Of Interest

Dr. Dobb's Journal September 1999

Mabry Software has released NTUser/X, a collection of COM objects for accessing and managing users and groups for Windows NT. NTUser/X uses Windows NT security, and provides access to the users in the security database, allowing you to view and modify properties associated with a user. The NTUser/X component can be used in any 32-bit development environment capable of supporting COM environments. NTUser/XIt is royalty free and sells for $99.00; $299.00 with C++ source code.

mFlashTCP from JK Microsystems is a low-cost platform with a preinstalled DOS, NE2000 packet driver, and web server. mFlashTCP uses a 386Ex processor with 512 KB of static RAM and 512 KB of flash memory. It includes two RS-232 ports, Ethernet support via an NE2000-compatible controller, and 10 digital I/O lines. Development support includes WATTCP TCP/IP stack libraries integrated into the Borland C/C++ development environment. Source code for the web server and other TCP/IP services is included, as well as a toolkit that adds real-time multitasking extensions. Pricing for mFlashTCP is $169.00 for quantities of 100. The mFlashTCP Development kit costs $399.00, and the TCP/IP multitasking software toolkit costs $799.00.

Softlocx is a software-only security device that uses the same information as a hardware dongle to lock itself to the PC, but without additional hardware, keydisks, or distribution costs. The software binds software protection to any Win32 application, storing hardware information from the host PC into a secure 64-bit encrypted data license. It allows multiple protected applications to be run from the same PC, or multiple applications to share one license. Softlocx sells for $299.00 and is royalty free.

Objective Interface has announced an addition to its ORBexpress for C++ software line -- ORBexpress GT, an Object Request Broker for embedded applications. ORBexpress GT offers a minimal memory footprint for memory-constrained environments, has a unique Resource Allocation Control Environment, lets you plug in custom transports, and adds much less than 20 percent overhead when sending larger volumes of data. ORBexpress GT is available on multiple platforms, including Tornado/VxWorks, LynxOS, DEC Unix, Linux, SGI Irix, Solaris, and Windows 95/98/NT

Prolifics has released Panther, a framework for component-based development of applications. Its open architecture supports COM, CORBA, and Enterprise JavaBean component models, letting you integrate a range of components into your applications. The framework also includes a number of prebuilt components, as well as tools for web development and deployment.

Desaware has announced VersionStamper Version 6, a distribution toolkit that allows safe distribution of component-based applications created with development tools that support the full Microsoft Active Platform. Version 6 adds lightweight ATL-based components, a standalone emergency rescue program that can help resolve conflicts, and a dependency wizard for determining which components are used by an application and automatically creating scripts for verification and remote update. VersionStamper 6 sells for $249.00.

Desaware also released Version 2 of Desaware ActiveX Gallimaufry, a suite of nine ActiveX controls and components including Twain Scanner Control, Banner Control, HexEdit Control, PerList Control, MDI Taskbar Control, RotatePic Control, SpiralBox Control, CommonDialog Component, and Gallimaufry Component Library. Desaware ActiveX Gallimaufry Version 2 sells for $149.00.

SGI has released its MIPSpro 7.3 compiler suite, which includes C, C++, and Fortran compilers for the MIPS processor. MIPSpro 7.3 supports the OpenMP specification for creating parallelized programs that run across multiple operating systems and processors.

EmWare's EMIT 3.0 SDK Pro offers embedded-systems developers a suite of emWare tools to build complete device-networking prototypes. The kit includes sample code and reference boards. Highlights include emGateway server software, emMicro device software, the new emAccess subnet device router software, and emLink for networking nonEMIT enabled devices. The full EMIT 3.0 SDK Pro costs $3995.00; the software-only version costs $3295.00.

Artisan Software Tools has introduced Real-time Modeler, an entry-level UML-based modeling tool for real-time systems. Real-time Modeler features UML modeling with real-time extensions, a flexible multiuser architecture, professional automatic document generation into Microsoft Word, and Real-time Perspective Mentor (an HTML-based tutorial). A single-user license costs $995.00, while a multiuser floating licenses costs $1795.00.

JustProgress from Mainstay is a set of web-based Gantt chart Java applets used to plan, track, and display project status. JustProgress provides a full-featured scrolling timeline that displays year, month, day, and date. A background GIF and background/foreground colors can be used to personalize the calendar. Task title width is variable and a task can be linked to a URL to display a lower-level schedule or associated task information. Taskbars offer standard geometric start and end shapes, and fill colors are selectable. JustProgress sells for $99.95 for a single-user license.

To overcome the calculation limitations and loopholes of C++, Base One International has announced its new Base/1 Number Class software. This class library lets you improve the accuracy of arithmetic in any C++ application and is a general-purpose alternative to the built-in numeric data types of C++, the additional safeguards against a variety of errors. Features include exact decimal arithmetic, up to 100 significant digits of precision, elimination of pervasive rounding errors, and automatic detection of overflows, efficient arithmetic on both very large and very small numbers, fast comparison logic, compact representation, and support for null values. Number Class sells for $199.00, and includes fully documented ANSI C++ source code.

OG Software has released its POO library for the X Window System, Microsoft Windows, and IBM OS/2 Warp. Using the open, put, get, and close functions in the POO library, you can implement multiwindowed, multithreaded applications in C and/or Fortran that are portable among these windowing systems. The implementations support scrolling, I/O direction, typeahead, input editing, cut-and-paste for input and files, generalized line reentry, function-key string assignments, user-specified window attributes, and file system browsing and include a number of user-portability features. The POO library sells for $20.00.

Cotelligent's CotelliGEN Tool lets you generate COM component Visual Basic code for each tier of an n-tier application. The COM objects are intended to run inside or outside the Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) with full transactional control. The generated stored procedures support data retrieval and all data maintenance activities. The CotelliGEN Tool incorporates and extends the n-tier design pattern described in the document "A Scalable Architecture" (see http://www.adbark.com/ scalable/) to accommodate parent, child, and descendent relationships between tables and/or views.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently published the Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS) Standard (ISO/IEC 15291:1999). ASIS provides a standard way for tools to extract data that are best collected by an Ada compiler or other source-code analyzer. Tools which use ASIS are themselves written in Ada, and can be ported between Ada compilers that support ASIS. Using ASIS, you can produce powerful code analysis tools with a high degree of portability. You can also save the expense of implementing the algorithms that extract semantic information from the source program. The ASIS Standard is available via the ISO Catalog at http://www.iso.ch/ infoe/catinfo.html; the ASIS specific reference is located at http://www.iso.ch/ cate/d27169.html.

REBOL Technologies has announced REBOL 2.1, the latest release of the scripting language that runs 30 platforms, including Windows, Macintosh, Linux, PalmOS, and Windows CE. REBOL has little syntax, and stores and transfers all of its data as text. REBOL is compact and platform independent, and provides built-in networking support. New features in REBOL 2.1 include an XML parser, refined security such as sandbox directories, and new network features, such as direct access to NNTP. REBOL is freely available from the company's web site.

ATS Automated Training Systems has released the ATS RPG Programming Training Bundle, a bundle of eight interactive, self-paced training courses and reference materials for RPG programming. It consists of: Introduction to AS/400, System Operations, Program Development, Control Language Programming, Data Description Specifications, RPG/400 Programming, RPG/400 Interactive Programming, and RPG/400 Subfile Programming. The ATS RPG Programming Training Bundle sells for $5300.00.

Ives Development's TeamStudio Librarian is the latest addition to the TeamStudio suite of software engineering tools for Lotus Notes and Domino. TeamStudio Librarian provides a straightforward way to build libraries of sharable design elements such as subforms, agents, and script libraries. TeamStudio Librarian works with Lotus Notes R4 and R5. Librarian is priced at $425.00 per developer seat, which includes maintenance and unlimited technical support for one year.

EasyUpdate from Mijenix is an SDK that both developers and IT managers can use to create a customized update engine for their applications. EasyUpdate works with most standard HTTP and FTP servers and will also work through most types of firewalls and proxy servers. EasyUpdate can display custom information or advertising during the download process. EasyUpdate can replace old components with new, downloaded components, or run one of the downloaded files to complete the installation. The EasyUpdate SDK supports Windows 95/98/NT. The developer price is $299.00, sold on a per product, per language basis. Members of the Association of Shareware Professionals can receive the product for a special price of $149.95 by contacting Mijenix.

CAE Plus has announced Afterburner, a tool that enables ASIC designers to verify new and existing designs by generating TL-accurate C simulators. Afterburner lets you reuse existing Verilog models for new designs, and maintains consistency between the Verliog source code and the generated C simulator.

DDJ