A group of eight companies including Borland, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, SCO, Watcom, MetaWare, and Lotus has formed a new consortium called the Tools Interface Standards (TIS) committee and will publish the TIS 1.0 specification. The committee was formed to define a standard set of 32-bit tool interfaces across multiple platforms that include UNIX, 32-bit Windows, and OS/2 in order to improve portability and interoperability among development tools.
The 1.0 specification standardizes the first linkable, loadable, and debug formats, an area considered by industry observers to be highly fragmented. The formats, which are considered to be both portable and widely used, include the relocatable object-module format (OMF), the executable linkable format (ELF), and DWARF, a debug information format originally developed at AT&T. The TIS committee has also agreed upon Microsoft's PE and Symbol and Type Information (STI) for the Windows environment. Future directions for the TIS committee include a look at the transition to 64-bit environments as well as object-oriented interface standards.
Copies of the TIS specification are available from the Intel Literature Center (order number 241597) or through Intel ACCESS on CompuServe. Reader service no. 20.
Intel Corp. Literature Center
1-800-548-4725
Lucid recently announced that it is making the Lucid GNU Emacs editor available to C and C++ programmers on cartridge tape. Lucid Emacs, which is available in source and binary form for SunOS 4.x, adds a number of features to GNU Emacs, including a GUI interface, support for multiple windows, integration with Motif and the Xt toolkit, multiple fonts with variable width and color, and support for active regions.
Lucid Emacs is one of the editors supported in Lucid's Energize Programming System. Lucid Emacs is already available free of charge via anonymous ftp from Internet at labrea.stanford.edu. Log in with the user "anonymous" and "user-name@host" (that is, your e-mail address) as a password. Execute the command "cd pub/gnu/lucid/". The files you will find are: lemacs-19.4.tar.Z, the complete source distribution; lemacs-19.4-sun4.- tar.Z, a ready-to-run set of Sun4 executables and a DOC file; xpm-3.2a.tar.Z, XPM library. Be sure to set binary mode when transferring these files. Unpack them with some variation of the command "zcat lemacs-19.4.tar.Z | tar-vxf-". Lucid has created two mailing lists for discussing Emacs: [email protected], for reporting all bugs in Lucid GNU Emacs; and [email protected], for random questions and conversations about using Lucid GNU Emacs. The tape distribution, which includes a user manual, is available for $400.00. The manual can be purchased separately for $150.00. Reader service no. 21.
Lucid Inc.
707 Laurel Street
Menlo Park, CA 94025
415-329-8400
Orion Instruments is making available, free of charge, a 55-page booklet entitled "Real-Time Debugging Techniques," authored by Orion founder Thomas R. Blakeslee. The booklet covers numerous techniques that enable developers to efficiently debug embedded systems. These techniques are particularly important in a real-time environment where a breakpoint can have undesirable effects. The booklet covers real-time monitoring, analyzer traces, and symptom triggering. While most, if not all, of the techniques described in the booklet are features in Orion's Emulator/Analyzer product family, the techniques are general enough to be useful in other development environments that integrate in-circuit emulation with (unintrusive) real-time tracing. Reader service no. 22.
Orion Instruments 180 Independence Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 415-327-8800
SLR Systems has announced OPTLINK 4.0 for Windows. OPTLINK, a drop-in replacement for either Microsoft's Link or Borland's TLink. It supports any compiler or assembler that generates standard .OBJ files as well as Phar Lap and Rational's 286 DOS extenders. OPTLINK can generate 16-bit DOS, OS/2, and Windows executables and DLLs. DOS-extended executables can also be targeted. Version 4.0 features high-capacity linking, faster link times, and an extended set of link directives to build smaller executables that can load faster. OPTLINK also supports both Turbo Debugger and Codeview debug formats. OPTLINK 4.0 features a switch that supports "exepacking" for Windows executables. Exepacking reduces both the load time and file size of the executable while eliminating the linker's second RC pass. Other switches packcode and farcalltranslation combine data segments and convert intrasegment calls to near calls.
In a related announcement, SLR has begun shipping their OPTLIB Superfast Library Manager. OPTLIB, which specifically supports Visual C++, features time-based module replacement, an enhanced cross-reference output that lists all module references, as well as where public symbols are defined and referenced. OPTLINK is available for $350.00 and OPTLIB is priced at $199.00. Reader service no. 23.
SLR Systems
1622 North Main Street
Butler, PA 16001
412-282-0864
Intel and Nestor have delivered to DARPA samples of the Ni1000, a jointly developed, 1024-neuron, neural-network chip. With more than 3 million transistors, the Ni1000 can perform 20 billion integer operations per second.
The companies claim that Ni1000-based character recognition can achieve recognition rates of up to 10,000 characters per second, far greater than the 10 to 100 characters per second typical of most PC-based recognition software. The chip uses a large block of Flash memory so that learned patterns can be memorized and quickly recalled for real-time pattern-recognition applications. Learning capability is implemented on-chip in the form of a 16-bit microcontroller. Reader service no. 24.
Intel Corp.
Neural Network Hotline 1-408-765-9235
or Nestor Inc.
1 Richmond Square
Providence, RI 02906
401-331-9640
OnTime Marketing recently announced the release of RTKernel 4.0, a real-time multitasking kernel that runs under DOS. RTKernel, which supports most popular Pascal and C compilers including Microsoft, Borland, and Stony Brook, is a library that when linked to a host application allows it to run in parallel with an arbitrary number of tasks.
RTKernel also supports Borland Pascal 7.0's protected-mode capability, under which tasks can use the full 16 Mbytes of memory. Additionally, more than 2000 tasks can run concurrently and have unrestricted access to DOS for things like file I/O. RTKernel transparently resolves re-entrancy problems without degrading system performance.
RTKernel features a priority-and event-driven scheduler. Task switches can be initiated by the exchange of messages, interrupts triggered by hardware, or optionally, by time-slicing. The task-switch time is independent of the number of tasks running. Intertask communication is handled by using semaphores, message-passing, and mailboxes, and tasks can be activated in, for example, a fixed time frame by the scheduler.
RTKernel also comes with drivers for the timer, serial ports, printer, keyboard, screen, Novell LANs. All drivers come with complete source code. Additionally, existing drivers supplied by the hardware vendor can be used, or custom drivers can be implemented using the Kernel's open API. RTKernel-Pascal is priced at $445.00 with source code available for an additional $375.00. RTKernel-C is available for $495.00 (add $445.00 for source). Reader service no. 25.
OnTime Marketing
Karolinestrasse 32
2000 Hamburg 36
+49-40-437472
RUNOS2, recently released by Flashtek, lets programmers convert certain 32-bit OS/2 2.0 applications into self-contained, dual-mode executables that operate under either OS/2 2.0 or DOS. A special stub executable that contains a DOS extender attached to the text-mode OS/2 EXE file makes this possible.
When executing under DOS, the stub executable supports a subset of approximately 50 OS/2 function calls. It will support up to 2.5 gigabytes of virtual memory; 80387 emulation is available for floating-point applications. RUNOS2 also supports all DOS extended-memory allocation standards, including DPMI, VCPI, XMS, and INT 15. In addition to supporting approximately 50 OS/2 functions, RUNOS2 supports all ANSI and POSIX 1003.1 functions in the runtime libraries of supported compilers.
RUNOS2 is being incorporated into Flashtek's X32VM DOS Extender, which sells for $250.00. Reader service no. 26.
FlashTek Inc.
121 Sweet Ave.
Moscow, Idaho 83843
208-882-6893
CC-Rider, the source-code browser from Western Wares, now supports Windows by linking with any Windows-based editor for source-code navigation during editing and debugging sessions. CC-Rider 4.0 also includes a C++ analyzer, class-hierarchy charts, function-call tree diagrams, database caching to extended memory, and a fully programmable API library for accessing the database from your own DOS or Windows programs.
All symbols in a program are stored in the database and cross-referenced according to type of use. CC-Rider provides full support for all proposed ANSI C++ features (nested classes, templates, and exception handling) as well as support for C++ compiler implementations (Borland, Microsoft, and Zortech). Reader service no. 27.
Western Wares
P.O. Box C
Norwood, CO 81423
303-327-4898
C++ Designer for Windows, a graphical design and analysis tool for C++ code generation, has been announced by Meridian Software Systems. The tool, based on the Rumbaugh Object Modeling Technique (OMT) design methodologies, extends the integrated development environments (IDEs) of Microsoft's Visual C++ and Borland's C++ with Application Framework by enabling programmers to view, edit, and compile C++ code that corresponds to each class on a C++ Designer object diagram.
C++ Designer for Windows sells for $295.00. Reader service no. 28.
Meridian Software Systems 10 Pasteur Street Irvine, CA 92718 714-727-0700
4GL programmers can pit their skills against other 4GL developers at the world programming contest in Stockholm on September 20-21, 1993. Three-member programming teams will be given a problem and allowed 24 hours in which to solve it. Solutions will address problems such as scheduling, logistics, and optimization.
The contest is jointly sponsored by Datateknik, a Swedish computer magazine, and the Stockholm International Fair. For more information, contact Nils Ohman, editor-in-chief, Datateknik. Reader service no. 29.
Datateknik
106 12 Stockholm
Sweden
+08-796-66-80
QNX Software (formerly Quantum Software) has announced that its TCP/IP for QNX 4.2 is now available. TCP/IP coexists with the QNX operating system's native, lightweight-network protocol, thereby allowing both TCP/IP and QNX to share the same network cable. QNX 4.2 also includes a client/server implementation of NFS.
The QNX operating system is UNIX-like, microkernel-based, real-time, distributed OS (8 microseconds per context switch on a 66-MHz 486). The QNX development environment includes Watcom C and Rundos, the QNX DOS emulator that allows Microsoft Windows apps to run in standard mode.
At the same time, QNX announced that version 4.2 of the OS supports Intel's Pentium processor. QNX claims that the Pentium-aware OS can provide as much as a 30-percent performance boost on the Pentium, yet remain backward compatible with the 486. Reader service no. 30.
QNX Software Systems
175 Terrence Matthews Crescent
Kanata, Ontario
Canada K2M 1W8
613-591-0931
Exceptions for C, a C library that provides Ada-like exception handling, has been released by Koyn Software. The library lets programmers provide a separate exception handler for a block of code and raise exceptions from within the block or from functions called from the block. When an exception is raised, control passes to the exception handler of the most-recently entered block providing one. Exceptions may be passed up the function call stack with a reraise operation. The library is compatible with any ANSI-standard-compliant C compiler. Single copies of the library sell for $29.95; site licenses are available for an additional $5.95. Reader service no. 31.
Koyn Software
1754 Sprucedale
St. Louis, MO 63146
314-878-9125
Venue's object-oriented programming environment, Medley, is now available for DOS, so Medley UNIX applications will run on DOS platforms without recompiling. Medley is written in Lisp and includes a virtual workspace manager with interfaces for end-user applications; Common Lisp and Interlisp-D interpreters and compilers; LOOPS, a set of object-oriented extensions; and debugging and development tools. Medley for DOS costs $795.00. Reader service no. 32.
Venue
1549 Industrial Road
San Carlos, CA 94070
415-508-9672
DiskLokd has released DiskLokd, a software-only copy-protection library for Turbo C/C++, QuickBasic, PDS, and VB-DOS. The library is implemented by adding two lines to your existing code, which adds only 296 bytes to your EXE. The protected program will then run only on the computer you choose.
Also available is NetLokd, which offers the same features for up to 50 machines and is network independent. DiskLokd costs $250.00 and Netlokd is $400.00. Reader service no. 33.
DiskLokd
P.O. Box 1345
Fernandina Beach, FL 32035-1345
904-261-5828
Copyright © 1993, Dr. Dobb's Journal
