The BASIS Advantage Third Quarter 1999(Volume 3, Number 3)

A printed preview of TechCon99, this issue is packed with information about our upcoming technical conference! Each article in BASIS TechCon99 Topics corresponds to a conference breakout session and outlines the information that will be presented. Information about the sessions in the Business Track, Current Products Track and BBj Track is all here. Additionally, this issue contains a feature about our financial positioning and partnering efforts in the last year. And Randolph returns to learn more about how list boxes work in Visual PRO/5 2.20.

Demo CD Available!

This issue shipped with a special Visual PRO/5 GUI Tools demo CD that shows the kind of Windows look and feel that you and BASIS can give your customers. The CD works through December 31, 1999. You can request a copy of the demo CD for a limited time only, so don't delay!

BASIS TechCon99 Topics

• Try BASIS GUI Tools-Free!
  Our Product Marketing Manager introduces this issue with an explanation of what's on our 3rd Quarter Advantage demonstration CD-ROM.

• Check Out the Menu at TechCon99's Cyber Cafe
  by Jennifer Mills
  The TechCon99 Cyber Cafe will allow developers at our conference to meet the people behind the voices of our Technical Support group, try out product demonstrations, access e-mail and more.

• Thriving In UNIX
  by Dion Johnson, SCO ISV Development Tools Manager
  Dion Johnson, SCO ISV Development Tools Manager, describes what he'll present to bring developers up to date on SCO's current product offerings, with emphasis on network computing technologies and developer tools and strategies for the future.

• FacetWin: Windows-to-UNIX Integration Solution
  by Tre Groeschel, FacetCorp Technical Support Coordinator
  FacetCorp describes FacetWin, a comprehensive connectivity solution for Window-to-UNIX integration.

• Join the Digital Forms Revolution With SDSI's UnForm
  by Allen Miglore, SDSI President
  Allen Miglore, president of SDSI, describes how to produce top-quality, customized laser and electronic business forms seamlessly from your BBx application, and how to sell the cost and workflow benefits to your users.

• Java and XML: A Foundation for e-business
  by Fernando Lopez, IBM e-business Technology Marketing Consultant
  Fernando Lopez, IBM e-business Technology Marketing Consultant, writes about how to transform your traditional business processes to e-business, using IBM's Application Framework.

• Finally, Thin Client!
  by Adam Hawthorne
  Find out how, with BBj, both developers and end users will be able to manipulate the graphical front end of their applications on less powerful desktop/workstation computers and perform the interpreting of BBj and application processing on faster, more powerful servers.

• Moving to Modern Programming: BBjDE
  by Nick Decker
  BBj's development environment, BBjDE, will allow faster, more efficient coding as it removes some of the cumbersome restrictions that hindered BBx programmers in the past.

• Light-Speed Connectivity: BQS, JDBC and ODBC
  by Jeff Ash
  One of the components of BBj, the new BASIS Query Server™, will give BASIS customers features and functionality comparable to true database management systems.

• Visual PRO/5: A GUI Migration Case Study
  by John Lee, AddonSoftware General Manager
  John Lee, General Manager of AddonSoftware, presents a case study in moving a mature, established legacy BBx system into the world of GUI, giving it a Microsoft Windows look and feel using Visual PRO/5.

• The Business of Going GUI
  by George Hight and Pancho LaPaz
  In this article, the presidents of BASIS International Ltd. and SCS Consulting Inc. describe what this session will contain concerning GUI applications and conversions in the BBx environment.

• The Guts & Bolts of Going GUI
  by John Schroeder
  Find out the best utilization of BASIS GUI tools: Visual PRO/5™, the Microsoft Windows-based version of BBx, GUIBuilder™, the GUI development environment; and ResBuilder™, the GUI screen designer.

• Exponentially Bigger Markets: How to Make Money with BBj
  by Win Quigley and Mike Young
  This article discusses how BBj expands the traditional Business Basic marketplace and what developers will need to know to sell in this new environment.

• Exponentially Better Applications: Embedded Java and BBj
  by David Wallwork
  Using embedded Java code, a BBj application can incorporate any Java class, dramatically expanding the possibilities of Business Basic application development. We explore some of the differences among BBx™, BBj and Java.

• Designing Applications That Sell
  by Greg Grisham
  What defines applications that get scooped off the shelf at the local computer store? Explore the criteria that have remained constant over the history of commercial software and some of the emerging characteristics of the latest software successes.

• Extending the Life of Your Applications: PRO/5 Enhancements
  by Win Quigley
  With release 2.20, we've brought you new socket capability and a highly recoverable file format for your enterprise's critical data, in addition to enhanced security, an improved Print Preview and more foreign language support.

• Flexible File Management
  by Dale Frederick
  Although all file access from within BBj programs will still operate on a channel, the internal implementation is a dramatic improvement over previous BBx generations.

• DISC's E.NET: From Business Need to Product
  by Ray Hrdy, DISC Vice President of Technology
  BASIS reseller DISC builds electronic catalogues for use on the Internet, using its Enlighten.Net. Read about how this turnkey intranet solution doesn't require the developer to know any HTML programming.

• A Bug's Life and Death
  by Elizabeth Barnett
  Software quality assurance at BASIS has been undergoing dramatic improvement. Learn how we build quality into our products from the design phase through the release process.

Features

• A New Business Model for BASIS
  by George Hight and Joe Rose
  BASIS is positioning itself financially to sustain long-term growth, explore new markets for Business Basic and brainstorm new ways of doing business to better support our partners and customers.

Columns

• The Lazy Rabbit Catches the List Box
  by William Baker
  Randolph, our programming rabbit friend, learns that creating GUI list boxes just got a whole lot easier with Visual PRO/5 2.20.

• Masthead