sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Third Party Product Announcements SunFLASH Vol 61 #2 January 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61.02 Third Party Product Announcements 5 articles, 586 lines ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstracts 61.02.A ER Mapper image processing system 4.1 for SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2.x Earth Resource Mapping, developers of the ER Mapper image processing system for earth science applications, today announced the release of ER Mapper 4.1 for SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2.x. Earth Resource Mapping and their worldwide distributor network provide free ER Mapper CD-ROMs upon request for those interested in evaluating the product. (132 lines) 61.02.B ASK Group Expands Partnership With Sun The ASK Group, developers of Ingres, announced the expansion of its current strategic partnership with Sun Microsystems: o joint engineering effort (ASK Products on Sun first) o joint sales, marketing and technology development of ASK MANMAN/X on Sun/Solaris/SPARC o ASK & SunSoft to collaborate on connectivity solutions o ASK Group to support the Public Windows Interface (PWI) (120 lines) 61.02.C DeskLab Analog Data Acquisition and Voice/Telephony Product Gradient Technology's DeskLab 216 now supports Solaris 2. The SCSI-based DeskLab hardware provides real-time functionality and data buffering, and it installs like a SCSI hard disk. An optional two port analog telephone interface supports DTMF detection. (27 lines) 61.02.D Aurora SBus Token Ring Adapter Adds Solaris 2.X Compatibility Aurora Technologies has added Solaris 2.X compatibility to its SBus Token Ring Adapter list of features, allowing users of the Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation 10, SPARCcenter 1000/2000, SPARCclassic and LX models to communicate over 4/16 Mbit Token Ring networks. (122 lines) 61.02.E Druid - Programming by Demonstration of GUIs The Druid user interface management system is a software development tool that assists the developer in designing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for applications and automatically generates the UIL and C or C++ code for the user interface. The developer directly manipulates user interface components (menus, buttons, panels, scales etc) to design the layout of the GUI and then specifies interactive command sequences by using programming by demonstration. Based on this specification, Druid automatically generates the code for the interface. Druid manages the user interface code and enables the developer to rapidly develop and easily modify the user interface. Druid is based on the X window system. (92 lines) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Details ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 61.02.A Subject: ER Mapper image processing system 4.1 for SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2.x From: Eric Augenstein Org: Earth Resource Mapping Address: 4370 La Jolla Village Drive, Suite 900 San Diego, CA 92122 Tel: 619-558-4709 Fax: 619-558-2657 E-mail: eric@ermusa.com (see end of article for non-US contacts) EARTH RESOURCE MAPPING ANNOUNCES ER MAPPER 4.1 FOR SUNOS AND SOLARIS 29 Nov 1993, San Diego, CA - Earth Resource Mapping, developers of the ER Mapper image processing system for earth science applications, today announced the release of ER Mapper 4.1 for SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2.x. Earth Resource Mapping and their worldwide distributor network provide free ER Mapper CD-ROMs upon request for those interested in evaluating the product. Product Overview ---------------- ER Mapper is an advanced digital image processing system created to help earth scientists integrate, enhance, visualize, and interpret their geographic data. ER Mapper was designed and developed for the Sun workstation environment and features an innovative X Windows graphical user interface that streamlines and simplifies complex image processing operations. ER Mapper processes satellite data (such as Landsat and SPOT), along with airborne, geophysical, seismic, digital terrain, GIS vector data, and many other earth science data types. Typical applications include resource management, environmental monitoring, urban planning, oceanography, planetary science, and oil, gas, and mineral exploration. Users can process their data to create fully annotated thematic maps for any type of earth science application. ER Mapper was designed to make image processing easier to use as a tool, so that professionals of all skill levels and disciplines can harness the power of today's advanced digital mapping and remote sensing technologies. ER Mapper's image processing engine is designed around a new concept called "algorithms," that allows you to specify a sequence of image processing operations (an algorithm) and apply them to the data interactively. Rather than having to write each set of changes to an intermediate disk file (as conventional products must), ER Mapper can compute all changes from the raw data on demand and render them directly to the display. This innovative approach lets you process your geographic data in real time, greatly reduces disk requirements, and provides a fast, flexible "what if" tool for earth scientists in all application arenas. ER Mapper provides many other features, including: - Image rectification and geocoding, with over 700 map projections - Supervised and unsupervised image classification - Integration of raster, vector, and tabular data - Over 200 processing algorithms for standard data transforms and enhancement techniques - Interactive integration of data of different types and cell sizes - Automatic image mosaicking - Professional quality map composition - Multiple geographically-linked image windows - Dynamic Links to GIS and DBMS products - Imports over 80 different raster and vector data formats - Output to over 180 hardcopy devices and file formats In addition to advanced image processing technology, ER Mapper is also an "open" system that is user-extendable. ER Mapper's Dynamic Links concept allows you to directly display data from external systems (such as GIS and DBMS products) and file formats (such as DXF and PostScript) without having to manually convert the data. You can seamlessly integrate your own C or FORTRAN code into the processing stream, and all internal file formats are fully documented. Unique Software Benefits ------------------------ When compared to other earth science image processing products on the market, ER Mapper provides several unique benefits: - The graphical user interface is genuinely easy to learn and use, reducing the learning curve and increasing user productivity. - Real time processing increases processing speed up to 10 to 20 times for faster, interactive visualization of geographic data. - Users may work with the standard processing algorithms, or easily build and save their own algorithms for future use. - All functionality is contained in one tightly integrated module, rather than requiring users to jump between separate modules for specific types of processing. - Reduced disk requirements, since you do not need to store multiple intermediate copies of the original data on disk. - Dynamic integration of data of different types (i.e., integer versus real) and cell sizes without needing to resample or regrid datasets to a common type and cell size. - A truly open, user extendable system that can be connected to other products and tailored to any image processing need. Worldwide Distribution and Marketing Contacts --------------------------------------------- Interested parties may contact any of the following Earth Resource Mapping offices for information about ER Mapper, the local ER Mapper distributor in your area, and a free evaluation CD-ROM: Americas Region Office: Earth Resource Mapping 4370 La Jolla Village Drive, Suite 900 San Diego, California, 92122 USA Tel: +1 619-558-4709 Fax: +1 619-558-2657 E-mail: queries@ermusa.com European Region Office: Earth Resource Mapping Sefton Park, Stoke Poges Buckinghamshire SL2 4HB United Kingdom Tel: +44 753 664-112 Fax: +44 753 664-105 E-mail: fleur@erm.oz.au Pacific Region Office: Earth Resource Mapping Level 2 87 Colin Street, West Perth Western Australia 6005 Tel: +61 9 388-2900 Fax: +61 9 388-2901 E-mail: sharon@erm.oz.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61.02.B Subject: ASK Group Expands Partnership With Sun From: bconnors@ingres.com MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via First! -- The ASK Group Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS:ASKI), strategic business software developer and one of the largest independent software companies worldwide, Wednesday announced the expansion of its current strategic partnership with Sun Microsystems Inc. to include a series of worldwide cooperative technology, marketing and sales programs. Pier Carlo Falotti, president and chief executive officer of the ASK Group, said the enhanced partnership leverages the distribution, product, industry and selling strengths of both organizations to provide customers with world-class enterprise computing solutions. The enhanced relationship includes four separate product development and marketing agreements that span the entire breadth of ASK Group and Sun products, including the ASK Group's backbone relational database management systems (RDBMS), application development tools, and manufacturing business management systems, and Sun's complete product line of SPARCstations and SPARCservers. "Partners like the ASK Group enable us to incorporate leading technologies to serve the needs of the commercial computing marketplace," said Scott McNealy, president and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems Inc. "Our expanded relationship with the ASK Group to develop, test and tune products for Sun platforms will ensure that our mutual customers realize the benefits of rightsizing solutions in a fully distributed, client/server environment." One agreement includes a joint engineering effort with Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. (SMCC), an operating company of Sun Microsystems Inc., that has the two companies cooperating to provide Sun customers with increased performance and enhanced support for ASK Group products and ensures that ASK Group products are available first on Sun. Initial projects are focusing on performance tuning and optimization of the ASK INGRES database products specifically for SPARC/Solaris. Related projects will include benchmark tests and cooperative engineering on current and future releases of the ASK Group RDBMS product portfolio, which includes the ASK OpenINGRES Intelligent Database and the ASK Open ROAD family of application development tools. An agreement announced yesterday at the Autofact Exposition in Chicago has the ASK Group and SMCC jointly delivering distributed client/server products for the manufacturing market. Sun and the ASK Group will engage in joint sales, marketing and technology development efforts to provide ASK MANMAN/X, the industry's fastest-selling open manufacturing business management system, on SMCC's line of workstations and multiprocessing servers running the Solaris distributed software environment. The products are available to order today. The third agreement has the ASK Group and SunSoft, the system software subsidiary of Sun Microsystems Inc., collaborating to offer transparent connectivity solutions which allow ASK INGRES products to run on the Solaris environment across heterogeneous hardware platforms. In addition to supporting SMCC's Solaris-based family of workstations and multiprocessing servers, the ASK Group and SunSoft are currently porting ASK INGRES products to the Solaris x86 (Intel) environment. This new x86 product will give both companies' customers greater software choice across multiple platforms and expand their available application base. The fourth agreement announced today is an arrangement with SunSelect, a Sun Microsystems Inc. business, that has the ASK Group joining forces with Sun to support the Public Windows Interface (PWI). Other supporters of PWI include leading ISVs (independent software vendors), systems vendors and end users, such as American Airlines, Borland International, Word Perfect, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, SMCC, and Norwegian Telecom. PWI is a specification that will transform the Microsoft Windows application programming interface (API) into an open standard. The specification, spearheaded by SunSelect and other industry leaders, will better define the existing interface, and will ultimately be controlled by a neutral standards organization. PWI will provide end users with a greater choice of vendors, while giving developers the benefits of a stable API. Recently, the ASK Group announced new products developed on the Sun platform, including ASK INGRES/Replicator, ASK INGRES/Enhanced Security and the ASK OpenROAD family of application development tools. OpenROAD, which stands for open Rapid Object Application Development, allows customers to rapidly develop and refine the information systems that run their global organizations. Mutual ASK Group and Sun customers directly benefit from this development on Sun because new ASK Group software products and versions are available first on Sun and optimized in the SPARC/Solaris environment for best possible performance and functionality. Sun Microsystems Inc. is an integrated portfolio of businesses that supply distributed computing technologies, products and services. Its innovative open client/server computing solutions include networked workstations and multiprocessing servers, operating system software, silicon designs and other value-added technologies. According to analysts, the company's products command the largest share of one of the computer industry's fastest growing market segments: workstations and servers. Founded in 1982, Sun is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Mountain View. The ASK Group Inc. is the leading developer and integrator of strategic business software, providing corporations with the technologies and services to build, connect, manage, and maintain information systems. With revenue of $426 million for fiscal year ended June 30, 1993, the company employs more than 2,300 people in 82 offices who serve customers worldwide. ASK, ASK OpenINGRES Intelligent Database, ASK OpenROAD, ASK MANMAN/X, ASK INGRES/Replicator and ASK INGRES/Enhanced Security are registered trademarks or trademarks of The ASK Group Inc. (this press release is reprinted with permission) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61.02.C Subject: DeskLab Analog Data Acquisition and Voice/Telephony Product From: Ed Devinney Org: Gradient Technology, Inc. 95B Connecticut Drive Burlington, NJ 08016 Tel: 609-387-5000 Fax: 609-387-5001 email: info@gradtech.com Gradient Technology, Inc. announces the addition of support for SunSoft's Solaris 2.x operating system on SPARC-based computers for DeskLab(tm) 216, Gradient's analog data acquisition and voice/telephony interface solution. The SCSI-based DeskLab hardware provides real-time functionality and data buffering, and it installs like a SCSI hard disk. The two channel system samples to 96kHz aggregate with near-CD quality, and allows simultaneous record & play. The optional two port analog telephone interface supports DTMF detection with prompt squelch, as well as hookflash and DTMF generation for call transfer, plus call progress monitoring. A Command interface, a C Library, and a graphical interface supporting X-Windows provide a complete environment for rapid development of acoustic data acquisition and voice input/output applications including telephone-based interactive voice response (IVR). The Solaris 2.x release is available now. Gradient Technology, Inc., founded in 1989, is a leading supplier of SCSI-based data acquisition products running on a wide variety of UNIX systems. DeskLab products are sold domestically and internationally through re-sellers and direct. The company is privately held. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61.02.D Subject: Aurora SBus Token Ring Adapter Adds Solaris 2.X Compatibility From: balasco@auratek.com (Alfred P. Balasco) Org: Aurora Technologies Phone: (617) 290-4800 FAX: (617) 290-4844 Emai: info@auratek.com Aurora SBus Token Ring Adapter Adds Solaris 2.X Compatibility SPARCstation 10, SPARCcenter 1000/2000, SPARCclassic, and LX users can now connect their workstations to Token Ring networks IBM systems with the latest client-server workstations. Waltham, MA, December 3, 1993 -- Aurora Technologies has added Solaris 2.X compatibility to its SBus Token Ring Adapter list of features, allowing users of the Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation 10, SPARCcenter 1000/2000, SPARCclassic and LX models to communicate over 4/16 Mbit Token Ring networks for the first time. The adapter's support for the latest Sun operating system allows organizations with a large investment in Token Ring networks - particularly those in the finance, insurance, and government markets - to access the resources of their IBM systems with the latest client-server workstations. The card provides SPARC system users local network access as a peer, and allows the system to serve as a gateway between Ethernet and Token Ring networks using built-in TCP/IP support. Because the card supports multiple protocols, including SNA, and is compatible with Novell file servers, it is an ideal solution foundation for systems integrators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and value added resellers (VARs). Unique features include support for multiple Token Ring cards in a single SPARC workstation, permitting a seamless connection between departmental networks; on-board LEDs, providing board, network, and software monitoring for easy system diagnosis, to save hours of network troubleshooting; both RJ-45 unshielded twisted pair (UTP), and DB-9 shielded twisted pair (STP) interfaces for greater connection flexibility. The high-performance Aurora Token Ring Adapter also includes a local ring addressing priority scheme in its source routing support, reducing network traffic by minimizing the need to broadcast frames to all networked system nodes. An on- board 512Kb buffer minimizes system load and boosts transfer rates. The card conforms to the IEEE 802.5 Token Ring standard. "Aurora is the original SPARC system to Token Ring connectivity vendor, and we have used our networking expertise and experience to provide another first in multi-platform connectivity," said Aurora president Dennis Daudelin. "When SPARC users need to share resources with their organizations' Token Ring networks, Aurora provides the assurance that they will make the connection with any SPARC workstation, and with the best-performing, most reliable solution." Aurora Technologies Inc., engineers, manufactures, and markets a com- plete range of workstation performance enhancement and expansion products that provide the foundation for business-wide open systems solutions based on the SPARC architecture. These include SBus terminal and peripheral servers, system expansion products, networking communications products, and imaging and OCR software. Aurora products are designed to offer users, resellers, and OEMs broad functionality and easy systems integration. Founded in 1988 by members of Sun Microsystems marketing and engineering teams, Aurora is a member of SPARC International and a Strategic level member of Sun's third-party developer Catalyst program. # # # SBUS TOKEN RING ADAPTER SPECIFICATIONS MECHANICAL SPECIFICATIONS: Dimensions- Length - 5.775 (14.67 cm) Width - 3.3 (8.38 cm) Weight- 5.5 oz. (.156 kg) Connectors- Female DB-9 - supports shielded twisted pair (STP) cable Female RJ-45 - supports unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable Diagnostics- 2 On Backplate 1) Diagnostics Passed 2) Ring Insertion 3 On Board 1) Write Fault 2) Wrap Test Ready 3) Ready Power Consumption- +5v DC; .8 amp max COMMUNICATION PARAMETERS: Physical Interface - IEEE 802.5 Token Passing Ring Data Rate - 4/16 Mbits/second (software selectable) Address Support - Configurable MAC address Protocol - Sub-Network Address Protocol IEEE 802.2 Logical Link Control (LLC) Type1 Configurable Medium Access Control (MAC) parameters Configurable LLC parameters Configurable Source Routing Parameters Internet Support - Network Interface Token Ring Configurable Max Transfer Unit Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Configurable Source ARP Parameters UNIX ifconfig support UNIX netstat support HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SUPPORT: Operating System - SPARC SBus system running Solaris 1.X or 2.X Hardware - SS1, SS1+, SS2, IPC, IPX, SS10, SPARCserver 1000/2000, Classic, LX, and most SPARC compatibles ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIFICATIONS: Operating Temperature - 0 to 45 degrees C Storage Temperature - -20 to 60 degrees C Relative Humidity - 20% to 80% (operating non-condensing) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 61.02.E Subject: Druid - Programming by Demonstration of GUIs From: gsingh@iss.nus.sg (Gurminder Singh) Contact: Dr. Gurminder Singh Org: Institute of Systems Science National University of Singapore Heng Mui Keng Terrace Kent Ridge Singapore 0511 REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE Email: druid-info@iss.nus.sg Phone: +65 772-3651 FAX: +65 774-4998 TLX: ISSNUS RS39988 Druid - Programming by Demonstration of GUIs The Druid user interface management system is a software development tool that assists the developer in designing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for applications and automatically generates the UIL and C or C++ code for the user interface. The developer directly manipulates user interface components (menus, buttons, panels, scales etc) to design the layout of the GUI and then specifies interactive command sequences by using programming by demonstration. Based on this specification, Druid automatically generates the code for the interface. Druid manages the user interface code and enables the developer to rapidly develop and easily modify the user interface. Druid is based on the X window system Version 11 Release 4/5 and OSF/Motif Version 1.1/1.2. In addition to supporting all of the OSF/Motif widgets, Druid provides graphical editors for creating new colors, for browsing through and selecting bitmaps, and for browsing through the available fonts. Druid actively helps the developer in creating attractive looking user interfaces. As the developer adds new widgets in the interface, Druid's rule-based design assistant guesses the new widget's relation to other widgets in the interface. These relations include various types of alignments, sizings, centerings, and attachments among widgets in the interface. Once the developer confirms Druid's guess, it automatically executes the guessed relation. The overall impact of this ability is that the developer can quickly and easily create attractive interfaces. In Druid, interactive behaviors (command sequences) are specified through programming by demonstration. Having created the layout of the GUI, the developer demonstrates to Druid how the end-user might interact with the GUI and how the GUI should respond to user interactions. Druid watches this demonstration and automatically generates code that implements the demonstrated behavior. Druid further facilitates exploration in interface design by allowing the intertwining of layout and behavior specifications. The developer is allowed to switch back and forth between specifications; one specification does not have to be finished before the other can be started. If during the demonstration of a behavior, the developer needs a widget that has not been created, he or she can add the required widget and continue the behavior specification. Druid comes with a hypertext style help system which runs as a separate program. This help system links all of the OSF/Motif manual pages to each other so that the developer can easily go from one manual page to other related manual pages. The help system can be used stand-alone or with the Druid interface builder. When used with the interface builder, the two systems communicate with each other through the X-Windows ICCCM (Inter Client Communication Conventions Manual) protocol. The developer need not devote any workstation resource to the help system if help is not required. The help system can be started as and when help is required, allowing the developer to make best use of available computing resources. Druid generates optimized UIL (User Interface Language) and C or C++ programs. UIL is a standard language for describing OSF/Motif user interfaces. The code generated by Druid can be compiled and linked with any C or C++ application. Druid generated code is not tied to any proprietary run-time library or environment. The developer is free to take and compile the Druid generated code in any environment that has the compatible X and Motif libraries. TECHNICAL INFORMATION Druid is designed to execute on all Sun SPARCstations running SunOS, the X Version 11 Release 4/5 window system, and the OSF/Motif Version 1.1/1.2 toolkit. It generates the GUI code in industry accepted UIL and C or C++. Druid also runs on HP 9000/700 series and Silicon Graphics/Indigo workstations. Druid is planned to be ported over to IBM RS/6000 workstations. ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au For last month's digest, send email to flashadm@sun.com with a Subject line of 60.00 For Gopher and WAIS access: sunsite.unc.edu. (Login as 'gopher' for a simple gopher client, 'swais' for a simple WAIS client (over 500 databases). All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. Send brief articles (e.g. third party announcements) and include contact information (non-800#, fax #, email, etc) to: John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@Sun.COM. +1 305 351 4909