alexis@dasys1.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (09/16/88)
Expo Report part 2.1:
I inadvertently left out one very significant program that I wanted to mention
when I posted my recent Expo report.
Unreleased Software from
Imagine Software
19 Bolinas Road
Fairfax, CA 94930
(415) 453-3944
This program, which as yet has no name, is an entirely new class of program for
micros. There is no similar software for the Mac that I know of. There is
nothing really similar on the PC either. It is a network-based multiuser
scheduling system. It relies on its own messaging protocal and is thus
completely independant of whatever file server software you use, if any.
Every user has a calendar which is available to be viewed by anyone else on the
network (unless the owner chooses to lock it out). You can make your own
schedule in a very flexible manner, and view it many ways (daily, weekly, every
Nth day of the week in this month, etc.) You can search for people and organize
things with great flexibility. You can print your calendar in many different
ways as well. The interface is utterly Macish without being overly cluttered--
it has a nice feel.
The truly unique part is the automatic scheduler. If you want to meet with
seven other people from your office and use conference room A and overhead
projector C, just tell the program. It will come back with a display of all the
time slots, if any, which are free for everybody. (This feature alone will save
many people _lots_ of work.) If you then pick a slot, it will reserve the
resources you wanted and ask all the people if they can make it. They will each
get a pop-up message on their machine (just like e-mail notification) right
away, or when they log in if they're not around. They can confirm or deny, and
their machine will automatically notify you of their response. There are many
convenience features included to make the whole process easy and automatic.
Lots of other features will be included by the time of the release, but I only
saw a pre-Alpha, so I can't really say much more about it. I would bet that it
will be of their usual very high quality, when it is finally released. (The
other program they sell is Smart Alarms, and it is THE Mac alarm-and-reminder
system to get- Nearly perfect at what it does.) They said they were shooting
for October or November, so call them and ask...
This is going to be the first product of its kind. People will probably be
talking about "DeskTop Scheduling" in a few months, but from what I've seen,
there isn't likely to be anything else as good as this for quite a while.
----
Alexis Rosen {allegra,philabs,cmcl2}!phri\
Writing from {harpo,cmcl2}!cucard!dasys1!alexis
The Big Electric Cat {portal,well,sun}!hoptoad/
Public UNIX Best path: uunet!dasys1!alexissteve@ivucsb.UUCP (Steve Lemke <steve>) (09/21/88)
In article <6484@dasys1.UUCP> alexis@dasys1.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) writes: <Expo Report part 2.1: < <Unreleased Software from <Imagine Software <19 Bolinas Road <Fairfax, CA 94930 <(415) 453-3944 < <This program, which as yet has no name, is an entirely new class of program for <micros. There is no similar software for the Mac that I know of. There is <nothing really similar on the PC either. It is a network-based multiuser <scheduling system. It relies on its own messaging protocal and is thus <completely independant of whatever file server software you use, if any. < [description of program deleted...] The program to which you refer _does_ in fact have a name, and it's called "Perfect Timing". It promises to be a really great program! Keep your eyes open for further announcements from Imagine Software... -- +----------------------------- Steve Lemke -----------------------------+ | uucp: steve@ivucsb.UUCP AppleLink: LEMKE | | alt.uucp: {decwrl!}sun!apple!lemke CompuServe: 73627,570 | | internet: lemke@apple.COM GEnie: S.Lemke |