leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) (12/15/89)
A recent Mac monthly ( I forget which one) had a short blurb on Claris's plans to incorporate something called 'XTND's (I think that was it) in all their products. There wasn't much detail given, but I'm guessing that this would be some way of linking external procedures into the product, similar to Hypercard's XCMD's. Does anyone know anything about this? The idea is really exciting to me, because I've always thought that MacDraw II could be used as an ideal graphical front end to all kinds of design tools, if only one could link graphics objects to some kind of data dictionary. Perhaps someone from Claris might like to comment, seeing as how it's been announced already. -Bill Leue leue@crd.ge.com
drc@claris.com (Dennis Cohen) (12/15/89)
leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: >A recent Mac monthly ( I forget which one) had a short blurb on Claris's >plans to incorporate something called 'XTND's (I think that was it) in >all their products. There wasn't much detail given, but I'm guessing that >this would be some way of linking external procedures into the product, >similar to Hypercard's XCMD's. Does anyone know anything about this? >The idea is really exciting to me, because I've always thought that >MacDraw II could be used as an ideal graphical front end to all kinds of >design tools, if only one could link graphics objects to some kind of >data dictionary. The "Claris XTND Technology" (I think that's what they finally named it) is primarily a data interchange technology. Import translators are invoked through SFGetFile (in MacWrite II it is a response to both Insert and Open) and export translators are invoked in response to "Save As...". Communication with a translator (separate, stand-alone code module) is via a parameter block with various, predefined message classes. The first Claris product to employ this technology is MacWrite II v1.1. Between Claris- supplied and externally available translators, there are between 40 and 50 file formats currently supported -- these include such things as DCA, PC WordPerfect, and MultiMate on other platforms as well as graphics import for such formats as Sun Raster. Technical support (and other queries) can be obtained from XTND@claris.com. There are also AppleLink and CompuServe accounts, but I don't recall those addresses. >Perhaps someone from Claris might like to comment, seeing as how it's been >announced already. Does the above qualify as a comment? :-} Dennis Cohen Claris Corp. **************************************************** Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed above are _MINE_! ****************************************************