Serius Corp, the Salt Lake City, Utah company that has caught the eye of Novell Inc (CI No 1,839), has announced Serius Programmer 3.0 and Serius Developer 3.0, both being new versions of its object-based software application builders for the Apple Computer Inc Macintosh. The idea is that with these tools, developing customised software can be as easy and economical an option as packaged software. The new versions introduce ObjecTalk, natural language scripting, and Subjects and user-definable super objects to the product set. The products feature an expanded Serius Object Library of 48 objects and 350 programming functions. In Serius Programmer 3.0, objects are represented on screen by icons or user-definable ObjecTalk labels, which can be connected graphically or through a simple natural language script to build compiled, stand-alone software applications. Serius Developer 3.0 offers the easy-to-use software application building features of Serius Programmer 3.0, but adds the ability to design custom objects using any of several lower-level development tools including Think C, Think Pascal or MPW. Programmer 3.0 and Developer 3.0 include the Serius Essentials object library, a core set of objects and functions supporting all aspects of the Macintosh application interface, including menus, buttons, lists and windows. Both programs also include Serius Database, a set of objects for building multi-user relational databases. Additional object sets designed to work with Serius Developer 3.0 and Serius Programmer 3.0 are available separately. These object sets include Serius Multimedia, Serius Communications, Serius XCMD and Serius InterApp. In total, the Serius Object Library of 48 objects and 350 programming functions range from comparatively simple items such as the Menu object to complete, compiled productivity tools, such as the database, animation and movie engines. Both Programmer 3.0 and Developer 3.0 two main working methods for building software applications: ObjectSketch and ObjecTalk. ObjectSketch is an icon-based approach to software application development in which users graphically connect icons with lines representing sequences of operations and flow of data. ObjecTalk is a natural language script-based approach to software application development that requires no syntax. In ObjecTalk, users reference objects and functions through simple natural language commands rather than through icons. Users can toggle between ObjecTalk and ObjecSketch at any time for complete flexibility in software design. Additional enhancements to the software design process offered by Serius Developer 3.0 and Serius Programmer 3.0 include Subjects, which are user-definable groups of objects and functions that are re-usable in different software applications.
Subjects
Users can define a set of commonly employed operations, for example the user interface, define them as a Subject and place the Subject in any number and type of software applications, further reducing application development time. Conceptually, Subjects address the same issue as a software macro. Subjects streamline team software application by allowing groups of programmers to segment large projects into Subject tasks and later combine the completed Subjects. The Serius Object Library includes specialised productivity tool sets for use in Programmer 3.0 and Developer 3.0. These object sets include Serius Multimedia, Serius Communications, Serius XCMD and Serius InterApp. Serius Database, included with both packages is a set of objects for building multi-user relational databases involving up to 16m records of unlimited length and with unlimited relationships. Database applications created with Serius Database can also include unlimited data types, such as entire documents, animation sequences, sounds, movies or spreadsheets. Serius Multimedia includes objects for frame-based colour, animation, CD audio and QuickTime Movies. Serius Multimedia’s Animation object supports up to 100 image elements, 16 special effects including dissolves and wipes, 16 drawing inks for com
plete drawing flexibility. The company gave no prices. Novell is interested in a joint development effort to move the whole lot over to its DR DOS emulation and superset of MS-DOS.
