mac week v 10 n 5

eT IN THE MIX Cross-platform development tools keep Macs in corpo- rate America See Gateways Extra, Page 18 02.05.96 The Newsweekly for Macintosh Managers New Macserver line to join PCI generation By Clifford Colby Apple is retooling its Workgroup | Server line and at this month's Seybold Seminars in Boston will take the wraps off its first PC based models, sources said. The boxes will reportedly be offered with a choice of three soft bundles that tailor the machines to be application, AppleShare or Internet servers. The introduction should placate network managers eager for the high performance of the PCI Mac models introduced last summer. Based on the Power Mac 8500, the new Workgroup Server 8550 See Servers, Page 72 ‘Two new Apple PCI servers built for speed Workgroup Server 8550 Workgroup Server 7250 » 132-MHz PowerPC 604 processor > 512-Kbyte Level 2 cache > 24 Mbytes of RAM, expandable to512 Mbytes > 2-Gbyte hard drive > Quad-speed CD-ROM drive > Optional DAT drive > Three PCI expansion slots > Internal Fast SCSI-2 bus; external SCSI bus > 2Mbytes of video RAM {Ul > 120-MHz PowerPC 601 processor > 256-Kbyte Level 2 cache > 16 Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 256 Mbytes > 1.2-Gbyte hard drive > Quad-speed CD-ROM drive > Three PCI expansion slots > Internal SCSI bus > 1 Mbyte of video RAM * ~ Mac OS hitches a ride on PPCP box at Demo By Andrew Gore Palm Springs, Calif Apple came up with a show-stopper here at Demo % last week: the first pub- lic showing of the Mac OS running ona PowerPC Platform box. At the industry conference, Apple described the computer hardware as a 3-week-old “proof | of concept” machine built by IBM Corp., complete with a set of NEw S$ PAPER SE Intel-standard PC I/O. ports After start-up, the PowerPC Platform, or PPCP, machine dis- played the Open Firmware boot ROM inter! line intended for programmers. “The user won't see the text- based interface,” said Mike Bell, Apple PPCP. ce — a command ngineering manager for here will be a Mac-like See PPCP, Page 72 ASS Amelio at Apple helm; VOLUME 10 NUMBER 5 Spindler pulls rip cord By Mark Hall and Jon Swartz The other shoe in Apple’s restruc- turing plan has finally dropped CEO Michael Spindler and Chairman A.C. Mike Markkula are out; board member Gilbert F. Amelio will step in. Last week in a hastily held meet- ing in New York, sources said, Apple’s board of directors elected Amelio chairman and CEO of the company, ending speculation about the tenuous grip of Apple’s two top executives Amelio resigned his position as chairman, CEO and president of National Semiconductor Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif, where he is widely credited with taking the company from the brink of eco- nomic ruin to profitability. “Gil is ideally Apple,” said Donald Beadle, Nz suited for tional’s former vice president of “He's quite a visionary, yet he’s proc and metric-driven.” “Having any kind of decisive new management is welcome news,” said Daniel Kunstler, an analyst at J.P. Morgan Securi- worldwide marketing SS- W718 1/99 ties Inc. of San Francisco. “Apple is pretty close to a turnaround project. Amelio, 52, took over at N: tional in 1992. From 1988 to 1991, he served as president of Rockwell Communications System, a sub: sidiary of Rockwell International Corp. An Apple board member since 1994, he also is a director of National Semiconductor, Pacific Telesis Group, the Electronics In- dustry Association and the Semi- conductor Association. After 15 years, Mike “Diesel” Oracle Power Objects slips OOP into database creation By Christopher Hall and Carey Tews With Oracle Power Objects, Ora- cle Corp. and Apple have brought the muscle of an object-oriented database develop- ment system to Mac- intosh, Windows and OS) plat- forms, boasting major ease-of-use enhancements over any previous Oracle development tool. Devel- oped and released by Oracle and also distributed by Apple, the pro- gram is available in a $1,995 client- server version and $395 single-user version ($99 until March 31). REVIEW For the Mac database designer accustomed to outstanding prod- ucts such as Claris Corp.'s File- Maker Pro and ACI US Inc.'s 4th Dimension, Oracle Power Objects, or OPO, is not a compelling chase. Many Mac da will be disappointed by the limits of its local database for single-user pur- e mavens. applications and sparse form-and report-design tools. However, for developers need- ing to create or access Oracle7 databases, OPO is a long-awaited Power Objects, Page 31 122 123 1/24 125 1126 «1/29 1/30 131 deal reportedly “imminent” an | 22 $34.00 31.94 29,88 30.50 31.63 32.25 30.25 30.63 29.13 27.32 27.63 28.38 29.38" One hour before market close. Spindler’s ride at Apple ran out of gas. Handpicked by Markkula to replace ousted CEO John Scul- ley in 1993, he engineered a suc- cessful transition to Power Macs and oversaw the growth of Apple from a $6 billion business to an $11 billion company. See Apple, Page 72 Adobe spinoff sheds new light on OPI strategy By Kristin Balleisen Less than a month after spinning off from Adobe S stems Inc., Lu- minous Corp. is set to highlight a major upgrade to ColorCentral, its OPI image and print server software, ColorCentral 3.0, which will febut at this month’s Seybold minars in Boston and ship by spring, features a new Open Pre- See Luminous, Page 74 Split Pers nality? Apple’s Unix servers to have See Page4 Mac ROMs. \\ | a wigalemeP OW ERWEVE RRM =2 POWER COMPUTING =: DESIGNED TO:BLOW . NOT YOUR BUDGET. | Porer Computing Introduces Fastest MacOSsSystem Ever o0MaPowert O04 Fast PCL and NuBus Expansion Accelerated 64-bit PCI Video and Fast SCSI 3 Front Accessible Drives for optional Quad-Spin (4X) CD-ROM, lomega Zip, lomega Jaz, or SyQuest EZ-135 Easily upgradeable Plug & Play CPU daughtercards featuring the PowerPC 604 at 120, 132 and 150MHz Fast PCI 3-slot expansion Need NuBus? Get both PCI and NuBus with Power Computing’s STARGATE Choose either 3 PCI slots or 2 PCI and 2 NuBus slots - allows you to reconfigure at any time from NuBus to PCI Eight DIMM slots for up to 512MB of RAM using 64-bit DIMMS with fast interleave memory; Socketable High Performance L2 DIMM Cache Slot allows for either 256K, 512K or 1MB Internal Fast SCSI Bus (up to 10MBs/sec) and external SCSI Bus (up to 5MB/sec) as well as Internal Drive Bays for additional storage Accelerated 64-bit PCI VRAM video graphics card with both Mac 15-pin and SVGA connectors (2MB of VRAM upgradeable to 4MB) Love-Me-Or-I’m-History, 30 day money back guarantee. Toll-free zg lifetime technical sup- support. 1, 2, or 3-year on-site service avail- able, starting at only $49. Mac OS ~eyee PowerComputing 12337 Technology Bivd., Austin, TX 78727-6104 tel. 512/258-1350 fax. 512/250-3390. Check out our Web site: http://www.powercc.com Internet: info@powercc.com . 4004 Editor’s Rave. “Considering the purchase of a PowerMac?...We strongly recommend that you take a serious look at what Power Computing has to offer.” Maclser-Aug 95 “They might as well have come from Apple - the performance and compatibility are that good.” Macworid- Aug 95 “..an excellent Mac alternative, whether or not you are pinching your pennies.” PC Magazine- Aug 95 “Power Computing’s systems match their PowerMac counterparts for speed and compatibility and are every bit as good as a dyed-in-the-wool Macintosh.” Infoworld- une 95 tree “A machine we love even more than the PowerMac 7500 - the PowerWave 604” Macworld- Feb 96 MWe “The Power Computing PowerWave 604 is a very impressive Macintosh” New York Times, November 7, 1995 PowerWave 604/132 Hot Pick ij PowerWave 604/132 MultiMedia ij PowerWave 604/150 Hot Pick 132 MHz PowerPC™ 604 132 MHz PowerPC™ 604 150 MHz PowerPC™ 604 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 256K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PC! Graphics w/2MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse $3699 ORDER DIRECT AND SAVE 1-800-404-7693 FINALIST PowerCurve 601/120 Starter 120 MHz PowerPC™ 601+ 8MB RAM (256MB Max RAM) Upgradeable CPU daughtercard Optional Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 850MB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) Built-in Graphics w/1MB VRAM upgradeable to 4MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse Bundled Software $1899 eae a 24MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 256K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 14 inch .28 DP Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM Tower Configuration Extended Keyboard & Mouse $4299 en sot, oli, ‘qa, Wo) tort PowerWave 604/120 Starter PowerWave 604/120 Home Office J OVER $1200 OF FREE SOFTWARE 120MHz PowerPC™ 604 120MHz PowerPC™ 604 “BUNDLED WITH EVERY SYSTEM 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) Optional 256K, 512K, or 1MB Cache 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAUI) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM Desktop Computer Case Extended Keyboard & Mouse $3199 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 512K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 14 inch .28 DP Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAUI) 64-bit PC! Graphics w/2MB VRAM. Tower Configuration Extended Keyboard & Mouse $4799 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) Optional 256K, 512K, or 1MB Cache 1,0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 14 inch .28 DP Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive Internal lomega Zip™ Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse $3599 PowerWave 604/150 XL 150MHz PowerPC™ 604 32MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 512K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 15 inch Sony Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive Internal lomega Zip™ Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (1 0Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/4MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse $5899 Mac 0S 7.52 Insignia Soft Windows 2.0 60 day trial, Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia, Now Utilities, Now Up-to-Date, Now Contact, Intuit’s Quicken, FWB HardDisk Toolkit PE, CD-ROM Toolkit, ClarisWorks, America Online, 250 Bitstream Fonts, Launch CD, US CD Atlas, World CD Atlas, The Animals CD-ROM, Nisus Writer FREE Service & Support 30 day money back, Love-Me-Or-I'm-History guarantee. Toll-free lifetime technical support. 1, 2, or 3-year on-site service available, starting at $49. jure: Since Power Computing is the manufacturer, you can customize your RAM, hard drive, video and monitor options — just call. @ PowerComputing MORE POWER TO YOU? | | 02.05.96 VOLUME 10 NUMBER 5 |@ UP FRONT Apple AIX servers to debut this month ¢ Corel acquires WordPerfect ® Performa prices reduced ¢ DayStar intros two Genesis models 6 NEWS MYOB raises Cue Cards to help users Virginia updates Sonar apps ¢ Ballard to enter Mac field with CD-ROM accelerator ¢ Okidata printer pair * Monitor Beat 8 GA Pacific Image flatbed aims for graphics market ® Sharp ships new LCD projection devices * Ashlar app cuts costs of CAD ¢ Warner Bros. fleshes out Bugs Bunny 14 GATEWAYS Full-featured database from Omniscience ideal for PowerBooks * Hughes NetLock secures data across LANs, WANs Gateways Extra: Stemming the religious war between the Mac and PC platforms Table of Contents Difficult interface reduces value of Sculpt 3D. See Reviews, Page 31. There are Web page- creation tools for all levels of ability. See Solutions, Page 37. PaGE 3 31 REVIEWS Ray tracing races but interface stumbles on Sculpt 3D 4.1 from Byte by Byte ¢ Oracle Power Objects 1.0.a plum only on Oracle7 ¢ Reviews Forum uo What exactly does Bugs Bunny look like from behind? Find out with Mac 37 SOLUTIONS Creating a Web site keeps getting easier as page-creation tools continue to evolve and users demand more control. DEPARTMENTS & OPINION 26 Editorial 26 Second Decade 37, MacInTouch 74 StockWatch 28 Letters 78 Mac The Knife 28 Mac Manager ALSO INSIDE 41 Mail Order | 55 MarketPlace 76 Advertiser Index 76 Product Index Did you feel it? There was a series of tem- blors last month as the world of client- server development tools for the Mac shifted. And aided by the altered landscape, Ty Corp.'s cross-platform technologies. Oracle Power Objects was the harbinger of the shake-up when it shipped with the seemingly heartfelt backing of Apple. Then, in January, the impossible hap- pened: Powersoft Corp. shipped Power- Builder for the Mac. That one woke me up noticed a glaring hole in Microsoft MACWEEK INSIDER STEPHEN HOWARD Microsoft fails with OLE graph registered another bump when Jyace Inc. shipped its fully cross-platform update, JAM 7.01. Several more fourth-generation development tools are coming down the pike. The views of users who have been toil- ing with these tools, and the tribulations of cross-platform development in general, are explored in this week’s Gateways Extra on Page 18. Also this week, we reviewed Ora- cle Power Objects 1.0 (OPO) and found it to be a boon to Oracle7 users but lacking as a general-purpose tool. To me, the most curious revelation dur- ing our evaluation was the absence of OLE in the Mac version, OPO and the other members in this new class of client-server tools point out how badly blown it when it comes to OLE for the Mac. The prob- lem is just the sort of cross- platform bungling for which developers, users and the press so often criticize Apple. Despite Oracle Corp.'s plug for OpenDoc in the next ver- in the middle of the night and broke some dishes in the dining room. In certain circles, the shipment of a Macintosh version of Power- Builder — the top client-server tool among big businesses — is like the birth ofa white buffalo calf. You could see an eerie glint in the pilgrims’ eyes as they approached the com- pany’s Macworld Expo booth to witness the prophesied event. Just last week the seismo- Microsoft has sion of OPO, the company likes OLE just fine. Like many fourth-generation devel- opment tools, OPO for Windows heartily supports OLE while the Macintosh ver- sion does not. Ditto for PowerBuilder. Why not? Microsoft implemented OLE on the Mac differently than OLE under Windows. The APIs for an Intel-standard PC are different from the ones on the Mac, so third-party de- velopers — such as Jyace — can’t have common code bases for their cross- platform products. The features of Mac OLE are fewer and different, too, which makes using OLE on the Mac slower, more awkward and less com- pelling than under Windows. Worse, those little applets called OCXes or OLE controls —the real, live, shipping- y-in-large-numbers component soft- ware used for database front-ending and custom development projects — don’t work on the Mac because Microsoft hasn’t supported them. Despite the renaissance in client-server development tools for the Mac, these envi- ronments aren’t yet implementing Open- Doc and they don’t use OLE. The tools Mac client-server tools don’t use OpenDoc, and they don’t use OLE. aren't fully cross-platform, and Mac devel- opers miss out on the libraries of add-ons that Windows database managers enjoy. If Microsoft had done a decent job of implementing OLE on the Mac from Day One, our applications would be more interoperable, development tools could incorporate OCXes in cross-platform projects, and there would have been no need for OpenDoc. Microsoft is correct in saying that OLE under Windows today delivers much of the promise of OpenDoe. It’s only be- cause Microsoft botched the job on the Mac that there was a need, and an opening, for Apple to define its own component standard and rally the anti- Microsoft forces. Perhaps cross-platform shops will be better off in the long run with OpenDoc instead of OLE. But until we get one or the other on both sides of the fence, client- server tools have been compromised, and we all lose. 0 . Stephen Howard is executive editor, reviews and features. He welcomes feedback at stephen_howard @zd.com. MacWEEK (ISSN 0892-8118) is published weekly, with the exception of July 3, Nov. 20, and Dec. 18 and 25, by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., 1 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. Single-copy price, including postage: $6. One-year subscription rate: U.S., $125; Canada/Mexico, U.S. $225; international, U.S. $350 (airmail). All orders must be prepaid. Direct subscription inquiries to Customer Service Department, MacWEEK, c/o JCI, P.O. Box 10634, Riverton, N.J. 08076-0634; (609) 786-8230. Changes of address require that a new application be filled out completely and include both new and old addresses. Allow four to six weeks for processing. We periodically make lists of our customers available to carefully screened mailers of quality goods and services. if you do not wish to receive such mailings, please let us know by writing to us at Customer Service Department, MacWEEK, P.O. Box 10634, Riverton, N.J. 08076-0634. Postmaster: Send address changes to MacWEEK, P.O, Box 10634, Riverton, N.J, 08076-0634, Second-class postage paid at New York and additional mailing offices. Printed in U.S.A. Canadian GST registration number is R140496720. PAGE 4 Shiner servers to have Mac ROMs By Matthew Rothenberg This month’s Seybold Seminars 96 in Boston will reportedly be the launch site for Apple’s new line of Unix servers, code-named Shiner. Contrary to previous reports, sources said, the devices include Mac ROMs, suggesting the workstations could run a version of the Mac OS in addition to AIX, IBM Corp.'s flavor of Unix. Sources said Apple will intro- duce two models in the line: the Network Server 500/132 and the Network Server 700/150, based on 132- and 150-MHz 604 processors, respectively. Each will come with 32 Mbytes of RAM. The new servers will initially run AIX as their sole OS. How- ever, sources said, the machines’ By James Staten Mac users can breathe easier about using a credit card to purchase products over the Inter- net. CyberCash Inc. last week released a free electronic- commerce utility for the Mac. CyberCash Mac Wallet con- ducts credit card transactions over the Internet via an encrypted con- nection. The utility provides a wal- letlike interface, where users can store Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express card infor- mation. All data is protected by a password. When visiting a Web site running the CyberCash server, CyberCash Wallet's ad- ministration window lets users edit credit card information, change their passwords and review past purchases. CyberCash pays over Web the user hits the “Pay” button, and the CyberCash Mac Wallet auto- matically launches the payment process, the company said. The tool can be used only with merchants running the Cyber- Cash server; support for electronic cash transactions will be provided in the second half of 1996. PowerPC and 680x0 versions are at http://ftp.cybercash.com/ cgi-bin/download. CyberCash Inc. of Redwood Shores, Calif., is at (415) 594-0800 or (800) 929-2371; fax (415) 594- 0899; info@cybercash.com; http:// www.cybercash.com. 9 Up FRONT Apple preps Unix boxes Mac firmware will let users start up from a normal Mac keyboard; after generating the distinctive Mac start-up sound, the devices could offer users the option of se- lecting the Mac OS. According to sources, Apple is considering shipping the Network Servers with a special version of the Mac OS. “It’s a cool hack,” said a with Apple’s efforts. “Because [Novell] NetWare is not going to be avail- able on Shiner, it won't be as attrac- tive to customers”; a Mac option enhance its appeal, he said. The Shiner boxes are Apple's first workstations built as servers from the ground up. Sources said the machines will be aimed at publishing workgroups and edu- cation sites (see 11.13.95, Page 1). Apple will show off the devices with new AIX software: > Information Presentation Technologies Inc. of San Luis Obispo, f., will debut an AIX version of uShare, its AppleShare server software. > Canto Inc. of San Francisco will show a Unix version of Cumu- lus, its image-cataloging software. > HexMac International Distri- bution Deutschland of Germany will roll out an AIX version of HexBase, its database-publishing system. > Helios Software GmbH of Germany will show EtherShare network server software for AIX. > Legato Systems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., will deliver an AIX server version of NetWorker, its network backup software Also, American Power Conver- sion Corp. of West Kingston, R.L., will offer its uninterruptible power supply for the new machines. Apple declined to comment. 5 source who is familiar By David Morgenstern DayStar Digital Inc. this week will release a pair of high- performance Genesis MP 600 models, new additions to its line of multiple-processor Mac clones. Aimed at the graphics- workstation market, DayStar’s new 600 models are based on the six-slot PCI design used with the original Genesis MP. The systems come with a CPU daugh- tercard that holds four 150-MHz PowerPC 604 processors. The top-of-the-line Genesis MP 600 64/5000 ships with 64 Mbytes of RAM for $24,999. The system will include a 24-bi PCI display card, a 1-Gbyte Fast SCSI-2 hard drive, and a dual- channel Fast and Wide SCSI-2 PCI board connected to an inter- nal 4-Gbyte Fast and Wide array. The $19,999 Genesis MP 600 32/2000 comes with 32 Mbytes of RAM and a 2-Gbyte hard drive. color DayStar to ship 2 high-end Genesis models In other news, DayStar said it has improved support for Strata Inc.’s StudioPro Blitz 1.75+ 3-D software (see 12.11.95, Page 1). DayStar said a free updater offers about 2.5 times the performance of the software running on a sin- gle-processor Mac. DayStar Digital Inc. of Flow- ery Branch, Ga.,can be reached at (770) 967-2077 or (800) 972-8711; fax (770) 967-3018; http://www. daystar.com. Corel swings deal to buy WordPerfect © PC productivity suite due in April By Jon Swartz Corel Inc. last week WordPerfect, Novell Inc.'s sput- tering business applications divi- sion, for $115 million in cash and stock. But Corel’s plans for the Mac market are far from firm. Corel CEO Michael Cowpland said the Ottawa-based company intends to meld its popular graphics software with Word- Perfect applications and chal- lenge Microsoft Corp.'s domi- nance of the productivity-suite market. Corel’s new suite, due in April, will feature software for sharing documents and informa- tion on the Internet. At the same time, Cowpland dismissed reports that Word- Perfect will abandon Mac devel- opment. He said Corel may also bring out suite software for the Mac, but he did not say when. Cowpland also declined to com- lassoed Apple lowers Performa prices, adds new config By Joanna Pearlstein Apple has cut Performa prices and will introduce a new Per- forma configuration next week. Prices of the Performa 5215, 6116, 6200 and 6300 have dropped by an average of 8 per- cent, or $175 (see chart, right). The new Performa 6290CD will be based on the Performa 6300 and will cost $2,199. It will use a 100- MHz PowerPC 603e processor | and include 8 Mbytes of RAM, a 12-Gbyte hard drive and a quadruple-speed CD-ROM drive: The 6290CD will come with a 28.8-Kbps fax modem from Global Village Communication Inc. and an Apple 14-inch color monitor. The monitor displays images at resolutions up to 832 by 624 pixels and has a dot pitch of 0.28mm. The Performa will be bundled with a variety of educational, business and entertainment soft- 02.05.96 MACWEEK ment on the future of Word- Perfect for the Mac as a stand- alone product. Corel said it does not plan to immediately move WordPerfect’s 700 programmers and marketing personnel from Orem, Utah, Cowpland said. The fate of an- other 500 employees, whose jobs overlap with Novell’s other bu: nesses, will be decided later, ac- cording to Corel. In addition, Corel will license Novell’s GroupWise and Envoy software and other technologies for at least $70 million over the next five years. Orem-based Novell paid $1 billion for WordPerfect and Bor- land International Inc.’s Quattro Pro spreadsheet less than two years ago. But Novell said in Oc- tober it would sell WordPerfect and concentrate instead on net- working products. | The deal was well-received on all Street. Novell stock rose to $13.25 per share, while Corel stock improved to $11.82 in trad- ing ending Feb. 1. | OLD NEW cpu PRICE PRICE Performa 5215 $1,999 $1,899 Performa 6116 $1,699 $1,499 Performa 6200 $1,999 $1,899 Performa 6300 $2,799 $2,499 ware packages, as well as several CD-ROM title: In related news, Apple is also offering a $150 mail-in rebate for customers who purchase Apple printer and a Performa or PowerBook. The qualifying printers include various Style- Writer and LaserWriter models. Users who purchase a Power Mac 7200 and a 17- or 20-inch Apple display or designated printer will also receive a rebate. The promo- tions run through March 17.5 an INTRODUCING OMINIPAGE PRO 6.0— IT’S FASTER, EASIER AND MUCH MORE ACCURATE. Tired of retyping faxes, reports, articles, even letters into your Macintosh? 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And on top of that, it's PowerMac native, too. For more info, call 1-800- 695-0679 ext. 9CC3, or visit us at www.symantec.com. And have a safe trip. SYMANTEC, is a trademark of Symantec Corporation. Macintosh See alee Ane Copan tne ©1996 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. PAGE 6 02.05.96 MACWEEK MYOB update adds custom reports Entry-level software improves ease of use By Jon Swartz Offering number-crunching assistance to small businesses, BestWare Inc. recently updated its MYOB Accounting software. Version 6.0 of the $90 MYOB Account- ing and $140 MYOB Accounting with Payroll features new customizable reports, expanded job-management and Power Mac-native code. The update offers Cue Cards, a new on line help system. The intelligent-agent technology guides users through more than 100 common business-management capabilities tasks, such as handling bounced checks, commissions and end- of-the-year trar The software imbursable ctions. an also link re- expenses to cus- tomers and have the customers. ‘tine mimbrenan ico Tartan Remorse Papoose +r ee ei a ort Vee invoiced automatically, Best- Ware said. The program now imports data from Intuit Inc.’s Quicken as well as other data- base and accounting applica tions, BestWare said. Version 6.0 lets users tailor reports from more than 100 templates. They can select which fields appear on par- ticular reports and add colored text to highlight profits and losses. Its enhanced headers can include project start and com- New Sonar versions surface By David Morgenstern Making it easier for readers to leaf through data, Virginia Systems Software Services Inc. last week updated its Sonar Bookends indexing software. Version 4.0 of the $195 software lets users automatically convert a single-level list of authors or words into an index with multiple levels. The date has beefier indexing routines for ompany said the up- proper nouns and a preview mode that can display indexed phrases in context. The update can save an index as tab- delimited text for import into databas ap- plications and provides users with fre- quency data for indexed items. It also sports a streamlined interface and Apple Guide-based help. Users of previous versions can update for $75. In other news, Virginia Systems recently released updates to its Sonar text-retrieval and document-imaging programs. Version 9.0 of the $295 Sonar and $795 Visioneer whittles PaperPort price Visioneer Inc. last week cut the price of its popular desktop document-scanning system. The company announced that it had re- duced the cast of the PaperPort Vx by $70; the compact OCR scanning package now fetches an estimated street price of $299. The PaperPort Vx is based on a 400-dpi engine and captures text pages in eight-bit gray scale. It comes bundled with Omni- Page Lite OCR software and Corex Tech nologies Corp.’s CardScan SE business-card scanning software (see 10.09.95, Page 4). Visioneer Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif, is at (415) 812-6400 or (800) 787-7007; fax (415) | 855-9750; http://www.visioneer.com. Sonar Bookends 4.0 can offet view for a selected phrase in a document. Sonar Professional text-retrieval software features support for drag-and-drop text, Apple-events scripting and Microsoft Word 6.0 files. Both updates can copy documents retrieved from a search to a separate folder The proved searching capabilities that let users Professional version offers im- harrow parameters quickly and create complex searches, the company said. Users can also create hypertext links to images and QuickTime movies; Sonar 9.0 can view and use the links. Users of previous versions of Sonar and Sonar Professional can upgrade for $50 and $125, respectively. Virginia Systems raised its Sonar Image line of document-retrieval packages to Version 3.0. In addition to the new features introduced in its text-retrieval products, the updates im- prove the display of dithered images, can scan pages in the background and support a variety of OCR engines, the company said. ‘The new version can import and export TIFF images as well as rotate images. Users of the $1,295 Sonar Image, $795 Sonar Image Personal Edition and $395 Sonar Image Discovery Edition can up- grade for $250, $200 and $125, respectively. Virginia Systems Software Services Inc. of Midlothian, Va.,can be reached at (804) 739 3200; fax (804) 739-8376; httpy/www.cris.com/~ vasys. vasys@cris.com; MYOB Accounting 6.0 features a new Cue Cards help sys- tem that leads users through common tasks. pletion dates as well as manager and client information. | The Payroll update lets managers create new categories for leave, tie accrual leave time to payroll categories and set which leave categories can accrue into a new fiscal year Users of previous versions of MYOB Accounting will receive a $20 rebate to- ward the retail purchase of Version 6.0; users of MYOB Accounting with Payroll will geta $40 rebate. Best Ware also offers a $15 rebate to users of Intuit Inc.’s Quicken. BestWare Inc. of Rockaway, N.J.,can be reached at (201) 586-2200 or (800) 322- 6962; fax (201) 586-8885; njcustserv@best programs.com; http://www.abra.com. Windows util set for Mac CD-ROMs By David Morgenstern Ballard Synergy, a player in the arena of Windows storage utilities, this month will enter the Mac field with new CD-ROM accelerator software. The company said its $49.95 d-Time will boost access times and data transfer rates. While the software will not come with a proprietary CD-ROM driver, it is compatible with Apple’s software and most third-party drivers, Ballard said. Unlike the RAM caches used in many CD-ROM accelerators, d-Time will create a large file of 10 Mbytes or more on users’ hard drives. Depending on the application, Ballard said, its add-on will provide up to seven times the data transfer performance and 25 times average access rates for a double-speed player; the speed of 4x drives will increase by three for data transfer and by 20 for access. According to the company, the driver will track disc as they are used and deter- mine which files should be placed in the hard drive's cache file. If data is removed from the cache over time, the software will automatically load the files when a title is mounted; this process can take from 30 sec- onds to two minutes, depending on the speed of the CD-ROM drive. Ballard Synergy of Silverdale, Wash., can be reached at (206) 656-8070 or (800) 754-1204; fax (206) 656-8205; http:// www.ballardsynergy.com. MacWEEK 02.05.96 Ni EWws PAGE 7 By David Morgenstern Okidata this month will release a pair of new printers aimed at workgroups. The $1,839 OLI200/PS and $1,439 OL810e/PS are based on the company's LED engines. Both legal-size printers come with Adobe PostScript Level 2, PCL SE em- ulation and support for the company’s edge- smoothing algorithms. They use memory- enhancement technologies to improve performance with ima The OL1200/PS offers 600-dpi output and a print speed of 12 pages per minute, Okidata said. The printer uses a 32-MHz MIPS RISC processor and comes with 6 Mbytes of RAM, which can be expanded to 34 Mbytes. It comes standard with 35 Type 1, 35 PCL, line printer and U.S. Posta vice fonts. In addition to standard 500-sheet and 100-sheet input trays, the printer can han- dle a $299 500-sheet tray and a $169 paper- Ser- d envelope-feeder. The unit comes with a 250-sheet output tray and a 100-sheet straight-path rear-exit tray for heavy pa- pers and envelopes. The OL1200/PS automatic sensing and switching bidirectional paral- lel, serial and LocalTalk interfaces and supports a $459 multiprotocol Ethernet or $659 token-ring card. The OL810e/PS is an 8-ppm printer that offers 600-by-1,200-dpi resolution, Oki- data said. It comes with a 25-MHz MIPS processor and 3 Mbytes of RAM, which can be expanded to 19 Mbytes. includes Okidata preps PS printers Okidata’s OL1200/PS has a 100-sheet rear- exit tray with a straight path that handles heavy-stock pages and envelopes. With a font package similar to that of the higher-speed model, the OL810e/PS also comes with parallel, serial and Local- Talk interfaces. It has a 250-sheet paper tray and 150-sheet output holder. Users can add a $289 250-sheet input tray and a $149 envelope feeder. In other news, Okidata recently shipped its entry-level PostScript printer, the $949 OL610e/PS. The small 600-dpi LE print speed of 6 ppm. It comes standard with 2.5 Mbytes of RAM, 37 Type | and two multiple-master fonts, and parallel D printer has a and LocalTalk interfaces. Okidata, a division of Oki America Inc., of Mount Laurel, N.J., can be reached at (609) 235-2600 or (800) 654-. fax-back (800) 654-6651; http://www.okidata.com By James Staten MIDI Land Inc. hopes to sweeten the ex- perience of on-screen virtual reality with a taste of auditory candy. The company re- leased three systems; two output simulated 3-D sound via a built-in digital signal processor. > The MLi-370, priced at $295.95, com- prises a pair of shielded desktop satellites 5 watts per channel and has a frequency range of 35 Hz to 20 kHz. The subwoofer features Turbo Bass cir- cuitry, which improves sound at low fre- and a subwoofer. The system provides Upward mobility: MIDI Land's MLi-95 speak- ers are angled upward at 15 degrees to de- liver sound more directly to the user. MIDI Land speakers meld sound with 3-D quencies, MIDI said. Dome tweeters on the satellites improve high-frequency output. The speakers use separate tweeter and midrange drivers to minimize interfer- ence. Stage regulators in the left and right pre-amp channels and subwoofer mini- mize cross-channel interference, the com- pany said. The MI ble, crossove: 370 features separate bass, tre- and satellite and subwoofer volume controls, plus dual-input jacks, and microphone and headphone jacks > The MLi-S35 is a $239.95 subwoofer with a frequency range of 35 to 350 Hz. It outputs 35 watts and features the 3-D and Turbo Bass circuitry found in the MLi-370. The unit comes with a controller box for connecting a pair of satellite speakers. > The MLi-95, priced at $119.95, is a pair of desktop speakers offering separate woofers and tweeters. The magnetically shielded units output 15 watts per channel and provide a fre quency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Separate bass and treble controls are provided, along with a headphone jack and built-in power supply equipped with surge protection. MIDI Land Ine. of San Dimas, Calif., can be reached at (909) 592-1168; fax (909) 592-6159; mlisales@aol.com. | tems Co. of Secaucus, MoNnitToR BEAT Flat and sassy. Panasonic Commu- nications and Sys- NJJ., unveiled PanaFlat 17, a new flat-screen display with an estimated street price of $999. Slated to ship in May, the monitor will have a dot pitch of 0.24mm and dis- play images at resolutions up to 1,152 by 870 pixels ata 75-Hz refresh rate. Phone (201) 348-7000 or (800) 742-8086; fax (201) 392-4760. MAG unpacks Technitron. MAG InnoVision Co. Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., recently released its Technitron series of color monitors. Based on Trinitron tubes, the 15-inch DXIST and 17-inch DX17T cost $499 and $899, respectively. The 15-inch model comes with an on-screen display manager. Both monitors have a stripe pitch of 0.25mm and display images at a resolution of 1,152 by 870 pixels at 75 Hz. Phone (714) 751-2008 or (800) 827-3998; fax (714) 751-5522. ViewSonic's hefty display. View- Sonic Corp.’s recent offering is a $3,995 29-inch display aimed at presentations and demonstrations. ViewSonic 29A from the Walnut, Calif.-based company sports a 27-inch image area and provides resolutions up to 1,024 by 768 ata refresh rate of 80 Hz. Phone (909) 869-7976 or (800) 888-8583; fax (909) 869-7958. New crop of monitors. Techmedia Computer Systems Corp. of Garden Grove, Calif,, recently showed new 17- inch and 20 inch color monitors. The 17-inch $699 TCM-1750 displays images at resolutions up to 1,152 by 870 at a 72-Hz refresh rate. The larger TCM- 2050, which lists for $1,499, supports reso- lutions of 1,280 by 1,024 at 72 Hz. Phone (714) 379-6677; fax (714) 379-9069. By Joanna Pearlstein H.. IRONIC. YOUR MAC GETS A VIRUS AND YOU'RE THE ONE WHO GETS VIOLENTLY ILL. Be safe with constant protection from nasty viruses with Symantec AntiVirus™ 4.0 for Macintosh (SAM™). iin PowerMac native, SAM will scan each and every file, compressed or not. It'll stomp out viruses from floppies, Internet files, even your office e-mail. Only SAM users can set [ERB their Macintoshes 8### * to automatically update virus protection simply by connecting to our BBS site. Once your Mac is set, you wont have to worry. Call 1-800-695-0679 ext. 9CC2, or visit our Web site at www.symantec.com. And stop the viruses before they try and stop you. Spmane is a registered trademark and Symantec AntiVirus ‘and SAM are rrademarks of Symantec Corporation. ‘Macintosh isa registered trademark of Apple Computer, Ie. ‘4 ti isple Compe 196 Symantec Corporation. Allrights reserved. Gh ADOBE HEADS HOME Adobe Systems Inc. last week shipped PhotoDeluxe, its $89 photo-enhancement software for the consumer market. PAG : Low-cost scanner captures 36 bits By Kristin Balleisen Focusing new efforts on the graph- ics market, Pacific Image Electron- ics Inc. recently announced a low- cost color flatbed scanner aimed at imaging professionals. Due to ship by the end of the month, the $1,095 ScanAce III resembles the $749 ScanAce II, the company’s midrange color flatbed for business users (see 10.23.95, Page 6). Like its predecessor, the ScanAce III will feature an opti- cal resolution of 600 by 1,200 dpi; bundled scanning software will offer interpolated resolutions of up to 4,800 by 4,800 dpi, accord- ing to Pacific Image. Graphics Applications ¢ Publishing * Multimedia The new scanner will be able to capture 36 bits each of RGB in- formation or 12 bits of gray-scale data in a single pass. It will fea- linear CCD. (charge- ind a cold- ture a coupled device) a Ashlar app lowers CAD costs By Kelly Ryer Ashlar Inc. is slated to bring Mac-based drafting to the masses next week when it ships DrawingBoard, a low-cost 2-D CAD program. Priced at $249.95, DrawingBoard is based on the same technology as Vellum, Ashlar’s full-featured $1,495 CAD program. According to the company, DrawingBoard is aimed at hobbyists, home computer users, landscapers and office managers. The software's Drafting Assistant technology analyzes users’ mouse movements; it displays line endpoints, tangent points for lines and circles, and other geometric properties. DrawingBoard users can also use vari- ables to define the dimensions of objects, enabling them to create para- metric shapes and symbols. The software ships with a library of predrawn symbols, including furniture and appliances for home users, trees and fences for landscapers, parametric doors and windows for architects, and parametric nuts and screws for me- chanical designers. Ashlar said it plans additional libraries for the software. DrawingBoard can import both 2-D and 3-D DXF (Drawing Interchange File) documents; it can export 2-D DXF documents. Ashlar Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., can be reached at (408) 746-1810 or (800) 206-4075; fax (408) 749-1531; http://www.drawingboard.com. DEO Ini [A a a] Drawing on the low end: Ashlar's DrawingBoard offers Mac users CAD capabilities ‘for less than $250. Pacific Image is hoping to capture cost- conscious graphics professionals with its 36-bit ScanAce Ill flatbed. cathode fluorescent light source, the company said. The ScanAce II will modate originals measuring up to 8.5 by 14 inches; it will be able to scan a 600-dpi, letter-size color accom- image in 60 seconds, Pacific Image said. The SCSI-2 device will ship » Scanner, Page 10 By Matthew Rothenberg Sharp Electronics Corp. in Janu- ary honed its LCD projection line with a new panel and a multi- media projector. Sharp's. QA-1800, priced at $6,295, features a 10.4-inch active- matrix LCD that projects 24-bit color at resolutions up to 800 by 600 pixels. An optional backlight attach- ment, priced at $400, allows the panel to be used as a monitor The QA-1800 weighs less than 7 pounds; includes a universal power supply; and comes with a wireless remote for controlling the panel, video source and computer. The XG-E1000U, priced at $9,995, outputs up to 600 lumens, 300 projecting images up to inches measured diagonally. The three active-matrix LCD panels 35-pound device uses to display full-color video at a ScanAce Ill targets pros Sharp delivers new LCD projection gear 02.05.96 MACWEEK horizontal resolution of 500 lines and computer images at a top res- olution of 800 by 600 pixels. | The XG-E1000U comes witha built-in amplifier and mono speaker and includes inputs for RGB, composite and S-video, and stereo audio. It offers vari- able masking to project video at aspect ratios of 4-to-3, 16-to-9 and 21-to-9. It also features a motorized lens-shift feature to minimize image distortion when repo- sitioning the projector between ceiling-mounted and_ tabletop positions. The projector ships with a backlit wireless remote and sup- ports front- or rear-projection modes. Sharp Electronics Corp. of Mah- wah, N.J., can be reached at (201) 529-8781; (201) 529-9636; http//www.sharp-usa.com. fax Video Toolkit edits analog, digital clips By Carolyn Said Packing three video functions into package, Videonics Inc. is now shipping the Video Toolkit. The software lets users log video clips, edit ana- one low-cost log video and automate digital movie making. Video Toolkit’s video log lets | users electronically file scene lo- cations and related notes for VCR tapes. Controlling a camcorder or VCR via an included cable, the software lets users click to iden- tify start and end points and then add scene names and comments. Users can later search for specific clips by entering keywords. The software’s analog editing, which also works via cable con- trol of a camcorder or VCR, lets users create an on-screen edit- decision list; the software then See Video, Page 10 Cataloger tracks multimedia By Carolyn Said Putting a fresh face on its system for storage and management of multimedia files, MediaWay Inc. this week will roll out Media- Assets, a cataloging application that acts asa front end to the com- pany’s MediaDB. client-server database. Available now for Intel- standard PCs and due for the Mac | in March, MediaAssets uses the MediaAssets, a multimedia cataloging ap- plication, lets users enter an unlimited number of keywords for their images as well as business- specific attrib- utes and description fields. metaphor of a file cabinet with drawers and folders; users can drag and drop images, audio and video files, text, and other elements to store them. Files can have an un- words, in addition to business-specific attrib- utes and description fields. An interactive browser with thumbnail views gives visual ac- cess to stored files. Built-in security See MediaAssets, Page 10 limited number of ke > Drive a High-Res, Full Page Photoshop Image. Real-Time, Anytime with Genesis MP. You know the tracks are there even if they’re Apple’s new PowerMac 9500. Even an SGI work- covered under seven feet of snow. You know station costing three times as much runs at a how to get the job done. You just need more fraction of the speed. Nobody does it faster than time... or more power. Power counts. 7 Genesis MP. Especially when you have to produce an image in time to make the last courier. The less time spent waiting on Photoshop, the In addition to Adobe’s Photoshop, = After Effects and Premiere, and Strata’s Studio Pro, over 200 Mac more time you have to be creative = software titles for Publishing are and still make it under the wire. __ being boosted to multiprocessing . 3 performance. So, it’s time to make The revolutionary Genesis MP is a powerful tracks. Get a Genesis MP. new Mac OS system using four of the fastest PowerPC 604 processors available. Now you can drive huge files in real-time rather than just pushing pixels. Genesis MP runs Photoshop seven times faster DAYSTAR pre mO 1G iT AL than a PowerMac 8100. It’s four times faster than Look us up on the Web at http://www.daystar.com or call us at 800.984.4510 for some hard data on the new line of Genesis MP computers. Genesis MP: A new beginning in Mac workstation performance. “> ms Ci HOT) & (y) faecaia [TOP] td PRODUCT ered oJ ETH FINALIST ETS FINALIST ees PRODUCT Mac OS System Breakthrough Product ri 1995 © DayStar Digital, Inc. 5556 Atlanta Highway, Flowery Branch, GA 30542 * Phone: 770-967-2077 Fax: 770-967-3018 PAGE 10 GA- 02.05.96 MACWEEK SCREEN TEST Everyone recognizes Bugs Bunny when they see him, but most would be hard-pressed to draw the Popular cartoon character from behind. And what color are those ears, exactly? These are the problems faced by Warner Bros.’ ‘Consumer Products division ip Burbank, Calif., which designs official likenesses of the company’s licensed characters for T-shirts, brochures, fig- urines, toys and other products. Using Mac 3-D technology, the division was able to transform the convoluted design-approval process and make vi- sualization easier by creating a 3-D style guide of characters, starting with the famous rabbit. To bring Bugs into the third dimension, a clay model of the character was scanned using a 3030 R/HiRez CyberWare 3-D digitizer system from Cyber F/X of Glendale, Calif., which generated a file in DXF (Draw- ing Interchange File) format. The huge high-resolution DXF model weighed in at about 320,000 polygons, too large to import into most Mac 3-D applications. “People said it was impossi- ble to do on a Mac,” said Eric Dehkhoda, technical director for the project. “Cyber F/X usu- ally just works with Silicon Graphics machines.” Dehkhoda approached Jim Boyd, corporate technology li- aison at Strata Inc. of St. 3-D breathes life into Bugs Bunny George, Utah, who cooked up a special version of StudioPro Blitz that was capable of han- dling the oversized models. (This version, dubbed Studio- Pro Blitz Plus, will be available free to users of StudioPro 1.75.) Once the model was brought into Studio Pro, Dehkhoda de- fined groups of polygons as separate regions for arms, legs, torso and ears. Working with Frank Espinosa, Warner Bros.’ director of characterization, Dehkhoda manipulated, col- cored and posed the model within Studio Pro. Espinosa, whom Dehkhoda calls “the Bugs Bunny God,” verified that the 3-D model was consistent with the animated character. The division’s 3-D style guide uses color print- outs and QuickTime movies of the 3-D model and will soon include a QuickTime VR movie of Bugs in different poses. “Let’s say a company wants to make Bugs Bunny-shaped shampoo bottles,” said Dehkhoda. “They can manipulate the QuickTime VR movie themselves and see the approved poses, choose a camera angle and have our designers cre- ate a 3-D model [of the bottle] for them.” | Warner Bros. said it plans to bring all its licensed characters into 3-D using the same process, and Dehkhoda said he believes other studios willsoon follow. “It’s the shape of things to come,” he said. — By Kelly Ryer MediaAssets From Pages features include password protec- tion and selective access for certain users. Other features include check-in/check-out and_ version controls. The software also offers built-in e-mail and annotations. The underlying —_object- oriented database first shipped last year along with MediaDB Appli- Scanner From Page 8 scan-enhancement _ software, which users will be able to access via an Adobe Photoshop plug-in or as a stand-alone application. The company also said it will probably bundle the scanner with an OCR package and an image- editing application, although no details were available. The company said a trans- will be available for $496; document feeder will sell for $350. Pacific Image Electronics Inc. of Torrance, Calif, can be reached at (310) 214-5281 or (800) 909-9996; fax (310) 214-5282; pieus@earthlink.net. 0 with the company’s CyberView | parency adapter for the scanner | cation Development Kit, which lets users create front ends to it (see 02.27.95, Page 8). While th plication Development Kit is still included, MediaWay said it cre- ated MediaAssets because it found that most of its customers had sim- ilar requirements for managing their multimedia files. In conjunction with the kit, an open API lets users customize MediaAssets. An extensions mechanism offers control over default behaviors in security, ver- project manage- navigation, sion control, ment, querying, archiving and backup. Dwain Robb, business support group manager at Land’s End Inc. in Dodgeville, Wis., said he plans to use MediaDB along with a customized front end that re- sembles MediaAssets to manage images, text and layouts for his company’s catalogs. “We proba- bly handle a minimum of 10 [Gbytes] a year just in low-res im ages and text,” Robb said. “Rather than doing the development [of a cataloging system] ourselves, we went with MediaWay’s object oriented technology.” MediaAssets and MediaDB start at $10,000 for a five-user client-server package; they range up to $56,000 for 50 users. MediaWay Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif,, is at (408) 748-7400 or (800) 632-7401; fax (408) 748-7402; http/www.mediaway.com Video finds and records selected scenes onto a new tape automatically. Finally, Video Toolkit lets users equipped with a video-digitizing card assemble an edit list for QuickTime movies. The program keeps the audio track synchro- nized with the video; embedded timecode or tape-counter infor- From Page 8 mation lets users do additional editing with software such as Adobe Premiere, Videonics said. Video Toolkit is $99; that intro- ductory price will last until sum- mer, when the price of the soft- ware will rise to about $200, the company said. A Windows ver- sion is scheduled for June delivery. Videonics Inc. of Campbell, Calif., is at (408) 866-8300 or (800) 338-3348; fax (408) 866-4859; hetpy//www.videonics.com. GRAPHIC DETAILS > VRML browser from Virtus > Xinet offers free upgrade to FullPress > Cymbolic upgrades digital film recorder Virtus Corp. of Cary, N.C., has delivered Virtus Voyager, a free Vir- tual Reality Modeling Language browser for users of its Virtus Walk- Through software. The software lets users view textures and draw on URL (Uniform Resource Locator) links, the company said. Phone (919) 467-9700 or (800) 847-8871, Ext. 21; fax (919) 460-4530; http:// www.virtus.com. ... Xinet Inc. of Berkeley, Calif., last month deliv- ered Version 8.07 of FullPress, a free upgrade to its Open Prepress Interface server solution. The company said enhancements include support for EPS and Contex CT images and the ability to revise FPO (for position only) images to reflect changes to the original files. It also includes the company’s Queue Master function, which lets users view, move, hold, restart, cancel and resubmit print jobs from the desktop instead of a server. Phone (510) 845-0555; sales@xinet.com. cym- bolic Sciences International of Richmond, British Columbia, recently announced an upgrade to its $140,000 LightJet 2000 digital film recorder. The device now boasts a $10,000 dual-resolution option; users can now print at 2,032 and 1,016 dpi. The LightJet ships with the company’s FireWare Pro software, which provides direct connections to Macs, Intel-standard PCs and Silicon Graphics workstations. Phone (604) 273-7730; fax (604) 273-2775. .. The Color Partnership of Del Mar, Calif., recently toned up its ColorSynergy color-calibration soft- ware. Version 1.2 includes support for Light Source Computer Images Inc.'s ColorTron II as well as X-Rite Inc.'s DT P51 Auto Scan Col- orimeter. A bundle of the DTP51 and ColorSynergy 1.2 is available for $2,895; a stand-alone package is $495. Phone (619) 259-8688 or (800) 554-8688; fax (619) 259-8709; info@colorpar.com; http://www. colorpar.com. ... Chicago-based Monotype Typography Inc. will ship its DTP Resource CD by month’s end. According to the company, the CD-ROM will serve asa one-stop shopping center for designers and desktop publishing pros and will feature locked versions of more than 300 plug-ins, extensions and utilities from such notables as Extensis Corp., MetaTools Inc., ImageXpress Inc. and Xaos Tools Inc. After or- dering a product, users will receive an access code that will unlock the specific product. Phone (312) 855-1440 or (800) 666-6897; fax (312) 855- 9475. ... Ricoh Corp. of West Caldwell, as announced plans to bundle its NC8115 color copier with San Mateo, Calif.-based Electron- ics for Imaging Inc’'s Fiery XJ 300 controller. According to Ricoh, the $82,995 bundle will output 15 pages per minute. Phone (201) 882-2000 or (800) 637-4264, ... Digital Products Inc. of Waltham, Mass., and Mountain View, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc, have taken the wraps offan agreement to develop printer networking tools for OEMs and end users. DPI, a leading network printing vendor, will report- edly be working to combine functions of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) with Adobe PostScript. Matrox’s new MGA Millennium graphics accelerator for PCL Power Mac delivers the fastest redraw speeds for your true color publishing, 3D design and multimedia appli- cations. All this power for only $649 (4MB)! Using the most advanced, award winning technology, MGA Millennium provides con- istently fast performance in all resolutions, color depths and refresh rates. Scrot20mB = Advanced features include a fully optimized viata? PCI design, new Window RAM memory, and Mot anis Se powerful MGA 64-bit processor. So no images up More down time is spent waiting for your 10% fuser graphies to load. Instantaneously display your color documents in millions of exploding colors at resolutions up to 1440 x 1080 or in thousands of scintillating colors at ultra-high resolutions of up to 1600 x 1200. NGRAM MICRO 1-800-456-8000 Render dazzling 3D designs in real-time for professional quality 3D images and explore the world of multimedia with Quick Time™ video playback. With hardware accelerated Quick Draw™ 3D, real-time Gouraud shading and support for the next generation of exciting 3D applications, you'll be on the cutting edge of 3D design. Take advantage of such productivity enhancing features as hot-key activated hardware pan & zoom, easy resolution & color depth switching, virtual desktop and ultra-high refresh rates. With all this powerful acceleration behind MGA Millennium, there’s no need to ever wait for your graphics to load again! Get MGA Millennium for PCI Power Mac + Publishing, 3D design and multimedia + Hardware accelerated Quick Draw™ 3D + 4MB PCI base board upgradeable to 8MB + 8MB PCI base board (not upgradeable) « Matrox Graphics Inc.1025 St. Regis Bivd. Dorval, OC H9P 214 Canada Designed Tel: (514) 969-6320 Fax: (514) 969-6363 In Quebec, call: (514) 969-6330 for Macintosh 1-800- 660-1873 Sith PCL ‘Visit our www Pace ar: http://www.matrox.com/mga ew ‘MacBench 20 tes performed on Power Mac 8500 24MB of RAM vnth a ANB Millenium for PCL Power Mac, MB All XCaim GA and 4M 8500 onboard graphics chip at 1028 x 768 in 16.7 M colors with Adobe Pholostop 2.0 for Power Mac ~<«. : in here revelations happen ©1995 Microsoft Corporation Al rights reserved. For information only: n the 50 United States and Canadacall (a00)531-6748, Outside the U.S. and Canada, call your local Microsoft subsidiary or (206)936-8661, For Microsoft text telephone (TT/TDD) services cal (600) 892-5234 in the U.S, or (905) 568.9641 In Canada. Microsoft and PivotTable are registered trademarks and Where do you want fo go today? is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Power Mac isa trademark of Apple Computer, Ine QADNMSHSZ> Dom OS24ACO Mar co< You are on Your Power Mac!" You open Microsoft® Excel 5.0a. You begin With a hunch. You begin You want to slice At zero. ' a And dice your numbers. ‘ou open a worksheet. le You build a PivotTable® You type “Jan” To see them You use AutoFill From any perspective And the rest of the months You want. Are filled in for you. You see Automatically. Patterns form. You come You enter numbers. To understand. You click AutoFilter You get it. And the data you want to see Rises to the top So you can focus on What you need to focus on. Microsoft WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO Topayr | a Gateways OT-READY InterCon Systems Inc. has released an Open Transport- savvy version of NFS/Share, i network file-sharing software. PAGE 14 Networking © Operating Systems © Databases Compact app fits ona PowerBook By Clifford Colby At least one company has fully adopted the product philosophy that less is more. Omniscience Object Technology Inc. is now shipping a full-featured datab: for the Mac that it said is compact enough to put on a PowerBook. Version 2.2 of the Omniscience object/relational database man- agement system is the first avail- able for 680x0 Macs and Power Macs; the database already runs on Unix, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT machines. Omniscience is the first object/ relational database management system for the Mac, the company said. Omniscience combines According to the com- pany, Omniscience sup- ports transaction rollback > Supports both object and relational data types; SQL-compliant and automatic crash re- covery. To run ina small amount of RAM, the database can dynamically reduce the size of its caches, Omniscience said. > Compliant with ODBC 2.0 specifications > Can run inless than 1 Mbyte of RAM object-oriented and relational ca- pabilities. and supports both can run in less than 1 Mbyte of data types. RAM, but it recommends 4 to 8 The company said Omni- d 10 Mbytes of hard disk science is compatible with app- A stand-alone version of lications written in SQL and object-oriented programming languages and complies with Open Connectivity standards. The object/relational hybrid lets users, for e: cess a row in a SQL table C++ application as well as query of a C++ class with a SQL select statement. Omniscience costs $749 per user; the company said it expects to release a client-server this summer, version Database Omniscience Object Technol- ogy Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif, can be reached at (408) 562-0799 or (800) 888-8489; fax (408) 562- 0757; info@oot.com; http://www. omniscience.com. instances ‘The company said Omniscience | Omniscience pays off NetLock secures with portable Mac DB "et transactions By Joanna Pearlstein Sending secure data transmis- sions on a network is the business of Hughes NetLock, a business unit of Hughes Aircraft Co., which has announced NetLock, a client-server package for en- crypting packets on LANs and WANs. 02.05.96 MACWEEK NetLock creates a “crypto- graphic envelope data transmitted over public and private networks. It generates a unique encryption key for each that shields data transmission and provides automatic peer-to-peer encryp- tion and authentication. NetLock, Page 16 ew fon. ae Cire es) cece: [8 Joos [1_]oe [©], Forté readies client-server tool By Clifford Colby With an eye toward speeding client-server development, Forté Software Inc. said it plans to ship by spring a visual application generator based on the company’s high-end database tools. The company said users will be able to import database schema into its generator, Forté Express, and define business and application models; Express will then create distributed applications, including the client-side components and midtier shared services, which manage data access and retrieval. Forté said Express will let developers quickly create and modify user interfaces — including layouts, menus and buttons. Express will generate native connections to a handful of popular databases as well as support Open Database Connectivity links. Express will be compatible with the company’s high-end development tool, called Forté, which lets users develop and deploy distributed client- server applications. Forté Express will cost $20,000 per site and will be available for 680x0 Macs and Power Macs, Windows, and Unix platforms. Forté Software Inc. of Oakland, Calif., can be reached at (510) 869- 3400; fax (510) 869-3480; info@forte.com; http://www. forte.com. MDG lets 4D churn out Web pages By James Staten MDG Computer Services Inc. in January turned 4th Dimension intoan HTTP server. Priced at $495, Web Server 4D is a full-featured Web server written in ACI US Inc.'s relational data- base. Web Server 4D was known as 41DHTTP when it was beta tested over the Internet. In addition to serving tradi- tional Web pages via HTTP, or Hypertext. Transfer Protocol, Web Server 4D can present cus With Forté tom pages based on the client’s Express, de- TCP/IP addre: velopers will build user interfaces and generate the client components. domain name 2 ncoursteoonre or Web browser. It supports SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and MIME (Multipur- fail Extensions) and can limit access toa Web site via password security. An image- IDG, Page 16 pose Internet Hughes’ NetLock lets administrators select the encryption techniques for data transmitted over a network. Sonic, Focus set to join Fast Ethernet parade By Clifford Colby The new year has arrived faster than usual, with Sonic Systems Inc. shipping a family of Fast Ethernet products and Focus Enhance- ments Inc. announcing its own plans for a line of 100BASE T de- vices for the Mac. Among Sonic's new Fast Ethernet devices are one $399 dual-speed 10/100BA: T card for NuBus Macs and a $299 10/00BASE T card for PCI ma- chines. Sonic also shipped a $1,299 cight-port Class II 100BASE T hub in January and intends to release this month an $899 two-port 10/100BASE T bridge for connecting standard and Fast Ethernet LANs. Focus is at work on its own 100BASE T products, with plans to offer IOOBASE T and dual- speed 10/L00BASE T cards for NuBus and PCI Macs. The com- pany said it is also working on a 100-Mbps_ Ethernet The company said it expects to start | See Fast Ethernet, Page 16 = Focus Enhancements’ Cascading Hub9 includes a port on its side that allows users to connect two of the Ethernet hubs together. hub. ou’ve done it before. You'll have to do it again. Finding the best software tool for any job can be a tough call. Except when you're looking for an E-mail system that will let you communicate effortlessly across the hall and around the world. Fe el Fre e You want seamless LAN-based and a “QuickMail remains Internet communication. You want ease- a solid choice for I 0 of-use without sacrificing power. You want + Mac-based e-mail Compare systems and is the an all-in-one-b ee sanen en best choice for Mac- solution with a centric LANs.” wealth of world- MacWEEK, Nov. 13, 1995 class features that can do it all. cross-platform clients, to name just a few. Finding the best solution can be tough, but not with QuickMail”™. There’s really no comparison. Call CE Software to join Features like Internet integration, automated mail management rules, spell-checking, remote connectivity, and the millions who have stepped to the forefront of communications technology. Call CE Software today at 800 523-7638 (CE2023) to receive your 5-User 30-day evaluation copy of QuickMail. aa THE STANDARD IN MACOS MESSAGING http://www.cesoft.com CE SOFTWARE © 1996 CE Software, Inc. CE Software, the CE Software logo, and QuickMail are trademarks of CE Software, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. PAGE 16 Gateways 02.05.96 MACWEEK MDG map resolver is also provided. Because the server is built on a database, it can track, statistics about the user’s browser and domain type, the type of pages requested, and what page the user visited prior to his or her arrival. Web Server 4D can also display infor- mation and statistics via new HTML tags, including the number of server hits, a From Page 14 INTEGRATE MACINTOSHES with Sun/SGI/HP Server to the Macs... user’s TCP/IP address, a breakdown of visitors to the site based on domain name or type of Web browser, and the total number of visits toa page. Web Server 4D can handle up to 15,000 hits per hour and is available in 680x0 and PowerPC versions. Late this month MDG will ship Version, L.1 of the product, which will add Open Transport support; this will increase the speed of the server and the number of si- multaneous connections it can handle. In addition, Version 1.1 will read HTTP Cookies, a function built into Netscape Nav- igator that lets a server track a user with a shared TCP/IP address. Version 1.1 will also provide user registration, password adminis- tration viaa Web browser and random page- serving functions. Additional new features will include CGI (Common Gateway Interface) sup- port, optimized connections based on the user's connection speed, graphing of statis- tics and integration with 4-Sight L.C.’s 4-Sight Fax application MDG isalso developing a version of Web Server 4D that will support the Secure Sock- ets Layer security and commerce protocol. MDG Computer Services Bartlett, Ill., can be reached at (708) 622- 0220; fax (708) 622-8893; sales@mdg.com; http://www.mdg.com. 0 Cypress redials PhonePro By Joanna Pearlstein a Cypress Research Inc. has released 3.0 of PhonePro, its application-development tool for telephones. Version PhonePro’s icon-based scripting language lets users create voice- mail systems. Version 3.0 boasts a new interface and adds support for additional telephony hardware. Version 3.0’s expanded text-to- speech support can be used to create applications that “speak” written text. PhonePro is Apple Telephone Manager-compliant, allowing the program to access a variety of telephony hardware through device-specific drivers. Version 3.0 comes with a new sound- editing utility, CRC Sound Shop, which can manipulate, edit and convert sound files in a variety of formats. The new version supports sampling — ranges of ea a a ai With PhonePro 3.0, users can design voice-mail systems; the CRC Sound Shop edits and converts sound files. between 5,564 Hz and 44,100 Hz. PhonePro 3.0 costs $349; upgrades from previous versions are $99. Cypress Research Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., can be reached at (408) 752-2700 or (800) 515-8111; fax (408) 752-2735. ( Fast Ethernet shipping in the second quarter. Focus, however, did not neglect 10- Mbps Ethernet, releasing in January a handful of 1OBASE T hubs. The com- pany’s Hub 16RM, a 16-port 1OBASE T device, costs $419 and includes a thin-net portand an AUI (attachment unit interface) port. Focus’ $699 Hub 32RM also comes with both a thin-net and an AUI port but has 32 ports for making 10BASE T connec- tions. Its EtherLAN Hub 16 V h: thin-net port and 16 10BASE T po: costs $439.99, Focus also released in January its Mini- Hub, a $99.99 hub with four 10B/ 6 ports and an Ethernet transceiver, and its $169 Cascading Hub9, an eight-port 10BASE T hub with one thin-net port and an additional connection to another Cas- cading Hub9. Sonic Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., can be reached at (408) 736-1900 or (800) 535-0725; fax (408) 736-7228; sales@ sonicsys.com; http://www.sonic: Focus Enhancements Inc. of Woburn, Mass., can be reached at (617) 938-8088 or (800) 538-8865; fax (617) 938-7741. From Page 14 com. | NetLock | sion for 100 workstations ¢ From Page 14 NetLock consists of two parts: the Net- Lock Manager, an application that resides on a server, and an extension installed on individual users’ machines; the product is transparent to the end user. Users ona net- work protected by NetLock cannot e change data with users without NetLock installed. Macintosh versions of both the client and server are available. With NetLock Manager, administrators can choose from several encryption algo- rithms, including Data Encryption Stan- dard (DES), Triple DES, RC2, RC4 and an encryption algorithm developed by Hughes. NetLock also supports SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). The Open Transport TCP/IP version is shipping now; the Open Transport Apple- Talk version will be available in July. A 10-workstation version costs $2,995; a 20-workstation version costs $4,995. A ver- sts $19,995. Hughes NetLock, a division of Hughes Aircraft Co. of Fullerton, Calif., can be reached at (714) 446-2354 or (800) 494-5548; fax (714) 446-2311; netlock @mls.hac.com; http://Awww.netlock.h com. Inc. of MopEem BEAT PC Card modems. TDK stems of Nevada City, Calif., has debuted two new PC Cards, one that combines x modem with Ethernet sup- port and one with fax modem and voice ca- pabilities. The $599 GlobalNetworker 3410 supports lOBASE T, and its built-in V.34 fax modem transmits data at 28.8 Kbps; a $629 thin-net version is also available. The $399 DataVoice 3400 PC Card marries a V.34 fax modem with voice software that lets users talk on the phone and transmit data during the same session. Phone (916) 478-8421 or (800) 999-4835; fax (916) 478- 8290; http://www.tdksystems.com. Voice-mail modems. Best Prod- ucts Inc. of Chatsworth, Calif., has an- nounced two external fax modems with built-in voice mail. Messages can be recorded with a telephone handset; users can create up to 999 voice-mail boxes. The 28.8-Kbps fax modem and 14.4-Kbps fax modem models are expected to cost $199 and $99, respectively. Phone (818) 773- 9600 or (800) 632-2378; fax (818) 773-9619; http://www. bestdata.com. Dayna‘s AddressBook. Salt Lake City- based Dayna Communications Inc. is bundling a new software package, AddressBook, with its modems. Once PowerTalk support is added, the product will let users organize e-mail, faxes and pages in one location. Currently, the prod- uct supports faxing and address-book functions only. Dayna will not sell the pro- gram separately. Phone (801) 269-720 (801) 269-7363; http//www.dayna.com. g's PC Card sails. Viking Com- ponents Inc. of Laguna Hills, Calif,, is | now shipping the Netlink 28.8, a PC Card fax modem. The $329 product can transmit data at 28.8 Kbps and faxes at 14.4 Kbps. Phone (714) 643-7255 or (800) 338-2361; fax (714) 643-7250. — By Joanna Pearlstein Power Objects. Because every line of code you write ends up on your face. of ique drag and drop technology dramatica Unnecessary and repetitive code takes its toll. On your business, on your mind, and, yes, even your face. But relax. Apple? the experts in easy to use technology, has teamed up with Oracle, the database experts, to bring you a win- 1™ ning business solution. Oracle Power Objects ™. A visual programming tool, Power Objects automates complex Basie database functions by letting you reuse code quickly via drag- Drag-and-drop database programming No and-drop object technology. With Power Objects, you can insert eae Shanes q ata loc. a server DBMS wi saction s | lndustry stang IChnguge ____—'Yes__Yes | + delete a —_ ea ‘sali De : hae ie asian ee Seamnies salaliyio 7&SQL Sener No and no coding whatsoever. The same task in Visual Basic would require | Naive Orade 7 & SQL Server interices = MiG many redundant lines of code. You can even run Windows app’s ‘True objectoriented code reusability No unmodified on a Macintosh™ computer and vice versa. And Power OCX and OLE 2 support Yes — Objects uses a scripting language you already know, standard BASIC. ante ns Macintosh, OS/2** No ane 4 . * Standard in the client/server version 4 ‘To eliminate unnecessary lines of code from your programming, |_** scheduled jor releae in ear) 90. and perhaps elsewhere, buy Oracle Power Objects today, before it’s too late. Available for both Macintosh and Windows in the Personal or E Client/Server Edition. MacOS Forwindows _ Enabling the Information Age Oracle Power Objects. om the regular estimate PAGE 18 Programming for a mix of Mac and PC systems GATEWAYS EXTRA By April Streeter A stream of client-server, Cross-platform One reason for this sud- cross-platform development den bounty of client-server ee is sed eats is tools could help eae genes to Evan acintosh marketplace this uinn, research manager ear. However, giving com- for application development Bee eae cs | cioasnenat nner, ee in their application Mac's demise in _ _ in Framingham, evelopment plans won't jass., is simply the strengt necessarily make the Mac a| the corporate and competitive nature of more popular client in cor- the market for application- porate America. arena. development tools. The Macintosh is cur- rently holding on as the second-most-utilized client in client-server environments, with about 9 percent of the market, according to a report published last year by The Standish Group Interna- tional Inc. of Dennis, Mass. Theoretically, tools that make it easy to develop applica- tions for Mac clients should be in demand. Until recently, demand hasn’t been met with steady supply, possibly because the No. | client choice, Microsoft Corp.’s Win- dows, owns an overwhelming 63 percent of the total client pie. “There’s a ton of tools in the Windows space,” said Scott Boyd, spokesman for Smalltalk Agents, a Mac- based object-oriented tool kit from Quasar Knowledge Systems Inc. of Bethesda, Md. “Microsoft understood that leading the way with tools is a way to develop the mar- ket. We just haven’t had that kind of de- velopment on the Mac side.” Boyd said he believes that Metrowerks Inc.’s success with its PowerPC Code- Warrior tools is a good example of Apple dropping the ball in terms of providing home-grown tools. He said he remains hope- ful that Apple will back the cross-platform OpenDoc effort with a good set of tools. Client-server tools At least in terms of products available, the Mac development-tool market is changing. Jyace Inc. was a leader, releasing the JAM 7 cross-platform environment for the 680x0 Mac platforms in December, followed by Powersoft Corp.’s late-December release of a Mac version of its popular PowerBuilder fourth-generation-language (4GL) And this spring, Oracle Corp. will add a Power Mac version of the graphical Power Objects tool kit to the recently shipped Mac and Windows versions. Gupta Corp. is also working to get the Gupta SQL for Mac beta tousers in the first half of this year. tool. “Every once in awhile we say the market can’t keep growing, but methodology and technology changes keep it going. We're predicting about 15 percent annual growth through the end of the century,” Quinn said. In this thriving, competitive scene, main- stream players such as Powersoft and Oracle protect market share from smaller, innova- tive vendors by offering their product on more of the platforms their customers sup- port, Quinn said. He noted that it will be in- teresting to see whether Microsoft Corp. bows to these pressures and decides to port Visual Basic to the Mac. “I don’t know if Mi- crosoft’s decided what their strategy will be in this regard, but Powersoft’s strategy is to appeal to the corporate mainstream, and in order to do that you've got to expand the breadth of the tool,” Quinn said. “I think it 02.05.96 MACWEEK Carlos Nunes, principal soft- ware engineer at Houghton- Mifflin, said, “It's still a reli- gious war be- tween the two platforms.” After develop- ing applications on Windows with Power- Builder for his mostly Mac cients, he’s banking on Powersoft's promise to develop Power- Builder for the Mac. SEIN RESNICK will bea surprise how much interest [Power- soft] will get in their Mac version.” There’s also a flurry of cross-platform activity from smaller tool developers. In the next 60 days Quasar will release the Power Mac-native Smalltalk Agents and is working on a Windows version of the pro- gram for shipment sometime this year. Versant Object Technology Inc. is ready- See Client-server, Page 2 GUEST EDITORIAL CAREY TEWS AND CHRISTOPHER HALL Managers’ development cross to bear Suppose your company has just hired a vice president who's hooked on Windows. 95, and this person wants all future applications to sup- port the Macintosh OS and Win32 APIs ager of computing services, it falls to you to break the news to your Mac-loyal de- velopment team, After the dust settles, just how does your team start creating new multiplatform solutions for your in-house clients? Cross-platform development remains one of the most difficult tasks facing in-house developers today. Whether the end product is an application in C and C++ or a database front end in Oracle Power Objects, development teams must make a commitment to careful planning s the man- and research Given a good group of coders, we have repeatedly seen that the choice of develop- ment platform and tools has made the dif ference between a suc ssful development cycle and a debacle that meets few of the project specs. This means that the research compo- nent of R&D is the first key to successful development. There are two general paths for Wintel third-generation language GGL) such as C or Pascal | with an application frame- work or a fourth-genera- tion language (4GL) environment for rapid application development in a client-server database environment. Each has pitfalls pe- culiar to cross-platform development. Macintosh- development: a 4GL power dr: Using an application framework is nor- mally an empowering experience for coders, even as they climb the framework’s learning curve. Metrowerks Inc.’s Power- Plant, Symantec Corp.’s Think Class Li- Apple's MacApp, Microsoft Corp.'s Foundation Classes and Borland Interna- tional Inc.'s ObjectWindows are all useful frameworks for their respective platforms. Yet when projects use cross-platform brarie frameworks such as the Zinc application framework from ZNC Software Inc. or Mi- crosoft’s Foundation Classes for the Macin- tosh, this empowerment becomes a constant discovery of how the cross-platform frame- work sacrifices the Macintosh Human In- terface Guidelines and the Toolbox on the altar of the lowest common denominator. 4GL, if appropriate for a given in-house project, have different disadvantages than cross-platform 3GL frameworks. Using Mac product such as the stalwart FileMaker Pro from Claris Corp., you can easily di velop applications for both platforms while maintaining a consistent interface. Other choices, such as Oracle Power Objects, while tremendous enabling technologies, often end up favoring the Windows-Intel interface Another considera- tion is that the ease of development in most 4GLsis countered by the ongoing creation of big, slow applications. Applications devel- oped in 4GLs are often larger and slower than their 3GL counterparts, yet this may not be a detriment depending on the time, over the Mac interface hardware and other project requirements. See Guest editorial, Page 20 High-speed Internet access for your whole office is finally a no-brainer. Netep ra makes Intev net access fact and easy Netopra makes Tnternet acces$ § ct and easy Netop ia makes, Thternet access +a Netopia makes Tnternet cecess £4 Net opia makes Internet acce sp £a od Easy Netopia Makes Trternet acceSt f Netopia make ¢ Interne! acce Ss 4 Rledenic makes Tntevnet ace Sy £. Netopia makes Internet orcess f — Al trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Copyright © 1995 Farallon Computing, Inc.All rights reserved. It no longer takes a lot of time or money to connect every computer on your network to the Internet. It simply takes the Netopia Internet Solution. Now, your whole office can simultaneously access the Net at ten times the speed of modems, using ISDN. You'll get Netscape Navigator. You'll get e-mail, Gopher, file transfer and more. And, with our “Up and Running, Guaranteed!” service, you'll practically get the whole thing done for you, over the phone. For details, call 1.800.613.4947 or visit hetp:/www.farallon.com. +1: Farallon’ PAGE 20 Gateways 02.05.96 MACWEEK CASE STUDY By John Paff When Graphsoft Inc. of Columbia, Md., made the decision to port its cross- platform application Mini- With an application consist- ing of more than 600,000 lines of code, the change from one language to another — Pascal to object-oriented C++ — was an intimidating prospect. “We debated the matter vigorously amongst ourselves for at three months,” said Graphsoft’s chief program- mer, Sean Flaherty. Like many organizations considering such a move, Graphsoft’s biggest concern was the potential risk to the quality of its product line. Another major consideration was the potential commercial risk that might result from what would, in effect, be lost development time. For Graphsoft, as for most organizations, such transitions mean the full-time commitment of all available programming resources to the migration process instead of product enhancement. “Instead of spending six months to a year as we normally do adding new fea tures, we would end up spending that time entirely on a conversion that would, hope- fully, be totally transparent to our users,” Flaherty said. The decision to change to an object- oriented programming system (OOPS) and C++ was ultimately driven by technological least Graphsoft ends up ahead after Developer surprised at ease in going from Pascal to C++ change more than anything else. The change to C++ was potentially risky but a neces- sary investment in Graph- Cad to object-oriented C++ | fits move to an | Sf'’s long-term future and three and a half years ago, commercial viability. Also, management and staff were | QOPS, despite _ accordingto Flaherty, Apple understandably nervous. seemed to be sending clear | Thiswasnotasmall decision. | dayelopment signals that it felt the Mac’s There was the sheer scale of future seemed to lie in C++. such a project to consider. | time lost. It had, after all, just ported the Mac OS to that language. But ultimately it was the introduction of the Power Mac that be- came the catalyst. Graphsoft wanted to de- velop applications that took full advantage of the Power Mac’s sheer power, and that meant it had to make the change to C++. There just weren’t any other development environments available at the time. To Graphsoft, the long-term risk in not con- verting would mean missing out on an im- portant part of the Mac’s future. “We realized that the transition would probably mean a lot of extra work — and that we might take a small hit, short term,” Flaherty said. “But we felt certain that our changing to OOPS would make us far more competitive in the long term.” After three months of vigorous internal debate, Graphsoft decided to take the plunge. Implementation Like many organizations that decide to make the change from traditional structured coding to an OOPS, Graphsoft opted to at- tempt to port rather than rewrite its existing code. But at 600,000 lines, some outside pro- fessional colleagues were highly skeptical PAMELA H such a port could be accomplished success- fully — or at least done cost-effectively. “Those that thought we could do it all figured it would take us at least two years to get a shippable product,” Flaherty said, “but, in fact, one of the things that far ex- ceeded our most optimistic expectations was how incredibly well the port went.” Using p2c from Sierra Software Innova- tions Inc. of Incline Village, Nev., Graph- soft was able to get a working code- converted version of MiniCad up and run- ning in a matter of weeks. Debugging the port to make it shippable would take far | longer than that, of course. But the total time to convert the then-current version was less than six months. Positive outlook “The entire transition went much more smoothly than we ever hoped for,” F herty said. As noted, p2 — the commercial soft- ware used for the code conversion — per- formed far better than Graphsoft, or even Sierra, its creator, actually thought it would. This success undercut the legacy- code arguments that had, at the beginning of the decision-making process, weighed so heavily against undertaking the change. The switch to C++ also yielded other unexpected benefits as well, including an unanticipated boost in the product’s per- formance on 680x()-based Macs. But the biggest and most unexpected plus for the programmers of Graphsoft was, according to Flaherty, the C++ devel- opment environment itself. “Tt was just so much richer and more ¢ eganta development environment than we ever expected.” On the other hand, some aspects of the conversion process were tougher than the group had counted on. According to Fla- herty and others, the most frustrating as- pect of attempting a conversion three years ago was working with the earlier versions of Apple’s Macintosh Programmer's Workshop C++ development tools. “At that time, Apple’s tools were just terrible,” Flaherty said. “They were buggy and excruciatingly slow. The debuggers [were] the worst. It was a really awful de- velopment environment. When the appli- cation crashed we actually headed for the compiler’s developer notes first.” The lack of good development tools began tobecome a serious problem. Graphsofi, like many other developers, soon found itself spending as much or more time supporting the development environment than they did the product under the development. “When we switched to Metrowerks [Inc.’s CodeWarrior] it was like a party,” Flaherty said. “Guys were literally cele- brating in the halls, shouting: ‘Hey, I was actually able to debug thi tually compiled.’” My program ac- With the help of newer third-party de- velopment tools, Graphsoft’s code not only began to compile successfully but did so in a third of the time. “What took more than three hours to recompile before now took under an hour,” Flaherty said. “We saved a huge amount of time that we were then See Graphsoft, Page 24 Guest editorial From Page 18 With these facts in mind, trust your team to help make these decisions with you. Forcing your developers to work against their best interests by using awk- ward or inappropriate tools can result in frustration and a sudden loss of able brains. Example scenario The client-development team of a large company is writing a telecommunications product for a customer base with the aver- age 9-to-I split of Windows-Intel to Mac users. Maximum code reuse being a re- quirement, the developers examined and test-developed under the ZINC. cros: platform application framework, eventually deciding against it. Immediately after this perceived failure to make ZINC work, management mandated that all develop- ment be done under Microsoft Visual C++ and migration to the Mac would be via Mi- crosoft’s Cross-Development Environment. Several members of the development team urged management not to consider MSVC++ CrossDev for three reasons: the compiler uses a Macintosh Portability Layer, which means that the Toolbox is hardly used at all; the compiler generates only 680x0 code; and because of the first two, the product would be emulated not once but twice on a Power Mac. (Version 4.0, released in January, does run native.) For these reasons, the developers urged rearchitecting of the application into platform-independent core code (the bus ness rules and other internal workings) and platform-dependent interface code. This would allow this C++ project to use the best application framework for each platform. In this case, the developers wanted to use Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior with PowerPlant on the Mac instead of using MSVC+ + for both platforms. Man- agement decided against CodeWarrior, because it is easier, from an upfront-cost standpoint, to write the code one time, tweak it for the Mac and be done with it. Version 1.0 of the product was released in 1995 and warmly received by 90 percent of its users. Unfortunately, the Mac product has had many nearly unresolvable anomalies, as well as high user dissatisfaction because of horrible performance. The developers con- tinue to urge management to “do the right thing” for the Macintosh users and are still touting CodeWarrior and PowerPlant. We hear echoes of this experience all over the development world. Developers want to write their code once for multiple platforms, but that has not happened. As developers of in-house and com- mercial software, we believe that there are two ways you can go with your cross- platform projects. If you are currently using a 4GL with a sister product on the other side, use it. If, however, you are using a 3GL, you would do well to rearchitect your code so that the core functionality can be written once and have the best interface for any platform. as Carey Tews and Christopher Hallare principals in The Software Brewing Co. They can be reached at sbc@pundits.net. YE PRESENTATIONS THREE ORIGI AL DESO FOUR MEETINGS WO CONCERTS Rina, / ce YOUR MAC BETTER HAUL. Finally, a cost-effective multimedia accelerator for your PC-based Power Macintosh. 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So, if you're perform like ready to get the most out of your PCI Power Mac, never before call Diamond at 1-800-4-MULTIMEDIA today. 1100% atl xclaim GA And, it comes And we'll show you how the Javelin Video 3000 MULTIMEDIA bundled with the Series delivers optimum acceleration, without KPT Convolver compromise. A passion for performance. 24-Hour Fax-On-Demand: 1-800-380-0030 Internet: http://www.diamondmm.com lin and Javelin Video are trademarks of Diamond Ind reserves the right to change specifications without notice. Mac 9500/120 with a resolution of 1024 x 768 at 16.7 million colors. ©1995 Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc., 2880 Junction Avenue, San Jose, CA 95134-1922. All rights reserved. Diamond, Diamond Multimedia, Ja Multimedia Systems, Inc. All other trademarks and reg rademarks are the property of their respective holders. D “Based on QuickDraw acceleration tests using Ziff-Davis MacBench 2.0. Tests completed on a Pov rl PAGE 22 Gateways 02.05.96 MACWEEK Client-server From Page 18 ing a Macintosh version of Argos, Pictorius Inc. is porting both Mac-based ProGraph CPX and Peregrine tools to Windows 95 and Windows NT, and InSync Corp. has a Mac client in the works. Alll are set for de- livery in 1996 (sce chart below). These tools help bring increased functionality, such as object technology and three-tier program- ming, to the Mac tool arena. Cross-platform wasteland Whatever the reasons vendors have for preparing new cross-platform tools, the beneficiaries are clearly corporate users. Up until a year ago, the pickings were slim for developers who needed cros capabilities, with Blyth Softv Omnis the only obvious candids terms of 4GL and ease of us wasn’t much,” said IDC’s Quinn. pretty much held the spot.” Large sites that did bet on Omnis now voice some concern that Blyth, which has weathered financial storms in the past year, might not survive the coming com- petitive onslaught. n 1992 when we knew we had to operate on the Mac and Intel platforms, Omnis was the only thing around. Had I known then that in Decem- ber 1995 Wintel would be our corporate standard, I still would choose Omnis,” said Hans Schneider, chief of the loan systems When You Make It To The Big Screen Second Best Is Not Good Enough. Apple’s #1 Choice In Mac-To-TV Interfaces When Apple needed to ship the best portable Mac-To-TV interface tem, they chose the FOCUS LeTV Portable. Simply because presenters, educators and train- ers can plug the small, lightweight LeTV Portable into a Mac with video-out capability (including PowerBooks) and instantly have a fast, powerful, big screen multimedia prest Duplicate the Mac screen on the TV or record to a VCR. Flicker elimination software, built-in RCA, S-Video connectors and all TV internal color card also lets classroom trainers use the TV as a second monitor, with their Apple Pres cables are included. The FOCUS Ls LeTV Portable $229.99 ~ LeTV Portable Pro $299.99 LeTV LC Card $299.99 Our Customers’ #1 Choice In Big Screen Color Cards LapisColor Cards from FOCUS are ation Plug-and-play desktop or PowerBook Macs A Must For New Owners! PowerBook 190/5300 Combo Video & Ethernet Cards For Display up to 16.7 million colors on your TV, and record to videotape. performers, pure and simple. For Macs with an LC-PDS slot, the 64-bit Internal Bus Acceleration on LapisColor cards will make your Mac fly. With up to 3 megs of VRAM they are favorites with our customers who work with complex graphics or video editing and viewing, and who have no patience to wait for their monitor to catch up with their mind. LapisColor cards are compatible with Apple, Sony, SuperM: ‘adius and RasterOps monitors, to name a few. The complete line of LapisColor 24-bit, 16-bit or 8-bit cards work with any LC-PDS slot-equipped Mac From $339.00 COLOR BW Call for more information or the reseller nearest you. Call for a free product guide INGRAM “030 Macintosh PowerBook 190/5300 ‘The new MV series, exclusively from FOCUS, gives your PowerBook fast 16-bit color for large monitor support, and a permanent, built-in Ethernet connection that doesn't use precious PCMCIA slots. The MV family of cards use dedicated video and ethernet controller chips to provide maximum performance. A dual purpose MicroLatch connector cable provides a solid cable link to your network and display LapisColor MV8-EN $249.00 LapisColor MV16 $299.00 LapisColor MV16-EN $399.00 6000 FOCUS networking « graphics © software division of the World Bank in Washing- ton, D.C. Carlos Nunes, principal software engi neer at publisher Houghton-Mifflin Co. in Boston, was faced with a similar bleak array of cross-platform tools when he em- barked on plication development in 1993. However, after evaluating Omnis sfeware Inc. and Dynasty Technologies Inc., and higher-end tools from Forté § Nunes decided to bank on Powersoft’s promise that it would develop Power Builder for the Mac platform. “I really be- lieved in PowerBuilder and wanted it to be indard,” Nunes said. time Nunes developed our corporate sta In the m Houghton’s decision-support and_ rev- enue-forecast application on Windows | with PowerBuilder and deployed it on Intel-standard workstations for the com- pany’s mostly Mac editorial departments —with rather mixed results. “They didn’t like to be forced to use Windows,” Nunes. said. “Itstill is something of a religious war between the two platforms.” Despite a first PowerBuilder Mac beta that Nunes describes as “really bad,” he persevered with testing, and just recently ported one of his applications to the Mac with good results. “Seventy percent of what our users need is access to data, so I think we were lucky in that we didn’t have are; ly fat client,” he said. Matching fonts on the Mac side was the only area that re- quired extra tinkering on Nunes’ part oD owerBuilder’s now very, very clean. And the most important result is that the application is much better received by users than it was before.” Oracle’s new Power Objects cross- platform environment for the Mac at- tracted similar praise from user Barry Johnson, president of developer Dynamic Information Systems of Minneapolis, Minn. “This is a big benefit for our Mac development projects. The com bination of a graphical e