This is csna.20.02 in view mode; [Up]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce From: scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Subject: Announcing TickleServices1.0 Reply-To: scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Organization: Next Announcements Approved: sanguish@digifix.com CONTACT INFORMATION: Contact: Scott Hess 12901 Upton Avenue South, #326 Burnsville, MN 55337 Telephone: (612) 895-1208 Internet: scott@nic.gac.edu or shess@ssesco.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (IF NOT SOONER) SCOTT HESS INTRODUCES TickleServices1.0 An Evolutionary Framework For Rapid Prototyping of NeXTSTEP Services May 13, 1993, 3:00am CDT SCOTT'S DEN - Almost everyone in the NeXT market is familiar with at least one of the wide variety of service-providing ``applets'' available on the network. These provide services ranging from reformatting and quoting email messages to copying the name of the currently selected file to the Pasteboard. Unfortunately, such applets are too useful and one begins to notice a row of services-providing applets arrayed across the bottom of the screen, plus a couple hanging around in the background as daemon processes. Furthermore, almost all of these applets contain large amounts of duplicated code to implement the interface to the NeXTSTEP services facility, which translates directly into duplicated effort. TickleServices is an attempt to address this problem. TickleServices provides a framework upon which new services entries may be built. It uses a string-based scripting language to direct execution, which allows many text-handling services to be written in just one or two lines. Instead of writing fifteen lines of Objective-C code to support two lines of actual services work, the user can write the two lines that were needed and be done with it. Built-in commands are provided for a number of commonly required functions, such as prompting the user for input or selecting files in an Open Panel. TickleServices allows for much more rapid prototyping of new services than Objective-C does. When the user modifies a TickleServices service, they save it and the new version is available immediately for testing. The user need not wait for the provider to compile, nor be concerned with replacing the currently running version with the newly built version. In the time it might take to look up the documentation needed to write an Objective-C services provider, the user will likely have the service finished in TickleServices. As a side effect of the ease of developing and modifying new services, TickleServices1.0 includes a library of 68 example services, many of which implement services that used to require the aforementioned basket of applets. These services range from handling archive files to counting words in text to reformatting C /* ... */ comments. Beyond the basic utility these services provide to any user, they are a valuable source of code to copy and paste for use in new services. "Since I started using TickleServices, I have been able to climb entire flights of stairs without losing my breath," said Scott Hess, the company's most junior programming apprentice in an unsolicited testimonial. "I used to be logy in the morning, and would lie abed until late in the afternoon. Since TickleServices, I awake earlier every morning, eager to get back to writing useful new services to automate my NeXTSTEP computing needs." Availability and Pricing TickleServices1.0 is available NOW for NeXTSTEP2.1 and NeXTSTEP3.0. In the tradition of Stuart, TickleServices is shareware, and will be distributed via the same tried and true channels; namely, the Internet archive sites. TickleServices has been placed on sonata.cc.purdue.edu under pub/next/submissions, but it may eventually migrate to pub/next/2.0/com. It has also been placed on the west coast archive site cs.orst.edu. It was going to be placed on the European archive site fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de, but that site refused the connection. To unarchive TickleServices, use the command "zcat TickleServices.tar.Z | tar -xvf -", or use the Workspace Contents panel under NeXTSTEP3.0. If you do not have ftp access, contact Scott Hess and he can send you a copy. TickleServices for Intel(R) Processors is currently in beta test, and will be released pending lack of negative feedback from the beta testers. TickleServices/FIP will be distributed as a Multi-Architecture Binary under the same terms as the current TickleServices. TickleServices is priced at $30 for an individual license and $20 for a student license. Site licenses are available for both academic and commercial/government sites. Since TickleServices is shareware, the user is allowed a reasonable evaluation period during which they can determine if TickleServices provides functionality that they are willing to pay for. Scott Hess develops and distributes the popular Stuart terminal emulator, and also crafts custom code for clients willing to foot the bill. Periodically he contemplates becoming a company, or even a corporation, but he so intensely dislikes wearing a suit that it is doubtful if we will ever find the capital to do so. Located in beautiful Burnsville, Minnesota, Scott's den is the scene of much caffeine-driven sorcery. Residents of nearby Savage have frequently complained of the bright flashes of colored lights emanating from his window, though the frequency of such complaints has fallen off markedly since the curse was renewed last April. TickleServices may become a trademark of Scott Hess or any company he accidentally founds or makes agreements with, so don't use it for your product. NeXTSTEP is a trademark of NeXT, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Any other trademarks are surely held by their respective trademark holders. If not, then they aren't.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.