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Path: digifix!not-for-mail From: Conrad_Geiger@NeXT.COM (Conrad Geiger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce Subject: NeXT Announces New Releases of NEXTSTEP and NEXTSTEP Developer Date: 19 Oct 1993 17:58:04 -0400 Organization: Next Announcements Lines: 169 Sender: sanguish@digifix.com Approved: sanguish@digifix.com Message-ID: <2a1ntc$447@digifix.digifix.com> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karen Logsdon NeXT Computer, Inc. 415/780-3786 -or- Marilyn Kilinski Ketchum Public Relations 212/536-8865 NeXT ANNOUNCES NEW RELEASES OF NEXTSTEP AND NEXTSTEP DEVELOPER BOSTON- Oct. 19, 1993 - NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced it will ship NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 for Intel processors and NEXTSTEP Developer Release 3.2 the first week in November. The new releases extend NeXT's object advantage and enable customers developing and deploying mission-critical custom applications using NEXTSTEP to gain DOS/Windows compatibility. It also offers support for a wider variety of hardware platforms. Bundled with NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 for Intel processors is a complete version of SoftPC for NEXTSTEP for Intel processors from Insignia Solutions of Mountain View, Calif. SoftPC for NEXTSTEP offers customers interoperability and compatibility with Microsoft DOS/Windows environments. The product comes with Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 5.0 pre-installed. After 30 days, customers can instantly unlock a full SoftPC license from Insignia Solutions to continue to take full advantage of their existing applications while simultaneously gaining all of the benefits of a full object-oriented operating environment. "The MS-DOS/Windows capability for NEXTSTEP for Intel processors is exceptional. Insignia has established a strategic relationship with Microsoft to license the Windows source code. Insignia has developed new technology and optimized Windows 3.1 under NEXTSTEP," said Marc Munford, product manager at Insignia Solutions Inc. NeXT is the first platform to ship a product using Insignia Solutions' new Microsoft technology. "The result is fast, 100% compatible, DOS and Windows performance. With SoftPC for NEXTSTEP, customers can be guaranteed they are always up-to-date with Microsoft's latest release of MS-DOS and Windows, and that they can continue to develop custom applications on NEXTSTEP without being concerned about compatibility with the latest DOS and Windows applications," Munford said. Customers benefit from enhanced technology With SoftPC for NEXTSTEP, customers can realize the benefits of object-oriented NEXTSTEP applications while continuing to run their legacy DOS/Windows applications in a full-screen or in-a-window mode. For example, customers can copy and paste between DOS/Windows and NEXTSTEP documents and share files between their Windows and NEXTSTEP environments because of NEXTSTEP's ability to read and write DOS files. Additionally, customers can take advantage of technology that NeXT provided to Insignia Solutions for enhanced Windows graphics performance. SoftPC for NEXTSTEP includes networking support for DOS/Windows applications that require network access thru SoftNode which supports Novell Netware (SPX/IPX) and Novell LAN Workplace (TCP/IP). Pre-release site customers praise new products "Our initial evaluations show that the pre-release of NEXTSTEP 3.2 is excellent. NeXT's investment in quality assurance has definitely paid off," said Dwight Koop Executive Director, Information Technology at Swiss Bank Corporation. "We are especially pleased with the improvements NeXT and Insignia have made with SoftPC and are excited about being able to release NEXTSTEP 3.2 and SoftPC within Swiss Bank Corporation." Release 3.2 provides support for more hardware platforms Specifically, NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 for Intel processors includes additional driver support which greatly increases the number of hardware configurations NEXTSTEP can support. New to Release 3.2 is DriverKit, an object-oriented framework that enables developers to write device drivers in less time with significantly less code than traditional methods of writing UNIX drivers. DriverKit is another example of how NeXT is extending the object advantage deeper into the system software, providing greater leverage for developers. In the area of drivers, NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 now includes public APIs allowing sound, SCSI, graphics and local area network devices to be supported by dynamically loadable drivers. NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 also includes support for a variety of new graphics adaptors and for the first time, full support for 32-bit color graphics. Developer product enhancements improve support for custom objects Specifically, NEXTSTEP Developer Release 3.2 includes a new FileMerge application and modifications to the ProjectBuilder and HeaderViewer applications. For C++ developers, NeXT added the GNU libg++ class libraries. FileMerge is used to compare two directories and to show which files are added, deleted or modified. For a pair of files that are different, the application will show them side-by-side in a view that marks all differences in a graphical manner. The developer can choose to create a third file, which is viewed below the two files being compared and then selectively merge the two files by choosing which of the above files the changes should come from for each set of differences. Using this tool, a developer can quickly tell what changed and quickly merge changes from different source branches with a few mouse clicks. NEXTSTEP Developer 3.2 includes initial support for Portable Distributed Objects (PDO). ProjectBuilder has always been able to build objects/applications remotely over the network on another NEXTSTEP machine. Changes have been added to allow ProjectBuilder to now communicate via PDO to a non-NEXTSTEP machine and build objects/applications in the target environment. This will allow PDO developers to build their object services for their servers from a NEXTSTEP client utilizing the same ProjectBuilder facilities they use for NEXTSTEP applications. Availability and Pricing NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 and NEXTSTEP Developer Release 3.2 will be available the first week of November. Pricing for NEXTSTEP for Intel processors and NEXTSTEP Developer is $795 and $1,995 respectively. Pricing for upgrades to NEXTSTEP for NeXT Computers and NEXTSTEP Developer for NeXT Computers is $195 and $495 respectively. Customers who purchase the full version of NEXTSTEP Release 3.1 (excludes evaluation or promotional copies) and return the registration card before October 31, 1993 will receive NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 free. NeXT Computer, Inc. NeXT develops and markets the award-winning NEXTSTEP object-oriented software for industry-standard computer architectures. Customers use NEXTSTEP to develop and deploy custom client/server applications, using both custom and shrink-wrapped software. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, and with offices throughout the world, NeXT serves customers requiring enterprise-wide, object-oriented productivity environments. # # # # NeXT, the NeXT logo and NEXTSTEP are registered trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. >From Marc Munford: NeXT is the first platform to ship a product using Insignia Solutions' new Microsoft technology. For NEXTSTEP customers, the benefit is optimal performance while maintaining full Windows compatibility.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.