Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!mcdchg!usenet From: mau@nixbur.UUCP (Michael Urban) Newsgroups: comp.newprod Subject: XBUILD 1.1 announcement. Keywords: UIDT, GUI, Motif, X Message-ID: <51609@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com> Date: 4 Dec 90 15:02:58 GMT Sender: usenet@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com Followup-To: poster Organization: Nixdorf Computer Engineering Corporation, Burlington, MA Lines: 166 Approved: usenet@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com SIEMENS NIXDORF UNVEILS NEW VERSION OF USER INTERFACE BUILDER XBUILD Can Be Extended, Customized for Building Motif Applications CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (November 26) -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc., today announced an upgrade of its XBUILD (tm) tool for building OSF/Motif (tm) graphical user interfaces, incorporating new features that let users customize and extend the tool for more productive applications development. The company also announced today that it will offer a trial version of the product, which will allow users to test XBUILD's features by building limited-size interfaces before they buy. First introduced at Xhibition in May 1990, XBUILD is an open user interface development tool (UIDT) for painlessly developing, testing, and perfecting production-ready graphical user interfaces based on the OSF/Motif standard. A major advantage of XBUILD-generated interfaces is that they are fully runtime-independent, requiring no additional runtime software libraries nor license fees. Based on an intelligent object library and easy-to-use editor, XBUILD dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of developing UNIX (tm) applications that use the OSF/Motif (tm) standard, the company said. "Motif eliminates the awkward user interface that's been an obstacle to more widespread adoption of UNIX. XBUILD takes it a step further by allowing software developers and end-user organizations to more rapidly develop Motif interfaces," said John Paul, executive vice president of research and development for Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Inc., "With Release 1.1, we've made XBUILD more powerful and flexible, to match customers' aggressive plans for Motif applications." "As more and more organizations commit to Motif as a GUI standard, we predict that XBUILD will become the standard user interface development tool for Motif," said Paul. "XBUILD has cut our programming effort by thirty percent," said Hans W. Strack-Zimmermann, president of iXOS Software GmbH of Munchen, Germany, a supplier of Motif-based applications and consulting services to the commercial market. "In particular, its runtime-independence means that we aren't physically tied to a single hardware platform nor at the mercy of special libraries. The new release of XBUILD has a number of features that will be strategic to our key applications areas of archiving imaging systems." Using a graphical "WYSIWYG" editor and the familiar "point-and-click" method, XBUILD users create interfaces using actual Motif graphical objects or "widgets." In addition to allowing programmers to rapidly construct interfaces, this means that the appearance and behavior of the interface while in design are identical to that of the resulting code. Programmers can test their work at any point, by invoking a test mode that lets them create and interact with the interface. XBUILD generates C (ANSI or K&R) code or the higher-level OSF UIL (User Interface Language). With Release 1.1, programmers can extend XBUILD to include user-defined widgets and resources (attributes), to meet corporate standards or allow customization of applications. Programmers can also dynamically incorporate new widgets into the object base, to accommodate applications requirements or evolving industry standards. Other customization options include changing object class/resource values to support internationalized versions of XBUILD; removing objects from the object library, to provide only a subset of widgets; and changing production rules and resource definitions for an object class, to meet specific applications requirements. For example, an MIS/DP director for a retail bank might want to develop and internally distribute a version of XBUILD for building forms-based applications for the Consumer Credit department. To make the tool simpler for her programmers, she removes from XBUILD widgets that do not relate to forms, while specifying a special resource that enables the Motif text widget to accommodate the summary financial text that customer service representatives will have to enter. She might also add a widget with the company logo, which can serve as the opening menu for the applications. Customization instructions are specified in external files that XBUILD reads at runtime. XBUILD's intelligent dynamic loading feature automatically seeks and initiates the appropriate functions, eliminating the need to build a special version of the tool to accommodate custom functions or new widgets. XBUILD Release 1.1 can also import UIL code, allowing it to reuse or edit portions of existing programs. "With Release 1.1, we're providing the most powerful, flexible tool available for developing Motif graphical user interfaces," said Stan Swiniarski, director of technology marketing for Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc. "XBUILD protects programmers from the Motif toolkit's underlying low-level interface construction details. At the same time, it offers a lot more control. No other tool, for example, lets you dynamically incorporate user-defined widgets and objects." XBUILD is priced at $5,000 for a source code version and $1,500 for each accompanying internal-use license, which allows a user to run binary versions of XBUILD generated from the source code. Also available is a binary license for $1,895. Quantity discounts are available for both internal-use licenses and binary licenses. Redistribution licensing arrangements are also available for ISVs and VARs who want to market or sell XBUILD binary copies or derivative works. System requirements for the binary version of XBUILD include UNIX System V (tm) 3.2 or 4.3 bsd or higher, OSF/Motif, and one of the following hardware platforms: Sun 3 (tm), SPARCStation (tm), 386 SCO/Open Desktop (tm), DECStation (tm) 3100, MIPS, or Siemens Nixdorf Targon (tm) 31 and Targon 35 systems. The source code version requires UNIX System V 3.2 or 4.3 bsd or higher, OSF/Motif (tm), and C++ version 1.2. For more information about XBUILD or to order a trial version, contact either Gerard Kiley or Susan Goguen at (617) 864-0066, or send e-mail to xbuild@nixdorf.com! Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc., is a major developer and marketer of business system solutions incorporating micro, mini, and super minicomputers, specially designed software, peripherals, and communications and information systems. Based in Burlington, Mass., the company employs more than 1200 people in 110 sales, service and R&D offices throughout the U.S. Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc., is the U.S. subsidiary of the newly merged Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, based in Germany with international manufacturing, a sales and service network in 45 countries worldwide, and over 50,000 employees. Siemens Nixdorf is the largest European computer company and ranks among the world's largest information technology specialists. Siemens Nixdorf is being hailed as the new force in information technology with its global strategy as a top solution provider. Siemens Nixdorf is part of the Siemens family of companies, which in 1988 had more than $37 billion in combined sales and 365,000 employees in 122 countries. The Technology Marketing Group of Siemens Nixdorf adapts, markets and supports technologies developed by the company to the open systems market. ### Contact: Michele Nadeem Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc. (617) 273-0480, ext. 3388 Janice Brown Janice Brown and Associates, Inc. (617) 332-8066 XBUILD is a trademark of Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc. OSF, OSF/Motif, and Motif are trademarks of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark and System V a trademark , of AT&T. SPARCstation is a trademark of SPARC International, Inc., licensed exclusively to Sun Microsystems. DECStation is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. Open Desktop and SCO are trademarks of The Santa Cruz Operation. Targon is a registered trademark of Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG. Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com