Adobe Systems Inc and Montreal, Canada-based Visual Edge Software Ltd last week announced the Visual Action Toolset for Display PostScript, a new software developer’s kit for Unix and Motif environments. It is designed to enable developers to build applications using the high-quality graphics available through Adobe’s Display PostScript – the kind of applications that aren’t practical to build with X Window or Motif. It is a full suite of software libraries, widgets, fonts, sample programs and documentation. It facilitates the broad availability of what the pair call Live (interactive) Documents, which require tools that display documents, still the chief data source, and tools that enable users to interact with them. The two companies believe Live Document Technology has the potential to create a whole new generation of document-centric applications that are more graphical and easier to use than now. Using the tool kit, Motif developers can build next-generation applications that overlay graphical user interface behaviour on the same graphics previously available only through desktop publishing systems. The new tool kit is available immediately for a quantity-one list price of $2,500. Initial systems include SunOS 4.1.3, AIX 3.2.4 and Irix 5.1.1. By the end of the quarter it should also support OSF/1-on-Alpha, Solaris 2.3 and HP-UX 9.0.1.
