You can read about the briefing in detail on the NewsWire's Web sites on broadcast day. Paid subscribers will get the whole scoop on the Always Online site, with a report to be posted within an hour of the show. We'll also make a summarized version of our report available on our FreeNews site. Browse to our site and read about how HP plans to bring the 3000 into the next century, and drop off your comments on how you feel about the plan. Full details on the briefing will be in our February issue, and we'll print your comments in the March NewsWire. HP says its celebrating the 25th anniversary of the system with the broadcast, so we'll report on what you can party about -- and where they've let the air out of the balloon.
Minisoft's engineers are programming up a sweat in this coldest of
seasons.
It's apparent the programmers working on projects for Minisoft (800.682.0200)
didn't take much of a holiday break -- look at what's in beta, released or in
development. What's released is the new 4.3 version of its Minisoft 92
connectivity
package, as well as a Web component for its FrontMan tool. The MS 92 package,
available in 16 and 32-bit versions for Windows 3.1, 95 and NT, has a new script
recorder that memorizes manually entered commands and keystrokes, as well as 200
column horizontal scrolling, a 40-line vertical display in the 32-bit
version, a new file
transfer option that shows host files, plus little extras like a progress
bar to illustrate file
transfer status and a new status line and user-defined button bar. The
package supports
Novell, LAN Manager, LANtastic, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Windows 95,
WinSock, TCP/IP, NS, and Telnet network connections, as well as ODI and NDIS
networking specifications. Considering all that is built to serve HP 2392A,
700/92, and
700/98 terminal emulation support for both character and block mode
operations with
configurable terminal memory, it's a lot of connectivity for $169. Minisoft
says you can
get it for less than half of that price if you're using WRQ's Reflection
products. More
details are at the Minisoft web site.
There's also excitement at Minisoft about the new Web component of FrontMan, a $2,500 add-on that uses a Windows NT server to enable Web page service that works in tandem with FrontMan. Working with Windows NT 3.51/4.x, the Web page server uses the FrontMan system database as its source for web pages -- so any screens developed with FrontMan for the HP 3000 can also be used as web pages. Minisoft says this allows VPlus, IMAGE and ODBC FrontMan data entry and inquiry screens to be accessed via the World Wide Web. By using the add-on, FrontMan Designer can work as your web page development environment by installing FrontMan on your NT server, and then importing or creating applications. When a user connects via a browser and requests a screen, the screen is read from the FrontMan system database and displayed on the user's browser, complete with labels and input fields. FrontMan stores all the color and font information for each object on a screen as well as the screen itself.
The Web component has script support, too. If you need to add HTML commands
or Java/Visual Basic scripts to your Web pages, you just include the
commands in your
FrontMan scripts. The syntax is a single quote followed by a less-than
sign. This is seen as
a comment to the FrontMan client, but is added to your HTML page when the
script is
run via the Web component.
There's also work underway at Minisoft on an API for TurboIMAGE
connectivity to
Java. These classes will provide a pipeline for applications that want to
pass data using
IMAGE intrinsics to Java applets. The project was still in pre-beta as we
went to press,
working through the bugs in Java as well as those that are a normal part of any
development project tapping the cutting edge. A full version of MiddleMan
(see below)
will include these classes, as well as a new 32-bit ODBC option...
ODBC connectivity for IMAGE isn't a one-horse race anymore.
Another entry in the ODBC for IMAGE derby is making its way onto
the track
during the next month. Minisoft is entering beta tests for its release of
ODBC 32,
middleware to link IMAGE databases with ODBC clients such as Office 97 and
Visual
Basic. The product is being offered in two versions, a component of the Minisoft
MiddleMan package as well as a standalone ODBC linking tool. The standalone
tool will
be sold for $2,000 to $4,000 depending on the size of your 3000, which
establishes a
new and lower price point for HP 3000 32-bit ODBC connectivity. Minisoft
wants to get
its alternative ODBC tool on your system, so it's chosen to separate the
product from
MiddleMan to give you a taste of its engineering. The company will also
have a 30-day
trial version available for you to download from its Web site. (See our
February issue for
more details)
Try out an Explorer for your HP 3000
A UK developer has released an Explorer-like front-end for your HP
3000,
complete with drag-and-drop, copy and move functions. GUI30000 works without a
session on the HP 3000, is multi-user and sells for just $400 (£250)
for an unlimited
use license. The product works on a PC and talks to the 3000 using Berkeley
Sockets.
The only additional software needed on the PC is Winsock.dll. On the HP
3000 side, a
single job runs and creates a new process for every client connecting, to
better enable
multi-threading and avoid bottlenecks. Developer Peter Vickers reports, "No
sessions are
used at all. I have used this technique for several clients in custom built
solutions, and it
is fast and reliable." HP 3000 requirements are MPE/iX 4.0 or 4.5 and NS,
or MPE/iX 5
or later. The PC needs to run Windows 3,1 Windows 95 or Windows NT. Get
more details
via e-mail from Vickers , or
check out his web site for
screen shots. Peter has also loaded a 3-user demo version
of the product (which times out on March 31) at his site.
File Explorer has the look and feel of Windows Explorer, with a left hand window that consists of accounts and groups and a right hand window consisting of files. Click on an account to see properties such as account details, capabilities. "From the properties screen you can click on New Account, enter a new account screen, and duplicate the account," Vickers said. "Whatever works for accounts, works for groups. You can also drag one group to another to either rename or copy the whole group." You can also click on a file to copy, rename, delete, or view its attributes (including capabilities for executables). A Database Explorer prompts for a database name then shows all the sets in the database and details about them. You can then click on a dataset to see all the items in that set, and details about them. Click on a data item, and get a list of every data set where that item is used. Vickers says you can graph your databases, to compare entries against capacity, or export details to Excel or Lotus. A Utilities function carries out commands on the HP 3000 and returns results to your PC. One of its neater tricks is that it allows you to keep your commands in a drop down list, and execute them without typing.
Make your reservations for IPROF
While the biggest HP conference of the year is HP World, the one
with the most
HP 3000 meat per minute is IPROF, which stands for Interex Programmer's
Forum. But
you don't have to be a programmer to benefit from the four days of meetings
that start on
Monday, March 3. If you haven't seen your call for Registration yet, call
Leah Robertson
or Pearl Pereira at the Interex office (800.468.3739). Last year's show was
$395 for
early registrants, and this year's offering includes meetings between the
top HP CSY lab
people on COBOL, IMAGE, Java, SIGSYSMAN for system managers, database and client
server roundtables. The Management Roundtable, coming just a month or so
after the
Strategic TV broadcast, will be the first place to hear customer comment on
HP's plans
for the next century's HP 3000. If all that's not enough, there's a
expedition being
organized with a bus to the Fry's Electronics store in the Santa Clara area, a
propellerhead haven if ever there was one. Make hotel reservations at the
Westin Santa
Clara, site of the meetings. IPROF is a rarity in the conference world,
because it's a
meeting wrapped almost entirely around the HP 3000. It may lack the splashy
trade show
floor of HP World, but it's far more focused on the activities of the HP
3000 and a great
way to get your voice heard on enhancements to the MPE/iX environment. So as you
might expect, we'll see you there.
St. Paul Software's Electronic Commerce solution can get you onto EDI
hubs
It's called WEB EC, and it's a service that enables companies to
perform electronic
business-to-business transactions via the Internet. If you're not EDI
capable, WEB EC will
enable your applications to use a standard Web browser for the
business-to-business
exchange of electronic documents. The solution is designed to allow trading
partners to
enter data into Internet-enabled HTML document screens or through business-to
business catalogues. It transmits the data to the St. Paul service bureau,
spEDI*center,
which translates the data from HTML form into an electronic data
interchange (EDI)
format, then deploys it over a Value Added Network or the Internet to the
hub.
The hub can receive the data in an EDI format or it can be mapped and transmitted directly to an application. Of course, one of the hidden values to getting EDI capable, in any way, is that you can practically eliminate data entry errors. "We know that the hubs want all of their trading partners to become EDI capable," said St. Paul president Gary Anderson, "but we also realize that smaller companies want to receive the benefits of EDI without a significant investment." This kind of Web-enabling is happening throughout the HP 3000 community, as managers reach for the extra connectivity of the Internet. You can contact St. Paul Software at 612.603.4400.