Herndon, Virginia-based Legent Corp has released the first details of its forthcoming computer-based training product, codenamed Northwoods. Steve Thomas, vice president of research and development within Legent’s Technology & Services Division described the new tool as providing facilities for building Wizards, the automated guide books found in products such as Microsoft Corp’s Word for Windows. Traditional on-line help functions tend to be reactive, only offering guidance when it is asked for. In contrast, the Wizard concept is proactive and, according to Thomas, it’s like having an expert standing over your shoulder giving advice. Northwoods provides a graphical user interface-based environment for building Wizards that is easy of use, the company claims. These facilities have so far been provided by programmers coding at the C++ level, but with Northwoods the skills necessary are comparable with those needed to operate Powerpoint. It can be used by information developers instead of programmers, said Thomas. The product operates by analysing the interactions between an application and the underlying operating system, so it ought to be able to build on top of applications regardless of how they have been built. It is currently in beta test, and is scheduled to go on controlled release at the end of March. Initial client support will be for the Win16 Windows application programming interface, followed by a Win32 version for Windows NT at the end of the summer, with Windows95 support to follow. Server support is offered for OS/2, Windows NT, RS/6000 AIX, HP-UX and NetWare 3.x. In the meantime, Legent is set to launch a Windows version of the mainframe-based Phoenix training product it gained with the acquisition of Columbus, Ohio-based Goal Systems Inc in August 1992 (CI No 1,978). Phoenix for Windows provides a mixed graphical and scripting environment for rapidly building interactive tutorials, capable of handling audiovisual multimedia elements. Currently in beta test, it will be ready to ship in May.
