Cheers,
Martin
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The Florida SunFlash
SunSoft Unveils Vision for Solaris Users
SunFLASH Vol 69 #26 September 1994
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The Electronic Journal For Sun Users Since 1988
John J. Mclaughlin, Publisher & Editor - flash@sun.com
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69.26 SunSoft Unveils Vision for Solaris Users
SunSoft, Inc. announced its vision for a universal document
viewer for the Solaris(R) operating environment. This
next-generation of SunSoft's AnswerBook(TM) technology will,
for the first time, give Solaris users a single point of access
to information that they use every day, including
user-published documents and on-line information from Sun,
Solaris ISVs and OEMs. Solaris users will also be able to
browse and search Internet documents through the same window.
SunSoft expects to have a prototype of the new AnswerBook
technology in the fourth quarter of 1994.
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Contact: John Ravella of SunSoft Marketing at (415)336-3614.
Press inquiries: Emily Cohen of Hi-Tech Communications at (415)904-7000.
SUNSOFT UNVEILS VISION FOR OPEN, ELECTRONIC ACCESS
TO INFORMATION FOR SOLARIS USERS
Next-generation AnswerBook technology opens document access
to multiple formats on multiple platforms;
Enables Internet access with World-Wide-Web browser
In a related announcement also made today, SunSoft has entered into an
agreement with Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT) to allow Solaris
users, ISVs and OEMs to use EBT's electronic publishing tools and begin
distributing on-line documents that will integrate seamlessly and without
change into SunSoft's universal viewing environment.
"SunSoft's long-term goal is to pull together information that users need --
whether it is published by Sun, ISVs, OEMs, or by customers themselves --
and deliver it through a single viewer," said Steve MacKay, vice-president
of software technology development at SunSoft. "Essentially, SunSoft is
giving Solaris users easy, one-stop access to the vast universe of on-line
information that resides both within their own company as well as
externally on the Internet."
Within the new universal viewing environment, users and developers can
view, browse and annotate documents in a wide range of formats
including:
% HTML - the de facto standard for World-Wide-Web data
% SDL - Common Desktop Environment (CDE) on-line help
% SGML - IS0 8879 standard for electronic publishing
% DynaText(TM) - Electronic Book Technologies' SGML-based
electronic publishing
% Portable Document Format (PDF) - the universal file format created
using Adobe(TM) Acrobat(TM) software
% Other formats - Current AnswerBook collections, PostScript and
ASCII text.
EBT's DynaText Provides Electronic Publishing Foundation
SunSoft will work with EBT to develop an open, standards-based
electronic document delivery technology. EBT's DynaText technology,
which is based on SGML, provides the architectural foundation, and
enables the interchange and publishing of documents from many different
authoring systems. SunSoft's agreement with EBT allows for use of EBT's
DynaText publishing tools throughout Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Using tools available from EBT today, Solaris users, software vendors and
OEMs can create and publish complete on-line documentation
immediately. EBT's DynaText technology is currently used by computer
software and hardware vendors such as Cray Research, Ericsson, and
Sybase, end-user companies such as AT&T, The Boeing Company, and
information publishers such as RR Donnelley & Co. Users will be able to
access these documents within SunSoft's universal viewing environment,
which will be part of a future version of the Solaris operating
environment. EBT's DynaText technology fully supports cross-
platform publishing and viewing on the Solaris environment, other
UNIX(R) platforms and X terminals, as well as Microsoft(R)
Windows(TM) and Apple Macintosh(R) systems.
World-Wide-Web
SunSoft's next-generation AnswerBook viewing environment will also
include access to documents available on the World-Wide-Web, such as
Sun and ISV product literature, press releases and technical white papers.
Information publishers will be able to publish documents on the World-
Wide-Web, and using SunSoft's universal viewing environment, users will
be able to access these documents seamlessly.
About SunSoft
SunSoft, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a subsidiary of
Sun Microsystems, Inc. SunSoft's charter is to design, market, sell and
support the industry's highest-quality software environment for enterprise
rightsizing and network computing applications. The company, which is
the industry's highest-volume UNIX vendor, has offices in North America,
Europe and Asia, and is a leading supplier of 32-bit system software
solutions for SPARC, Intel 386/486- and Pentium-based computers. The
products are licensed by SunSoft and distributed through major computer
manufacturers and resellers worldwide.
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