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Choosing hard copy devices for visual information systems
Computer Contracts
in the more condensed documentation.
manufacturer's
J. Nicoud The National Computing Centre, Manchester, UK, 1983, ISBN 0850123968, 7.50 Pounds Sterling Having made the decision to buy a computer or software, the purchaser is faced with the need to negotiate the contract. 'Negotiate' is a misnomer because he is frequently faced with a printed clocument on the assumption that this cannot be changed and is standard practise for a supplier who is more familiar with the procedure,,; anyway. Being aware of the cautionary 'look out for the small print', this book is welcomed as it arms the buyer with a description of the many points that he should take into account in drawing up or agreeing to a contract. The book is in two sections dealing with hardware and software and both have a subsection on technical and legal points. Software has an additional commercial section dealing with methods and liability of payment. The technical points covered include environment, specification, support and the maintenance whilst the legal points cover basic definitions, warranties, liabilities, copyright and, in the unfortunate event of disputes, arbitration and termination. There is a brief reference to the relevant legislation in the United Kingdom. This over-expensive slim volume of only 60 information pages arises out of the work of two NCC working parties./ks one would expect from committees, it is a thorough examination in that all points appear to be covered, but it suffers in that the method of presentation of the two sections is not uniform. In fact, the whole treatment lacks balance in terms of emphasis and this impression is not assisted by too ,great a variety of typefaces and layouts. The book would benefit from thorough editing and desperately needs a good index. The whole is a good idea and a useful reference which has been spoilt by the absence of a final effort in bringing together uniformity of production and presentation.
Brian Stanford-Smith
68000 User Guide by Lionel Fleetwood, Sigma Press, 5 Alton Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire UK This small book of about 160 pages is good for its size, but it is too superficial on many points. Each instruction group is correctly described and a few instruction examples aid the reader's understanding but there is no real program, with symbolic variables and comments, to help one to learn how to structure and write useful programs. Moreover, the level of detail provided is inadequate; there are too few examples for beginners, and those provided are not useful for experienced programmers, who may find what they need
Choosing Hard Copy Devices for Visual Information Systems by Gary P. Laroff, Integrated Software Systems Corporation, 10505 Sorrento Valley Road, San Diego, CA 92121 USA This booklet, published by a graphics software company, is interesting, well-docu-
mented and well-illustrated. It provides clear examples of the differences in quality between printing and plotting devices, in color or black and white. The book is intended for software system engineers and managers. It provides only a few technical details, but it is nonetheless rather complete concerning price range indications, application fields and comparisons with similar devices. It does not describe how these peripherals are supported by other software vendors. However, the explanation on the TElL-A-GRAPH primitives is wellexplained and general enough to be worth reading.
J. Nicoud
News Sun Microsystems Announces Common Lisp Sun Microsystems has introduced common Lisp language for their line of intelligent workstations. The language is derived from Lucid, Inc. (Palo Alto, California, USA) and is enhanced with tools that optimizes its performance on the company's workstations. The language has been integrated into the workstation so that software developers can take advantage of both Lisp-based applications and the existing computing tools already in the workstation's Unix operating system environment. For more information, contact Sun Microsystems, Inc. 2550 Garcia Avenue, Mountain View, California 04043, USA, Tel. (415) 960-1330.
New PC-Based AI System Announced Artificial intelligence software manufacturers have all been moving software onto low-cost personal computers, especially the IBM PC. The latest to make the move is Intellicorp. The company has announced a PC-Host delivery system which uses personal computers to provide access to expert system developed with the company's Knowledge Engineering Environment (KEE). The KEE software is used in a combination of a host computer running a full implementation of Common Lisp and any number of personal computers delivering expert systems application built with KEE. The system can also extract, reason with and revise data stored in common PC spreadsheet and data base software packages. In a typical configuration, the host computer is a Digital Equipment Corp. VAX minicomputer and
several personal compqters like the IBM PC and Apple Computer Macintosh. For more information, contact Intellicorp, 1975 El Camino Real West, Montain View, California 94040-2216, USA, Tel. (415) 965-5500.
AI Company Gets another Big Investor The Procter and Gamble Co. has invested $4.0 million in Teknowledge Inc. In announcing Procter and Gamble's stock purchase. The investment marks the formation of a strategic business relationship between the two companies. This is the fifth such strategic relationship formed between Teknowledge and a major industrial corporation. Previous equity investments have been made by General Motors Corp., FMC Corp., Framatone Er Cie and Elf Acquitaine over the past two and one-half years.
New Artificial Intelligence Systems and Common LISP A new family of AI systems from Tektronix, Inc. offers a range of AI capabilities for application developers, researchers, software engineers and computer scientists at prices well belowthe industry norm. In addition, the family comes with the industry standard Common LISP language. Engineered as a low-cost AI development tool and delivery system, the new 4406 is powered by the new Motorola 68020, assisted by a 68881 floating point co-processor. Designed for use as a personal programming tool or application delivery system, the new
161
in the more condensed documentation.
manufacturer's
J. Nicoud The National Computing Centre, Manchester, UK, 1983, ISBN 0850123968, 7.50 Pounds Sterling Having made the decision to buy a computer or software, the purchaser is faced with the need to negotiate the contract. 'Negotiate' is a misnomer because he is frequently faced with a printed clocument on the assumption that this cannot be changed and is standard practise for a supplier who is more familiar with the procedure,,; anyway. Being aware of the cautionary 'look out for the small print', this book is welcomed as it arms the buyer with a description of the many points that he should take into account in drawing up or agreeing to a contract. The book is in two sections dealing with hardware and software and both have a subsection on technical and legal points. Software has an additional commercial section dealing with methods and liability of payment. The technical points covered include environment, specification, support and the maintenance whilst the legal points cover basic definitions, warranties, liabilities, copyright and, in the unfortunate event of disputes, arbitration and termination. There is a brief reference to the relevant legislation in the United Kingdom. This over-expensive slim volume of only 60 information pages arises out of the work of two NCC working parties./ks one would expect from committees, it is a thorough examination in that all points appear to be covered, but it suffers in that the method of presentation of the two sections is not uniform. In fact, the whole treatment lacks balance in terms of emphasis and this impression is not assisted by too ,great a variety of typefaces and layouts. The book would benefit from thorough editing and desperately needs a good index. The whole is a good idea and a useful reference which has been spoilt by the absence of a final effort in bringing together uniformity of production and presentation.
Brian Stanford-Smith
68000 User Guide by Lionel Fleetwood, Sigma Press, 5 Alton Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire UK This small book of about 160 pages is good for its size, but it is too superficial on many points. Each instruction group is correctly described and a few instruction examples aid the reader's understanding but there is no real program, with symbolic variables and comments, to help one to learn how to structure and write useful programs. Moreover, the level of detail provided is inadequate; there are too few examples for beginners, and those provided are not useful for experienced programmers, who may find what they need
Choosing Hard Copy Devices for Visual Information Systems by Gary P. Laroff, Integrated Software Systems Corporation, 10505 Sorrento Valley Road, San Diego, CA 92121 USA This booklet, published by a graphics software company, is interesting, well-docu-
mented and well-illustrated. It provides clear examples of the differences in quality between printing and plotting devices, in color or black and white. The book is intended for software system engineers and managers. It provides only a few technical details, but it is nonetheless rather complete concerning price range indications, application fields and comparisons with similar devices. It does not describe how these peripherals are supported by other software vendors. However, the explanation on the TElL-A-GRAPH primitives is wellexplained and general enough to be worth reading.
J. Nicoud
News Sun Microsystems Announces Common Lisp Sun Microsystems has introduced common Lisp language for their line of intelligent workstations. The language is derived from Lucid, Inc. (Palo Alto, California, USA) and is enhanced with tools that optimizes its performance on the company's workstations. The language has been integrated into the workstation so that software developers can take advantage of both Lisp-based applications and the existing computing tools already in the workstation's Unix operating system environment. For more information, contact Sun Microsystems, Inc. 2550 Garcia Avenue, Mountain View, California 04043, USA, Tel. (415) 960-1330.
New PC-Based AI System Announced Artificial intelligence software manufacturers have all been moving software onto low-cost personal computers, especially the IBM PC. The latest to make the move is Intellicorp. The company has announced a PC-Host delivery system which uses personal computers to provide access to expert system developed with the company's Knowledge Engineering Environment (KEE). The KEE software is used in a combination of a host computer running a full implementation of Common Lisp and any number of personal computers delivering expert systems application built with KEE. The system can also extract, reason with and revise data stored in common PC spreadsheet and data base software packages. In a typical configuration, the host computer is a Digital Equipment Corp. VAX minicomputer and
several personal compqters like the IBM PC and Apple Computer Macintosh. For more information, contact Intellicorp, 1975 El Camino Real West, Montain View, California 94040-2216, USA, Tel. (415) 965-5500.
AI Company Gets another Big Investor The Procter and Gamble Co. has invested $4.0 million in Teknowledge Inc. In announcing Procter and Gamble's stock purchase. The investment marks the formation of a strategic business relationship between the two companies. This is the fifth such strategic relationship formed between Teknowledge and a major industrial corporation. Previous equity investments have been made by General Motors Corp., FMC Corp., Framatone Er Cie and Elf Acquitaine over the past two and one-half years.
New Artificial Intelligence Systems and Common LISP A new family of AI systems from Tektronix, Inc. offers a range of AI capabilities for application developers, researchers, software engineers and computer scientists at prices well belowthe industry norm. In addition, the family comes with the industry standard Common LISP language. Engineered as a low-cost AI development tool and delivery system, the new 4406 is powered by the new Motorola 68020, assisted by a 68881 floating point co-processor. Designed for use as a personal programming tool or application delivery system, the new
161