SUNFLASH ! ---------- Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!johnj or johnmclaughlin@sun.COM). (305) 776-7770. Sunflash is targeted at Sun customers and users, not Sun employees as much of the information posted to sunflash is already available to Sun employees. If you have any information that you think would be of value to Sun users and customers, please email it to sun!sunvice!johnj. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *** SUNWRITE, SUNPAINT, AND SUNDRAW RELEASE 1.1 SHIPS! *** Availability of Release 1.1 As of October 6th, Release 1.1 of SunWrite, SunPaint and SunDraw is shipping to customers. The order numbers and pricing for Release 1.1 are available from you Sun Sales Representative. Contents # Contents of Release 1.1 # Positioning # Upgrade Pricing # Notes: # Peripheral Products # # Filters # # ClipArt # # Classroom Training # Order Numbers # Comments from the field # Contents of Release 1.1 Release 1.1 gives the customer the ability to run SunWrite/Paint/Draw on any of Sun's architectures (Sun3, Sun4 [SPARC], and 386i). Functionally, the products are the same on all three platforms. The files they create are also compatible across all three platforms. Please note that Release 1.1 SunWrite, SunPaint, and SunDraw are SunView-based applications that will only run on SunOS 4.0 (and higher). Many of the reported bugs on Release 1.0 have been fixed in Release 1.1. SunDraw's print function has been enhanced to make printing in landscape mode much more straightforward. SunWrite's "Edit Pages" function has been revised. Please read the documentation to understand the full functionality of the "Edit Pages" feature. Because of great customer demand for easier file retrieval and manipulation, we have included the File Manager product on the SunWrite tape. File Manager is part of the DeskSet that was announced in April. Sun's File Manager is a graphical representation of the UNIX file system. File Manager lets you view applications, folders or documents as objects or graphical icons, so you can identify them at a glance, and perform operations by selecting and dragging icons rather than remembering UNIX commands. For example, to work in a file, just click on its icon with the mouse, and the appropriate application is launched. You can move or copy files by dragging them to another folder, or load files by dragging them onto the appropriate window. To re-use application windows, simply drop a document icon over the window frame header. Also in Release 1.1, the Write/Paint/Draw products have had their interfaces updated to a later revision of the OPEN LOOK specification. The change in the interface has been minimal, but the changes reflect customer feedback on how to make the interface cleaner and even more intuitive. The reason for the update was twofold. First, we wanted the products to be as compliant to the OPEN LOOK Release 1.0 specification as possible. Secondly, the interface for the SunWrite/Paint/Draw products is virtually the same OPEN LOOK interface that will be supported by the OPEN WINDOWS toolkit. The WPD documents have been updated to reflect the changes. Please note that starting with Release 1.1 the products will only run on OS 4.0 and greater. This means that customers that are running OS 3.x and want the SunWrite/Paint/Draw products need to upgrade to Release 4.0 or higher. Release 1.1 also does not support Sun 2's. # Positioning Please remember the positioning of these products. SunWrite/Paint/Draw are personal productivity applications. They are great products to use for making overhead presentations, short reports, writing letters, etc. The products were designed to fill a hole in desktop documentation applications for the Sun. They are easy to use, low-end, low cost applications. We are trying to eliminate the need for having a MacIntosh or PC beside a Sun workstation. SunWrite/Paint/Draw should not be thought of as high end technical documentation applications. If you are looking for an application to write manuals, or do technical documentation, WPD is not the solution. There are other excellent choices available on the Sun for professional documentation preparation. Some of the features SunWrite/Paint/Draw lacks in the current release are automatic table of contents generation, indexing, floating footnotes, table generation, floating graphics, and compound documents. # Upgrade Pricing Maintenance contracts are the best deal for multiple user sites. Please note that the pricing is per *site* and not per user. The price for the contracts are: * $ 50 per month per site per product (SunWrite, SunPaint, OR SunDraw) * $100 per month per site for WPD (all three products) Maintenance contracts provide for continued phone support, plus automatic upgrades to new versions as they become available. Upgrades from 1.0 to 1.1 are priced as follows: SunWrite/Paint/Draw Upgrade to 1.1 $500 SunWrite Upgrade to 1.1 $400 SunPaint Upgrade to 1.1 $300 SunDraw Upgrade to 1.1 $300 # Notes: The binaries for all three architectures ship on each tape. So you only need to specify quantity and media type. (1/4", 1/2" or 3.5"). All copies of SunWrite/Paint/Draw will run in "demo" mode without a password installed. Demo mode allows the user to use all the functionality of the products except for saving documents. The same copy can then can have Save enabled by installing a password. The 1.0 passwords will work with Release 1.1. There is file compatibility between the 1.0 and 1.1 versions of WPD. This means that people using different versions of the package can pass files back and forth. SunPaint and SunDraw have a dependency on Sun's Transcript software package. In order to print raster images to a PostScript printer they need the routine PSSUN to do a SunRaster to PostScript conversion. This affects SunPaint everytime you print, it affects SunDraw only when you include a raster image in your SunDraw file or request to print your SunDraw file as a raster. We are working to eliminate this dependency for our next release. Please note that Adobe's version of Transcript does not have the PSSUN routine. # Peripheral Products # # Filters We know of two companies that are working on filters between SunWrite/Paint/Draw and other packages on the Sun, Mac, and PC platforms. The two companies are DataViz Inc and Blueberry Software. Blueberry has announced their filter package for the Sun called "Filtrix". It includes the ability to import any of 21 different formats (including Interleaf, WordPerfect, and DisplayWrite). The imported files can be converted to SunWrite, DCA/RFT or WordPerfect 4.2 formats. Contact Blueberry Software at (707) 829-5443 for information on availability and pricing. DataViz has announced the availability of SunWrite filters with the latest version of their filter package, MacLinkPlus. The filter package resides on the MacIntosh, but can be hooked directly to a Sun with a serial cable, or using TOPS. The package performs both file transfer and translation. MacLinkPlus provides filters to many of the most popular formats on the Macintosh. For more information contact DataViz, Inc at (203) 268-0030. # # ClipArt T/Maker has announced that they are porting their ClipArt libraries, both EPS and raster, to the Sun Platform. The raster images can be used by all three applications. The EPS can be imported into SunWrite. The libraries should be available mid-November. For further information contact T/Maker at (415) 962-0195. Fusion Graphics also has ported 5 different sets of clip art from the Macintosh environment. For further information contact Fusion Graphics at (805) 494-8411. # # Classroom Training Corporate Resource Associates has developed a 3 day onsite training class for SunWrite/SunPaint/SunDraw. For further information contact Tom Sisto at CRA at (415) 593-0944. # Order Numbers Each tape includes the binaries for all three architectures, The only differentiation for a product is the type of media you want it on. Please work with your Sales Representative to determine the correct part number. SunWrite/Paint/Draw Release 1.1 $995 Cat B SunWrite Release 1.1 $695 Cat B SunPaint Release 1.1 $495 Cat B SunDraw Release 1.1 $495 Cat B There are also separate order numbers and pricing for volume purchases of 10, 50, 100, 250, or 500 copies on a single PO. Please contact your Sun Sales Representative for more details. # Comments from the field We welcome your comments on how to make these products more successful (enhancements and bug reports). We have not finalized the content list for Release 2.0. Please let us also know of any success stories with these products. Also, if you come up with a great set of templates or styles for SunWrite, or vector art for SunDraw we would like to collect them and put them into the next release. (Please forward your suggestions or templates through your Sun Sales Rep.)