Dr. Dobb's Journal August 2000
DarkBASIC is a Windows-based development environment designed to let you tap directly into the DirectX architecture. DarkBASIC programs are compiled into optimized scripts that run almost as fast as C. DarkBASIC supports numerous graphics features, including automated double buffering, full-screen display modes, AVI animation control, MIDI music control, and 3D sound effects. Supported 2D and 3D features include landscape terraforming, dynamic model space, polygon collision detection, model animation, ambient lighting, alphablending, fogging, and more. DarkBASIC is available on CD-ROM for $70.00. A trial version of DarkBASIC, along with documentation and special-effect demos and tools, is available at the company's web site.
Dark Basic Software Ltd.
4 Nancy View
Bollington, Cheshire
SK10 5QG, UK
http://www.darkbasic.com/
The Python development team has joined the startup company BeOpen.com, and Python-creator Guido Van Rossum has been named director of the PythonLabs development team. The team includes three of Van Rossum's former colleagues at CNRI: Fred Drake, Jeremy Hylton, and Barry Warsaw. Tim Peters will also join the team shortly. Python 1.6 will be the last release from CNRI and all future releases will be from BeOpen.com. Python will remain Open Source, and http:// www.python.org/, hosted by CNRI, will remain the primary web site for the Python community.
BeOpen.com
160 Saratoga Avenue
Santa Clara, CA 95051
http://www.pythonlabs.com/
Spider Software has ported its SpiderSTREAMS -- a platform for the deployment of wide-area communications protocols -- to Linux. The STREAMS protocol stacks run as a Linux process, interacting with applications through an interprocess communication driver. It requires no modifications to the Linux kernel code. Frame Relay and X.25 will be the first protocols to be deployed by Spider in a Linux environment. The initial release will be on PC hardware and PCI interface cards.
Spider Software Inc.
3131 East Camelback Drive, Suite 200
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-606-5780
http://www.spider.com/
Functional Developer 2.0, a Windows-based development environment for the Dylan language, is now available from Functional Objects. The release is an upgrade to Harlequin Dylan 1.2, adding performance profiling, Visual SourceSafe support, macro debugging facilities, network-based debugging and interaction, incremental search, dynamic completion, call tracing, and register browsing. New open-source libraries include Deuce, an Emacs-like editor, and DOOD, a persistence and serialization mechanism.
Functional Objects Inc.
86 Chandler Street
Somerville, MA 02144-1912
617-625-7289
http://www.functionalobjects.com/
Oakdale Engineering has announced that DataFit 7.0 is now shipping. DataFit is designed to aid in the tasks of curve fitting (nonlinear regression), statistical analysis, and data presentation. It determines whether a relationship exists between two or more variables, describes the nature of the relationship in the form of a mathematical equation, and then assesses the degree of accuracy of prediction achieved by the equation. Improvements in Version 7.0 include a reduction in solution time, enhanced 2D and 3D plotting capabilities, the addition of plot templates, stepwise variable selection procedures (data mining), enhanced data importing and editing features, and enhancements to nongraphical macro features. DataFit runs on Windows and costs $199.00 for a single-user license.
Oakdale Engineering
23 Tomey Road
Oakdale, PA 15071
724-693-0320
http://www.curvefitting.com/
ProWorks LLC has released Flipper Graph Control 2.0, an upgrade to its ActiveX charting control. Version 2.0 features include enhanced compatibility with the Web, increased flexibility for scientific and financial charts, an improved look and feel, and greater customizing capability. Other features include ADO Recordset reading, OLE drag-and-drop support, tool tips, and improved date formatting and incrementing. Graph types include 2D and 3D line, bar, points, areas, stacked bars, hi-lo, pie, bubble, spider, and true 3D surfaces. Multiple graphs can be added to the control for drill-down functions or merged to present data on more than two y-axes.
ProWorks LLC
2371 NW Maser Drive
Corvallis, OR 97330
541-752-9885
http://www.proworks.com/
Software AG has launched Tamino, a native XML information server that provides web-enabled data exchange and application integration. Tamino can store and treat data structures of any kind as XML objects, increasing interoperability of data among applications. XML data without a previously defined structure is also accepted and stored. Tamino can provide additional communication channels as necessary by adopting existing HTTP servers, and it supports single-sign-on security systems and existing methods of encryption (RACF, NTLM, Kerberos, and SSL). It is available now for Windows NT, with versions for UNIX, Linux, and IBM mainframes to follow later this year.
Software AG
Bishop Ranch 3
2613 Camino Ramon, Suite 110
San Ramon, CA 94583
925-242-3700
http://www.softwareagusa.com/
SL Corporation unveiled a new suite of SL-GMS tools for component-based technologies: The AX/Developer is for applications that require dynamic graphics in an ActiveX environment; the C++/Developer supports a range of graphics displays and user interfaces using C++; the J/Developer is designed for quick prototyping and deployment of Java applications and applets; Custom Editor creates custom editors for virtually any control system; and J/Net, C++/Map, and C++Net are extensions to C++/Developer and J/Developer for telecommunications and network management applications.
SL Corp.
Suite 110 Hunt Plaza
240 Tamal Vista Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA 94925
415-927-1724
http://www.sl.com/
ActiveBatch 3.0, a distributed job-management and scheduling system, has been released by Advanced Systems Concepts. ActiveBatch supports execution of batch jobs and streams across a set of platforms including NT, UNIX, and OpenVMS. It is script-language independent and can be used to submit jobs via languages such as XLNT, Perl, VBScript, Java, and BAT (CMD). Jobs can be scheduled ad hoc, on a recurring basis, or in response to event triggers, and jobs can also be started and submitted based on the results and status of previously submitted jobs. ActiveBatch records and examines all jobs; jobs can be monitored for possible failure based on Elapsed Time and CPU time; and restarting of jobs is allowed.
Advanced Systems Concepts Inc.
33-41 Newark Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5604
201-798-6400
http://www.advsyscon.com/
SOT, a Linux vendor in Finland, has released its Best Linux 2000 R2-Moscow distribution for Russian-speaking users. The new version is also available in English, Swedish, and Finnish, and includes Xfree 4.0, kernel Version 2.2.14, and Star Office. The Best Linux 2000 boxed set also includes lifetime installation support.
SOT Finnish Software Engineering Ltd.
Hermiankatu 8E
FIN-33720 Tampere, Finland
358-3-316-5544
http://www.sot.com/
Real Time Integration has announced the next generation of its NetAcquire Java Toolkit (with integrated JavaBeans support) for creating Java test and measurement applications and Java virtual instrument front-panels. NetAcquire Java Toolkit applications perform real-world data acquisition and control by communicating with any member of the NetAcquire family of network data acquisition and control servers. (NetAcquire hardware makes analog, digital, and serial data available over any Ethernet network.) A completed application runs on any computer or operating system that supports Java 1.1. The NetAcquire Java Toolkit offers an open architecture environment, interfaces to third-party JavaBeans class libraries, and is compatible with a variety of JavaBeans development environments including Symantec Visual Café.
Real Time Integration
733 7th Avenue
Kirkland, WA 98033
425-576-0822
http://www.realtimeint.com/
Intuitive Edge has released Datatypes++ 1.0, a Windows class library that brings 25 text, numeric, time, and binary datatypes to C++, similar to those found in Java, SQL, and Visual Basic. The text types can be converted to and from all other types in dozens of dialects and include Unicode support. The numeric types include a decimal type that can represent fixed or dynamic high-precision numbers. The time types (time, date, and timestamp) can represent time in 100 world clocks with nanosecond precision. The binary datatypes include support for binary large objects and bitsets. Both Microsoft and Borland C++ compilers are supported.
Intuitive Edge Corp.
13400 Northup Way, Suite 47
Bellevue, WA 98005
425-746-5925
http://www.intuitiveedge.com/
Inner Media has begun shipping DynaZIP-GT, a royalty-free Gzip and Tar (Posix) compatible data compression toolkit for Windows. DynaZIP-GT lets you read/write standard Gzip and Tar files under program control. These files are fully compatible and may be shared with other Gzip and Tar programs and utilities on both Windows and UNIX-compatible platforms. Included is full support for file-to-file, file-to-memory, and memory-to-memory operations, multithreading, Active Server Page web pages, status reporting, and background operations.
Inner Media Inc.
60 Plain Road
Hollis, NH 03049
603-465-3216
http://www.innermedia.com/
TimeSys has announced the availability of its TimeSys Linux/RT 1.0, a real-time variation of the Linux OS for embedded systems. The TimeSys Linux/RT distribution includes subsystems that combine to handle a variety of application requirements from small footprint to full-featured architectures. The most critical subsystem is the Resource Kernel, which supports fixed-priority scheduling, and priority inheritance, high-resolution timers and clocks, and support for a Temporal Firewall. TimeSys also provides installation support, training services, and supporting tools.
TimeSys Corp.
4516 Henry Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-681-6899
http://www.timesys.com/
Jungo's GO Hot-Swap enables Hot Swap support on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and VxWorks. Hot Swap is a facility that enables insertion and removal of Compact PCI cards into a Compact PCI-based back plane while the system is running. Jungo has three deployment methods: the development toolkit is designed for Compact PCI hardware vendors; the Agent is designed for system integrators; and the OS Extender is designed for system board vendors or operating-system vendors.
Jungo Ltd.
P.O.B. 8493
New Industrial Center Nordau
42504 Natanya, Israel
972-9-885-9365
http://www.jungo.com/
Unify has developed Unify eWave ServletExec 3.0, a Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages engine. It enables server-side Java functionality and integration with backend systems. The feature set incorporates support for the Java Servlet API 2.2 and JSP 1.1 standards; client certificates; in-process and out-of-process configurations for Microsoft IIS, Netscape Enterprise Server, iPlanet Web Server, Apache Web Server; and support for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Linux.
Unify Corp.
100 Century Center Court, 3rd Floor
San Jose, California 95112
408-451-2000
http://www.unify.com/
New features for the Version 7.0 of Vital's CRiSP visual text editor include multiple document support, a more advanced file compare facility, both GUI and character modes, a built-in ftp client, the capability to edit text and binary files above 2 GB, template/smart editing, dynamic spell checking, intraline differencing/merging, a projects facility, and code beautifying for HTML, C/C++, and XML. CRiSP supports a variety of platforms including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and UNIX.
Vital Inc.
5136 Village Creek Drive
Plano, TX 75093
972-818-2424
http://www.vital.com/
Microware has issued a new version of Personal Java for its OS-9 embedded processor. Personal Java 3.0.1 has faster execution, a smaller footprint, multiple windows support, and a Java Profiler Interface allowing tools to interface with Java and evaluate the performance of Java applications remotely. You can download Java classes from a central spot to the OS 9 devices and also create plug-ins in C, C++, or assembly languages that can be downloaded to the device through wired or wireless networks.
Microware Systems Corp.
1500 NW 118th Street
Des Moines, IA 50325
515-223-8000
http://www.microware.com/
DDJ