OF INTEREST

Microsoft has licensed MPEG software- playback technology from Mediamatics for inclusion in future versions of Windows. This will enable users to experience TV-like video and CD-quality sound without special add-on hardware. MPEG is a compression/decompression (codec) system for compressing full-screen, VHS-quality digital video and CD-quality audio into small files. Currently, Windows 95-based MPEG video playback performance from CD-ROMs on 90-MHz Pentium-class computers is approximately 24 frames per second with 11-kHz audio.

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

SQA has announced object-level support for the testing of all Visual Basic objects and Visual Basic custom controls (VBXs) in its SQA TeamTest tool. With SQA TeamTest's support for VBXs, you simply click on the VBX while running SQA TeamTest. All properties and data of that VBX are displayed, allowing you to create a baseline for testing subsequent builds of the application. SQA's VBX testing technology requires no modifications to the application being tested. In addition, SQA TeamTest allows users to edit the baseline data during test recording, changing any data or properties.

10 State Street

Woburn, MA 01801

Zinc Software has released Version 4.1 of Zinc Application Framework, a C++ class library and visual development tool. Zinc 4.1 lets you create globally enabled, object-oriented, cross-platform applications with one set of source code. Among the additions and enhancements, Version 4.1 includes a new Image object, allowing the display of large bitmaps from native file formats; a new File object, allowing Zinc applications to read/write portable binary files on any operating system; new CTL3D support for Windows, improving the look of Windows applications; an improved Help display; support for dot-matrix printers in MS-DOS applications; easier function names; and improved performance. Zinc Application Framework is licensed on a per developer, per platform basis.

405 South 100 East

Pleasant Grove, UT 84062

S3 Inc. has announced a new multimedia chipset based on its "cooperative accelerator architecture" which, the company claims, offers TV-quality video and CD-quality audio for desktop applications. S3's three-chip offering is hardware that integrates graphics, audio, and MPEG onto the PC motherboard.

S3's Cooperative Accelerator Architecture divides the work between dedicated S3 hardware and software executing on the PC's CPU to provide enhanced graphics and MPEG-based video and audio performance. The result is TV-quality, full-screen 30 frames-per-second (FPS) live video or MPEG video, and CD-quality audio. The S3 Streams Processor uses parallel processing to provide the broadcast-quality special effects and greatly reduced response times required for graphics-packed interactive games and multimedia titles.

2770 San Tomas Expwy.

Santa Clara, CA 95051

Microsoft has announced that Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server Version 3.51 includes support for PowerPC-based systems. PowerPC becomes the fourth platform supported by Windows NT (others include Intel, DEC Alpha AXP, and MIPS). Hardware vendors planning to sell Windows NT on the PowerPC include FirePower Systems, IBM, IPC Technologies, Motorola Computer Group, and Reply Corp. During the next few months, Microsoft plans to release development tools for the PowerPC, including Visual C++, Microsoft Test, and SNA Server.

Windows NT Server 3.51 also contains the upgraded Network Client Administrator utility, making it easier for customers to deploy Windows 95. The expanded utility allows administrators to create a boot disk to install Windows 95 over the network.

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

The Multimedia PC Working Group has released the Multimedia PC Level 3 Specification, an updated standard for Multimedia PCs. The new standard includes improved sound and video performance requirements.

Minimum requirements for MPC3 include support for MPEG1 plus software-implemented video codecs, a 75-MHz Pentium or similar processor, quadruple-speed CD-ROM drive, and wavetable sound. The new requirements will provide hardware that delivers full-screen, full-motion video, and enhanced CD-quality sound while playing demanding multimedia programs. MPC3 does not replace MPC2, which was released in 1993. Software that runs on MPC- and MPC2-compliant hardware will also run on MPC3-compliant hardware.

The Multimedia PC Working Group will provide hardware test suites to measure MPC3 compliance. The test suites, produced in cooperation with the National Software Testing Laboratories, check for individual component compliance as well as total system performance. The tests establish whether the computer is delivering MPC compliance in the key areas of processing speed, video playback, graphics performance, and audio.

Software Publishers Association

1730 M Street NW, Suite 700

Washington, DC 20036-4510

California Software is shipping InterAp, a set of integrated and customizable windows applications for accessing services and information on the Internet. InterAp includes several "intelligent agents" that automate many Internet processes for searching and retrieving information on the Internet, and then publishing the results in many useful ways. These agents may also be integrated with existing windows applications, or with other InterAp applications, including the World Wide Web Navigator, Telnet, FTP, and secure mail messaging.

InterAp's intelligent agents are based on the published NetScripts API and are designed to do many of the repetitive and time-consuming Internet tasks. They work in conjunction with the scheduler to perform these tasks in attended or unattended modes. Once the information is found, it can be received in the form of an e-mail message or formatted and published as a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Four intelligent agents ship with the toolkit: NetNews Wizard, which enables the user to conduct key word searches through NetNews articles; Web Publisher, which provides users with the ability to do research on the Internet by automatically accessing information published on the World Wide Web; FTP Publisher, which automates the FTP process and allows users to intelligently move binary and text files around the Internet; and Mail Publisher, which scans the to, from, subject, and text fields of incoming messages and then redistributes messages to a defined list of recipients.

The intelligent agents supplied within InterAp are Visual Basic programs that can be further integrated with existing applications or used to create new agents using Visual Basic, Visual C++, and other programming languages. Programmers can develop customized agents that match their own business model using the NetScripts API reference guide. InterAp sells for $99.95.

California Software Inc.

2121 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Suite 120a

Corona del Mar, CA 92625

http://www.calsoft.com

Wollongong has announced a new family of Internet-access applications called "Emissary" that combines a range of Internet facilities such as Web browsing, mail, news reading, file retrieval, and interactive access into a single, integrated Windows application. The package is based on an open API that allows components to be "snapped in" easily. New components can take advantage of dozens of existing shared services provided by Emissary. In addition, new services can be added or existing ones updated. As a result, you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time you add a new capability. The package costs $99.00.

1129 San Antonio Road

Palo Alto, CA 94303

Tower Technology has released a Windows NT implementation of its TowerEiffel system. Previously, the system supported SunOS, Solaris, HP/UX, NextStep, and OS/2. The system now includes an Eiffel 3 compiler, development environment, and programming tools. TowerEiffel interoperates between Eiffel and C++, allowing you to utilize existing C++ libraries or add memory management to C++ programs. A prerelease version of the TowerEiffel for Windows sells for $249.00.

Tower Technology

1501 West Koenig Lane

Austin, TX 78765

http://www.ca.cf.cm.uk/Tower/

Ryan McFarland has announced VanGui for RM/Cobol, an interface builder that uses Visual Basic custom control (VBXs) for building Windows-based front ends for Cobol applications. VanGui consists of two major components: a design tool and a run-time system. The design tool is a Windows app that provides Cobol developers with the capability to define windows, populate those windows with standard Windows and VBX controls, adjust the properties of the controls, and attach Cobol event-handling logic to the events. The run-time system is a Windows DLL that manages Windows messages, provides run-time support for the controls, and provides a Cobol interface to the Windows API.

8911 N. Capital of Texas Hwy.

Austin, TX 78759

DDC-I has announced DACS-95, an Ada 95-compliant version of its Ada development system. The system also includes all the surrounding mechanics for program- library management, syntax analysis, automatic recompilation, internal program representation, and run-time system interface.

410 N. 44th Street

Phoenix, AZ 85008

Orion Instruments is providing a free booklet entitled Contemporary Debugging Strategies: Choosing the Right Tool for Embedded System Development and Testing. The booklet, written by Dick Jensen and Jan Liband, covers a variety of topics, including: logical, physical, and real-time debugging domains; targetless debugging; emulation; modularized reusable code; and more.

Orion Instruments

1376 Borregas Ave.

Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1004

http://www.oritools.com

Rogue Wave has announced a library called Rogue Wave Tools for MFC, which includes data structures that enhance the Microsoft Foundation Class library. The toolkit includes a sorted binary-tree collection, as well as string classes that support regular expressions. Additionally, the kit provides advanced data and time functions and a timer class. Rogue Wave Tools for MFC sells for $150.00 (including source code).

Rogue Wave Software

Corvallis, OR 97339

Visual Systems has announced GUI-Kit 1.1, a 32-bit, cross-platform GUI C/C++ toolkit for Win32s and NT development. Release 1.1 provides additional compiler support (Visual C++, Borland C++, Watcom C++, and Symantec C++), hypertext-based online programmer's reference, and improved performance. GUI-Kit supports 32-bit, cross-platform development under Windows 3.x (Win32s) and Windows NT. The toolkit costs $495.00, and there are no run-time fees.

2512 Crosstown Blvd., NE

Ham Lake, MN 55304

C-Fog is an application for obfuscating C programs for developers who need to distribute source code to multiple platforms. C-Fog uses the C preprocessor to incorporate the contents of include files into the source file and execute all preprocessor directives. It also replaces all identifier names (including function names) with a generic style of name. Furthermore, C-Fog removes the physical structure of the program, removes comments, and "octalizes" strings. C-Fog sells for $24.00. A shareware version of C-Fog is available at the vendor's WWW home page.

253 College Street, Suite 263

http://www.io.org/~jrsys

SftTree 1.0 from Softel vdm is a custom tree control for Windows. SftTree supports in-place editing of tree-item data using any Windows control. SftTree offers hierarchical data display (multiple data columns, multiple text lines per item, built-in column heads, and so on), 3-D item display, drag-and-drop, and more. The package sells for $249.00 (single user) and is royalty free.

11 Michigan Ave.

Wharton, NJ 07885

Syware has released its Dr. DeeBee ODBC Driver Kit, which enables legacy and proprietary databases to be used with database tools such as Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, and Crystal Reports. The ODBC kit contains source code for a fully functional ODBC driver that provides an SQL parser, semanticizer, query processor, and all ODBC housekeeping functions. The royalty-free ODBC Driver Kit features ODBC 2.0 conformance and character and numeric data types. The Dr. DeeBee ODBC Driver Kit sells for $1800.00; a dBase ODBC driver created from this kit for Windows 3.1/NT/95 is available at no charge.

P.O. Box 91 Kendall

Cambridge, MA 02142

Copyright © 1995, Dr. Dobb's Journal