VMark Software Inc, Westborough, Massachusetts has introduced its promised StarOffice suite for linking data with front-end query and development environments. StarEmulator is a graphical user interface builder; StarView, a graphical point and click query builder; StarODBC, the multi-database Open Data Base Connectivity driver; and StarDDE, a Dynamic Data Exchange-compatible server application. VMark says StarOffice enables developers to add graphical user interfaces to character-based applications. Dynamic Data Exchange client and server support and bi-directional file transfer help provide Windows integration. Users can create ad-hoc queries without needing to know data location, network navigation or database-specific query languages, the company claims. StarOffice is built on VMark’s HyperStar object messaging middleware, which has application programming interfaces for Unix, Windows and Macintosh clients. There are StarOffice client components for Macintosh and Windows; and the suite costs from $400. Database servers are priced separately and the prices vary.
