Suppliers ready for HP World debuts

Mergers, acquisitions, introductions bring new options for 3000s at August show

HP says it will bring nearly all of its Commercial Systems Division HP 3000 staffers to the HP World conference August 17-19, another example of the expanding presence of the system at this year’s biggest HP trade show.

Companies have already re-structured and brought in new products in advance of the meeting at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, renovating older solutions and combining complementary products for smoother integration. In addition to Roc Software’s acquisition of four former Tivoli MPE products (see our June FlashPaper for our first report), a pair of HP 3000-savvy network integration firms are merging in time for the conference.

BizNetTech.net LLC has been formed from the merger of CSI Business Solutions and Advanced Network Systems. The new entity combines the network integration and Web commerce skills of CSI with the Java database access know-how at Advanced Network Systems.

The new company will offer HP 3000 customers the tools and integration skills to create Web-ready applications and Webify existing programs, according to Managing Partner Joe Geiser. “This merger brings together the best of client-server and Web expertise,” Geiser said. “The new company will be able to offer what no other single company can offer in the HP 3000 environment — a combination of products and services geared toward 3000 integration, Web services, e-services and e-commerce.” Geiser will chair the SIGWeb meeting at HP World, scheduled for Tuesday, August 17 at 9:30 a.m.

BizNetTech.net will rely on the Development Kit that uses Adager’s ADBC Java-to-IMAGE technology, as well as the Linkway/ODBC APIs distributed in North America by CSI. The new company will continue to supply consulting and development services to build applications and e-commerce sites in the HP 3000 community. Managing Partner Dave Thatcher said the new firm is integrating mature applications with the latest technology.

“We have had lots of success with our Java API VPLUS+, which allows you to replace your existing VPlus forms with Java,” Thatcher said. “You can access existing VPlus applications from any client with no changes in your 3000 application. We just redirect the existing VPlus calls in your application to communicate with Java.”

Speedware (booth 1509) will be introducing Autobahn 2.0, the newest version of its Web development suite for HP 3000s and HP 9000s at the conference. The new release of the toolset adds close integration with the back-end of the new Visual Speedware. “This integrates application mapping, so you can define the flow visually of your entire application,” said Speedware’s Product Marketing Manager Bob Morrisette. The product includes an integrated HTML editor and integrated browser, and pushes out application files to application servers and Web files to Web servers.

Minisoft (booth 1431) will be announcing that its JDBC driver is available as a cross-platform solution, running on both the HP 3000 and now the HP 9000. The new HP-UX to MPE cross capability is letting sites which don’t want to use Windows NT integrate their HP 3000 applications with HP 9000 programs, according to president Doug Greenup. “We intend to take JDBC to everything,” he said, including Macintosh and Linux clients. “This could be a very unifying technology.”

Robelle will bring training seminars onto the conference floor for all HP World attendees, conducting 15-minute tutorials at the Robelle booth (1815) throughout each day of the conference. All attendees will receive a free Robelle T-shirt. Tutorial topics, as provided by Robelle, are:

Y2K Crash Course: Your Y2K readiness project is complete, but what if you missed something? This how-to session shows how Suprtool and its new “standard date” functionality can help you put out those last-minute fires.

Next Generation Software Development: The next generation of software development is already here! On the HP 3000, all the new technologies (Apache, Java, Perl) are being implemented in the Posix directory space. Qedit is Posix- and Java-friendly. Learn how Qedit can make your life easier on the technology frontier.

Problem Solving with Qedit for Windows Scripting: Qedit for Windows can solve challenging problems for developers and development team managers alike. On an individual developer level, Qedit can be customized to maximize personal productivity. And on an organizational level, Qedit can be customized to ensure that internal development standards are being followed. Attend this tutorial to discover how you can extend the power of Qedit for Windows.

Managing Software Development via the Web: At Robelle, we have revolutionized project management, thanks to the Web and Qedit for Windows. Learn the advantages of converting to a Web-based project management system and how Qedit for Windows can leverage those advantages to everyone in the company, from the R&D team to end users.

Three Easy Steps from the Server to the Desktop: End users and corporate decision-makers alike have powerful desktop tools at their disposal. However, to make use of these tools, they still need access to data that often lives on back-end servers. Before you spend lots of money on an assortment of connectivity tools, drivers, converters, translators, and so on, learn how Suprtool can get your data from the server to the desktop in a few simple steps.

Web E-Commerce Made Easy: One of the great challenges of making e-commerce work is Webifying data that is stored in different places. Whether the data lives in an IMAGE or Allbase database on your HP 3000 or an Oracle database on your HP 9000, Suprtool can help you access all this data and prepare it for the Web.

Demystifying Regular Expressions: In 1999, support for regular expressions is being added to all Robelle products. Just what exactly are regular expressions? This tutorial will explain the programming concept and show you how regular expressions in Qedit add powerful capabilities for searching for text and rearranging text patterns.