Conference heron::euro_swas_ai

I'm very reluctant to switch back to UIS.  It cost a lot of time to tune
your machine again and within seconds after starting, you'll miss all
the goodies that DECwindows brought us.

It is sad, but any nice stuff built on UIS and not converted to
DECwindows is likely to sink into oblivion... 

To save any demo's on UIS, I think the best way is to put them on one
disk, together with anything you need to run them (VMS, OPS, C...). 
Then do a BACKUP/IMAGE of that disk.  So, save the whole environment
because those who can recreate that from scratch are almost extinet. 

    Unfortunately there are e few nice features still missing in the
    DECwindows environment:
    
    - VAX SIGHT is very useful and - at least for slides - better than
    PAINT
    
    - all DEMOs with DATAVIEWS SW will rely on UIS for some time
    
    - for NEXPERT and EPITOOL we didn't get DECwindows versions yet
                            
    At present we still have to keep two workstation environments alive
    in order to be ready for a demo. You may hold them concurrently
    on an LAVC and boot your workstation into the one or other environment 
    upon demand. So don't skip UIS too fast, Andrew.
    
    Regards
    Dirk
    
    
    
    
    

    I recently checked with V.I. Corp. about the availability of a
    DECwindows version of Dataviews. I was told that it is currently
    available and we are in the process of getting a copy of it here at the
    ACT.
    
    Once we do, we will see how difficult it will be to port the UIS based
    stuff over.
    
    pat

    Re Sight: This has been effectively replaced by DECwrite et al which
    provide much richer functionality, has fewer of the UI issues that
    cause pain with Sight and it produces *much* better output on
    postscript devices. [Queen::epic notesfile]. Also remember that good
    old VAX Document can produce slides and produce them *very* quickly,
    if you just need bullets.
    
    The real issue is whether the demos can be updated? Who has the source
    for the Xsel demo, Knomes, etc. etc.? Some demos may take a long time
    to convert since they would require a UI redesign from scratch rather
    than a conversion hack. This needs funding.
    
    As regards UIS, Dirk speaks the truth.
    
    Malcolm

Re. .4

Knomes and the Xsel demo both are built upon Dataviews which, at the time was 
UIS based. I understand thart with the new DECwindows based version of 
Dataviews, we may be able to port thaose two demos relatively painlessly.

ps I have the sources for the two demo's mentioned.

pat

	Thursday 4th August, Roger Howard, Euro VP of VI corp will be
visiting Valbonne with Ed Goldstick.   Topics of discussion will be
v7.0 of Dataviews, licensing issues for demos, future plans, linkages
with Epitool, etc.

	If anyone has any burning questions that they would like me to
pose to them, then I am all ears.

	I have asked for a list of the Dataviews v7.0 highlights, which
I reproduce below.   This list is for Digital consumption only, not for
the outside world.

	Dataviews is no longer the only product in this space, and I am
interested to find out what the VI long term plans are, especially in
a DECWindows world.   For instance, the rival product SL-GMS has a much 
cleaner object structure, but hasn't got the functionality in terms of
displaying data.   If any one's interested, I can get more information on
the differences between the two.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DV 7.0 Highlights:
------------------

New Screen Layout
	Make room for new features
	Union Attributes
	Palette

Better General Editing
	Repeat modes
	Union of attributes
	Edge/Fill Attribute
	Copy Delta
	Scaling all objects
	Selecting Groups (by Dynamics, Name, Dsv...)
	Wildcard for file names
	Edit Path Cut and Save Mode

Function Datasources
	Init, Read, Select, Terminate
	Example parser (sin, i+j...)

Input Objects
	Memory datasources
	Template Editing
	Key bindings
	Merging to DV-Tools (adding controls)

Cleaner Data Views Environment
	Configuration FIle
	Use of environment variables
	No more relative paths
	Makefiles (for DV-draw, GRconfig.o...)
	User directory
	Product directories (DVtools, EO, NEXPERT...)

DV-Tools Enhancements
	Better window event handling (GRextensions)
	Low level multi-line text (GRtextarray)
	Lint libraries
	Bells and whistles for input objects