System Strategies Ltd, the west London-based software outfit that struck up a deal with AT&T at the recent Xhibition in San Jose, has been talking about its Alex – A Language Extension to X – product, which it says will enable corporate data processing departments to write graphics front-ends to their existing character-based applications, which may be running anywhere on the network. Although it is a language – looking somewhat like C – in its own right, Alex avoids the complex task of grappling with the X toolkit itself, by modelling the overall structure and control flow of existing applications and matching it to the new graphics version running on an X-terminal or workstation. The original program is unchanged, and receives back from Alex characters that it can interpret. The AT&T deal specifies the Open Look interface, but System Strategies has an OSF/Motif version waiting in the wings, and claims that a number of further large OEM agreements are to be announced shortly.
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