit ETOX (EPROM tunnel oxide) flash memories and Phoenix's BIOS and utility software, the need to open the PC system case to swap BIOS chips will be eliminated. (Flash memory is a high-density, electrically erasable, nonvolatile semiconductor memory technology.)
Dick Pashley, general manager of Intel's Flash Memory Operation, claims that users "will be able to adapt their existing PCs to accommodate new peripherals requiring BIOS support, such as disk drives, screens, and keyboards." Intel's 28F010 1-Mbit flash memories have been available since late in 1989, and Phoenix's new BIOS updating utility program should be shipping by now. Both companies promise system design documentation and applications support. Reader service no. 27. Contact Intel for information.
Intel Corp. Literature Dept. #6P19 3065 Bowers Ave., P.O. Box 58065 Santa Clara, CA 95052-8065
A structuring utility to transform Fortran IV and Fortran-77 into fully structured code (with or without VAX and Fortran-8x extensions) has been announced by Cobalt Blue. FOR_STRUCT v1.1 will replace Goto and If-Goto combinations with If-Then-Else, Do-While, and Do-Enddos, and offers style control switches to allow visual customization of the structured code. According to the company, FOR_STRUCT leaves original programming logic intact, does not duplicate code, and allows you to remove dead code segments during structuring.
FOR_STRUCT offers three levels of structuring: To Fortran-77; to Fortran-77 with VAX Do-While and Do-Enddo extensions; or to VAX Fortran-77 with Fortran-8X extensions. FOR_STRUCT is compatible with Cobalt Blue's FOR_C and FOR_C++ source code conversion packages. The Sun-3 and Sun-4 versions cost $1850, Xenix/Unix is $1450, and MS-DOS is $825. These prices include two months of free technical support and upgrades. Combined product discounts are also available. Reader service no. 28.
Cobalt Blue 2940 Union Ave., Ste. C San Jose, CA 95124 408-723-0474