OF INTEREST

VMData from Pocket Soft is a suite of memory-management libraries for C and C++ that provides a platform-independent, virtual-memory method of managing dynamically allocated data. This eliminates DOS memory restrictions and the design of complex data-management routines for Windows. The library allows you to port applications between operating systems, including OS/2, without in-depth knowledge of individual OS memory environments.

Developers make calls to VMData functions instead of the operating-system interface. The program is then linked to the appropriate VMData library for the intended operating system. VMData manages the operating-system interface and manipulates the data between all memory resources available to that platform. Data is managed according to priority, which is user specified or determined by VMData routines that monitor recency and frequency. High-priority data is kept first in addressable memory, then fast-access memory. When these have been exhausted, it swaps to and from disk. All available memory resources for DOS, Windows, and OS/2 are accessed.

VMData costs $495.00 for the first platform and $295.00 for each additional platform. Reader service no. 20.

Pocket Soft Inc.

P.O. Box 821049

Houston, TX 77282

ParcPlace Systems is shipping Objectbuilder\C++, a user-interface builder, and Objectkit\C++ OI, a C++ graphics class library. These user-interface development tools for Sun SPARCstations work with Objectworks\C++, ParcPlace's UNIX C++ development environment.

The toolset allows you to rapidly create GUIs that allow runtime selection between industry-standard OSF/Motif and OPEN LOOK. Thus, a single version of an application can support either environment's standard user interface. Objectbuilder\C++ generates code for GUI development automatically, but allows you to access classes in order to control their user interfaces. Objectbuilder features include: class hierarchy, inheritance, subclassing, accelerators, localization, and access to X resources. Drag-and-drop techniques let you select from palettes of objects, such as scrollbars, check boxes, and button menus, facilitating rapid prototyping, design, implementation, and testing of GUIs.

Also available from ParcPlace is Objectworks\Smalltalk 4.1 (supporting Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7) and Objectkit\Smalltalk C Programming, a Smalltalk extension that simplifies access to C libraries and applications. Objectkit\Smalltalk's new object-oriented memory manager allows specification of objects within applications that are not subject to change, allowing its memory manager to focus on changing objects.

Objectbuilder\C++ costs $2995.00; Objectkit\C++, $995.00; Objectworks\C++, $1995.00; Objectworks\Smalltalk, $3500.00; Objectkit\Smalltalk C Programming, $500.00. Reader service no. 21.

ParcPlace Systems

1550 Plymouth Street

Mountain View, CA 94043

GAWindows from Applied Neurogenetic Computing is a genetic algorithm DLL for Windows. It facilitates development of genetic algorithm-based applications for performing searches and optimization in a wide variety of areas such as scheduling, design, routing, neural-network architectures, and more. Thus, instead of attempting to directly solve certain problems, you can use GAWindows to create and evolve solutions.

Thirteen functions are included for population management, pairing of mates, mating, and mutations. The functions may be called from any language that supports Windows DLL access.

The introductory price for GAWindows is $49.95. Reader service no. 22.

Applied Neurogenetic Computing

Maple Grove, MN 55311

TSRs and More, a library of TSR management functions for C++, has been announced by TurboPower Software. The TSR manager enables TSRs to unload themselves, use configurable hot keys, prevent being loaded twice, and more. Only a 6K kernel remains in DOS memory, and functions are included for swapping conventional TSRs and XMS and EMS 4.9 memory management. TSRs and More supports 8087, huge arrays, DOS and BIOS access, and enhanced keyboard support.

The price of TSRs and More, including source code, is $149.00. Reader service no 23.

TurboPower Software

Colorado Springs, CO 80949-9009

PowerBuilder 2.0, a client/server development environment for building business applications, has been released by Powersoft. New to this version is its object-oriented architecture, with features such as inheritance, encapsulation, and user-defined objects. Other features include: an enriched set of database portability and management functions; the ability to support large-scale MIS projects, including report generation and object libraries with check-in/check-out procedures; and a complete implementation of Windows objects, events, functions, and communications, including OLE, MDI, DDE, and DLL calls.

PowerBuilder runs under Windows and is server independent. It costs $1495.00 for SQLBase and XDB; $3395.00 for SQL Server, Oracle, and AllBase/SQL; $3895.00 for DB2. Reader service no. 24.

Powersoft Corp.

70 Blanchard Road

Burlington, MA 01803

Geodyssey has released Hipparchus, a C and C++ object-module library for developing applications that deal with geographic location. Data objects are modeled as unrestricted sets of points, lines, or regions, and objects can be related to one another using spatial operators.

Hipparchus works with direction cosines and three-demensional vector algebra to calculate true distances and locations on an ellipsoidal model of the Earth. It can deal with objects below the surface, in the atmosphere, or in near space. A third-order orbit modeler lets you accurately predict the path and coverage of remote-sensing satellites.

Hipparchus' spatial indexing, based on a spherical interpretation of the Voronoi polygon principle, gives you speed of access but permits localized reorganization if the geographic distribution of your data changes. You can modify the spatial indexes and use them to access distributed multitheme geographic databases.

Hipparchus sells for $475.00. Reader service no. 25.

Geodyssey Limited

300, 815 Eighth Avenue SW

tvPAK is a new C++ class library from Faison Computing that extends the functionality of Turbo Vision. Over 25 classes provide support for validated data-entry fields, currency fields, picture fields with mask characters, line and box drawing, time and date fields, clock and calendar animated objects, and aligned-text fields. Most of these classes support property inspection, a feature that allows certain object attributes to be changed at run time.

DDJ spoke with Mike Dickason, a civil engineer with ASCG Inc. in Anchorage, Alaska, whose reaction was favorable. "This is the only product of its kind that works directly with Turbo Vision, and I particularly liked using property inspection with the date and time functions." He also pointed out the validated input fields as a positive feature.

The retail price is $49.95; source code is included. Reader service no. 26.

Faison Computing

Irvine, CA 92713-7722

Cobalt Blue has announced FOR_C++, a conversion package that offers automated code translation from Fortran to C++. FOR-C++ uses C++ objects such as manipulation of complex variables in algebraic form to handle complex data types. Advanced C++ constructs like enhanced support for call-by-reference, declarations after executable code, overloaded functions, and translation of statement functions as C++ inline functions are included.

FOR_C++ generates complete C++ function prototypes, and function calls are checked for consistent usage during translation and passed either by address or by reference in C++. FOR_C++ translates parameters as C++ constants to help program debugging, and class and structure types are user defined.

FOR_C++ for DOS costs $975.00; for SPARCstations, $1350.00. Runtime library source code is included. Reader service no. 27.

Cobalt Blue Inc.

875 Old Roswell Road, Suite D-400

Roswell, GA 30076

FIGt is a 3-D toolkit from Liant that combines object-oriented programming with PHIGS+ and PEX, the industry standards for creating 3-D graphics apps and running them on a network. FIGt combines PHIGS+ API's openness and portability with object-oriented code. Two- and three-dimensional graphics apps can be written with any standard PHIGS+ API products and run across a variety of systems.

FIGt has a library of preprogrammed objects that contain information about generating and manipulating graphics objects. Software is built by combining and associating objects. FIGt takes advantage of underlying PHIGS and X-Window system integration, applying consistent X programming methodologies such as color management and allocation. The library will also use the PHIGS APIs to drive PEX protocol, enabling development of distributed graphics applications with a higher-level programming interface than that of PEXlib alone.

The first release supports Sun PHIGS and FIGARO+; subsequent versions will support PHIGS APIs from Digital, HP, and IBM.

Prices begin at $1245.00. Reader service no. 28.

Liant Software Corp.

959 Concord Street

Framingham, MA 01701-4613

Copyright © 1992, Dr. Dobb's Journal