the Beta File

Welcome back to the Beta File, your source for the latest breaking news in OS/2 beta development. Every month we scour the OS/2 world to bring you interesting news of OS/2 software in development. If you have a product that you're sure is going to be the next killer app, or you want a little free exposure for your beta test drop us a note!

Nick Knight, author of the award winning e-mail client, MR/2 ICE, is expanding his line of products for OS/2 with the introduction of the MR/2 ICE Newsreader. This newest product of Knightware Software Company is a DLL-based add-on to the MR/2 ICE e-mail client that enables full-featured news reading. It will allow both on-line, off-line or mixed-mode reading. The news reader will sport the same interface and feature list as the MR/2 ICE e-mail product.

There is no web site specifically for the beta test of the newsreader at this time but interested surfers can pop over to the Knightware Software Company's home page. The beta is closed and consists of a small group at this point. Phase II will be started shortly and will allow a larger group of people to participate though. The product has been in testing for a month or so, with over 40 testers involved.

At this time there is not yet a firm date of a v1.0 release. The product is planned to be included as part of the basic MR/2 ICE package and the base price of MR/2 ICE may be increased slightly at release time to reflect the increased functionality. And it will be shareware, of course.

When asked the motivation for the expansion into the news reader market, Knight said, "We're just looking to take what we've done with the E-Mail side and create a similar newsreader product." If our readers like the new features half as much as they did the old ones, it is sure to be a winner.

Speaking of news reading, I came across some interesting threads this month in one of the comp.os.os2 groups. There is a small but vocal group of netizens who have started a thread of discussion about the supposed demise of the Money Tree financial software package in beta development by Mt. Baker Software.

Looking to get to the bottom of this rumour, I gave Bryan Minor, President of Mt. Baker Software a phone call on March 13th to see what he had to say about Money Tree's status. This was his response:

[Regarding] the comments about Mt. Baker Software's viability and the prospects of Money Tree, [the people who have commented negatively] are clearly NOT speaking from an informed position. Here are the facts regarding us and Money Tree:

1. A second Beta of Money Tree will be released within days. This will most likely be the last private beta. A public beta will come next, then followed by the general release. This next private beta will contain all of the following:

• Ability to import any data through a public REXX API
  (ability to import QIF files is provided)
• numerous enhancements to Ledgers
  • transfers
  • splits
  • reconciling
  • full keyboard and menu support
  • calendar
  • calculator
• ability to produce reports on:
  • Budget
  • Net worth
• Enhancements to "What if?" modules
• Extensive enhancements to online help

2. We are here for the long haul. Mt. Baker Software is firmly committed to the OS/2 market and Money Tree.

- Bryan M. Minor, Ph.D.

Those of you who have grown used to using Info-ZIP's zip and unzip but who have longed for that forgotten friend, PKZIP, good news: a new OS/2 version of this old favourite is currently in beta testing. PKZIP for OS/2 from PKWARE, Inc. is, as you most likely know, a program to create compressed .ZIP archives and .EXE self-extracting files. What more do I need to say?

This beta test has been ongoing for some time, including 120 beta testers since November 11th of last year. Unfortunately, PKWARE is not accepting more testers at this time but the ETA of the general availability release is sometime in the mid to late second quarter of 1997. Not much longer now 'til we can all get a look at the new version.

The price for this combination shareware and commercial product will be US$47 at the time of release.

If you're wondering what features the product will have, one of the beta testers gave us this list:

• Ability to create self-extracting archives
• The PKZFIND utility
• Nice Help System
• The ability to modify attributes in the Zipfile w/o unzipping it
• Password protecting
• Printing files that are compressed
• Disk Spanning

If you thought the company that has recently brought us not one, not two, but three ColorWorks plug-ins couldn't possibly have anything else up its sleeve, think again. Modular Dreams Inc. is currently beta testing their newest stand-alone product, code named M3.

M3 is an image database tool that is ideal for the Internet age. M3 will feature:

• A database which allows queries on files by name, keywords, attributes, format, description, image signature and more.

• An "Image Chooser" which allows rapid separation of good and bad images. The image chooser will perform actions on files based on how the user selects them. It will also display images with duplicate names or images which are believed to be too similar by M3 for the user to decide which to keep and which to delete.

• Browsers to view images in a directory, in virtual directories, or in the database.

• A powerful expression language, such as: ((*.GIF|*.JPG|*.JPEG)&~*BAD*) for easier access to files. Syntax will support standard DOS/UNIX characters plus more.

• Naming of fixed and removable devices. For example, ZIP: or HD1:. This will make adding or removing partitions much easier and make users' data network-ready.

• Naming of media. For example ZIP disks could be called OldStuff: and NewStuff:.

• Tools for rapid changes to database information. For example, if one decides to use DOS drive names in paths, such as I:\IMAGES, one can change the path of all images in I:\IMAGES to J:\IMAGES in one step.

• Basic cropping/editing functions.

• Image conversion. Many popular image formats will be supported for loading and saving (including PNG). Alpha channels are also supported on formats which allow them and they may optionally be dropped to reduce disk space.

• A "classic" batch converter. The Image Chooser can be used as a very powerful batch converter but a classic one will be provided for simpler jobs.

• Printing features for images and database content.

• Full support of OS/2 direct manipulation (Drag and Drop).

• Support for unavailable media/devices. For example, there is no reason why the user can't open a ZIP disk FRIENDS: and another ZIP disk FAMILY: and move images between them when neither is in the ZIP drive. M3 will perform the moving of the files when the disk(s) become inserted but until then it will allow them to remain where they are and will direct any database queries to the proper place(s).

Modular Dreams has told us that there will be a web page for the beta test but at the time of this writing it was not yet active. Look for it in the future at:

http://www.modulardreams.com/m3.html

Testing began on March 3rd and Modular Dreams expects it to last about one month. The beta will include fixes and suggestions received on the company's previous product, MD+F SX demo which was posted to their web site back in 1995, and many enhancements made on that demo code.

The beta is still open so if you're interested, grab the fully functional beta (time expired) from the Modular Dreams web site. Daily updates are planned (they will usually only include a new executable for faster download).

General availability should be around mid-April and the MSRP of the commercial product is currently set at US$169.

As you can probably guess from the above feature descriptions, a company spokesperson tells us that, "This product is for someone who has ONE very large, chaotic collection of images." And there are plenty of us in the OS/2 community!

And also in the graphics market this month, Dadaware is just wrapping up its beta test of the newest version of its product formerly named JView Pro. Now renamed Embellish v2.0, primary developer, V. Joseph Burkley, tells us that Embellish is an image editing program that combines painting, drawing, color editing, text and special effects all into one application.

He's not joking either. We had a look at an early beta of the product and while it was clearly not finished, it had some impressive features. Most importantly, it had the feature that we've been wishing for in an OS/2 product for a long time: good text anti-aliasing.

Some other features include:

• Object Oriented: Every time you edit a photo, a new object is created. Each object can then be flipped, moved, edited, undergo special effects -- all separately from the rest of the photo.

• Paint & Draw: Choose 1 of 16 draw/paint tools and 1 of 14 paintable effects to create custom looks.

  Tool examples:

  • airbrush, chalk, clone, eyedropper
  Paintable effects examples:
  • blur, color, emboss, grayscale, smudge

• File Formats: Supports 14 different file formats including interlaced/transparent GIFs and JPEGs.

• Special Effects: 22 special effects such as blur, fish eye, swirl and ripple over 50 built-in filters.

• Web Stuff: Ability to layout image maps, dither GIF photos to a variety of palettes for the best look on various browsers.

• Other: Slideshow, screen capture tool, batch file conversions.

Embellish has come a long way from the shareware version, JView Pro. The entire GUI has been redone and cool features have been added. Dadaware's goal is to provide customers with a fun-to-use, yet powerful program at a good price.

Oh yeah... and we don't charge for tech support.

The release date for Embellish v2.0 was originally scheduled for March 17th but this has slipped slightly. Expect the eventual price to be US$69.99 with a three month promotional pricing of US$39.99. Beta testers are offered special pricing based on the extent of their input. (Contact Dadaware directly for more information.) Embellish will be a commercial product.

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