Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!liberte From: liberte@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Daniel LaLiberte) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Spyglass & NCSA Image,HDF,etc. ??? Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 91 16:19:26 GMT References: <1991Feb13.234431.26255@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> <1991Feb14.200510.23875@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Organization: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, NCSA Lines: 39 In-Reply-To: hjelmflt@capella's message of Thu, 14 Feb 1991 20:05:10 GMT Eric Hjelmfelt expressed several misunderstandings about the relationship between NCSA software and commercial offshoots, such as Spyglass. I wish to clarify for the record. > From: brian@granite.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Brian of ASTD-CP) > >Does anyone out there know what the relationship between > >Spyglass and the NCSA tools is? > > From: hjelmflt@capella (Eric Hjelmfelt) > The Spyglass products are direct successors to the ones from NCSA. The > NCSA programmers struck out on their own and formed their own company a > few years ago. The code has been completely rewritten and improved so > that it takes better advantage of the Mac's abilities. Also, I believe > their latest release, (Dicer ?) has no direct ancestor at NCSA. True, the spyglass products are successors of the NCSA tools, except for Dicer. But only one NCSA programmer left NCSA to start up Spyglass. Also, the software has not been completely rewritten, as far as I know. In fact, the PalEdit portion of their package is older than the currently available NCSA PalEdit. > As far as functionality, there is not much comparison. The new products > are infinitly better. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the free > ones are ever going to be substantially updated since the main > programmers left. Since the main programmers have, in fact, not all left, it is possible that the NCSA tools will be substantially updated. I expect we will someday come out with dramatically restructured tools, but since we are working on other tools too, it will take time. It was not our original intention that our free products remain in the lead. Rather, we had expected commercial products to eventually replace ours, and we would go on to fill new niches. disclaimer: This is not an official NCSA response. Dan LaLiberte National Center for Supercomputing Applications liberte@ncsa.uiuc.edu