eshook@Franz.COM (Elizabeth Shook) (09/20/90)
There's been a lot of discussion in comp.sys.next regarding the future of Allegro on the NeXT platform. Franz Inc. is pleased to make the following announcement. FRANZ TO OFFER ALLEGRO CL DIRECTLY TO NeXT CUSTOMERS SAN FRANCISCO, September 18, 1990--Franz Inc. today announced plans to directly provide Allegro CL (Common LISP) on Release 2.0 of NeXT's system software, for the new NeXTstation and NeXTcube computers. At the same time, Franz introduced a low-cost runtime option for delivering LISP-based customer applications on the NeXT platform. Allegro CL is a powerful object-oriented programming tool for development and delivery of complex applications. With incremental compilation and powerful debugging facilities, Allegro CL is used to produce a wide range of commercial applications, including expert systems, CAD/CAM, and computer graphics. Allegro CL has a direct interface to NextStep's Objective-C, Interface Builder, and Application Kit, allowing the user to treat Objective-C objects as LISP objects. "NeXT's customers will be pleased to hear that they can easily obtain Franz Allegro CL with NeXT's new computers," said Fritz Kunze, president of Franz. "We are committed to the NeXT platform, and we will continue to provide NeXT with powerful development tools." While Franz is making Allegro CL available to new users, NeXT will distribute a free upgrade to current Release 1.0 customers. Franz will provide software support to all Allegro CL users. The new low-cost runtime option is a compact version of Allegro CL, without development features such as a compiler or debugger. NeXT developers pay a one time fee for the right to distribute, plus a per-copy fee equalling two percent of the delivered product's price. This means that commercial developers can minimize costs to include an optimized runtime LISP with their application. And educational, research, and government agencies will be able to distribute non-profit applications on a low-cost or no-cost basis. "LISP is not only an excellent language for prototyping, but also for commercial deployment," said Kunze. "With the new runtime option, NeXT developers can take advantage of the sophisticated development environment of Allegro CL, and still have a clear path for delivering cost-effective applications." Allegro CL 3.1 for NeXT is available now directly from Franz for $1,500. Next year, Franz will port Allegro CL 4.0 to the NeXT platform, including native CLOS (Common LISP Object System) and Allegro Presto, an automated runtime generator. Franz Inc. is the leading vendor of LISP-based software tools on standard platforms. Franz Inc. was founded in 1984 by affiliates of the Computer Science Department at the University of California at Berkeley, including original developers of Franz LISP and BSD Unix. Allegro CL and companion products are sold and supported worldwide through Franz' direct sales force and distribution partners. Franz customers include universities, research institutions, and Fortune 1000 corporations. For more information, contact Franz Inc., 1995 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704, (415) 548-3600. Allegro CL and Allegro Composer are registered trademarks of Franz Inc. Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T. -- Elizabeth Shook, Franz Inc. 1995 University Avenue, Suite 275 eshook@Franz.COM (internet) Berkeley, CA 94704 uunet!franz!eshook (uucp) Phone: (415) 548-3600; FAX: (415) 548-8253