From: dpp@athena.com
Subject: PRODUCT: Mesa Educational Version
Followup-To: poster
Keywords: Mesa Athena Lotus API Spreadsheet Objects
Reply-To: questions@athena.com
Organization: Athena Design, Inc.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 08:42:39 GMT

For Immediate Release       Press Contact: Tracy Kugelman
August 12, 1992                     Phone: (617) 783-9838
                            Company Contact: David Pollak
                                    Phone: (617) 734-6372
									
ATHENA DESIGN ANNOUNCES THE EDUCATIONAL VERSION OF MESA
THE NeXT(tm) PLATEAU IN SPREADSHEETS

Boston - Today, Athena Design, Inc. announced an educational
edition of its Mesa spreadsheet.  This edition will have a
suggested list price of $xx.yy.  The educational edition contains
the complete Mesa product include the Mesa Object Library
Interface (MOLI).  It also includes the user's guide on disk
but does not include telephone technical support.  It will
be available September 4th.

David Pollak, President and founder of Athena Design, stated,
"We figured that we'd give the folks in education a break.
They can use the free demo copy available on the archives
or pay a hundred bucks to get a fully enabled version."

Mesa includes the Mesa Object Library Interface (MOLI)
which allows custom programmers to manipulate data in Mesa
worksheets, feed data to worksheets in real time, print
reports, and include worksheet views and graphs in custom
applications.  Paul Murphy, a custom application developer
with Marble Associates, said, "MOLI makes it very easy for
our custom applications to interact and exchange data with
Mesa worksheets."  Ronald Vance Simmons of VNP Software
simply exclaimed, "This is the coolest stuff I've seen in
a spreadsheet!"

Mesa's most innovative feature is function inheritance.
"Spreadsheets allow users to change data and see the
changes reflected in cells that refer to that data,"
says Pollak.  "We simply extended that paradigm to changes
in formulas as well."  This enhancement allows users to
create spreadsheet models with fewer bugs and in less time.
It also simplifies modification and maintenance of
spreadsheet models.

Mesa provides users with the ability to build large
spreadsheet models. Mesa worksheets can be over 100
times larger than 1-2-3(r) worksheets.  Mesa takes
advantage of many advanced techniques to speed up
recalculation of large models.  Bruce Henderson, NeXT
development team leader at Pages Software and co-author
of Appsoft Solution, an un-released spreadsheet for NeXTSTEP,
stated, "Mesa is one of the fastest recalculating
spreadsheets I have ever used."  In benchmark tests used by
NeXTWORLD Magazine, Mesa performed over 30 times faster than
Improv(r), the Lotus(r) spreadsheet for NeXTSTEP.

The educational version of Mesa will be commercially available
from NeXTConnection and authorized NeXT re-sellers.  It has a
suggested retail price of $xx.yy.

Founded in 1989 by David Pollak, Athena Design develops and
markets NeXTSTEP applications.  In 1991, Athena Design released
CultureShock, a favorite game of NeXT users all over the world.
Since November 1991, the Boston-based software company has been
developing Mesa, a traditional paradigm spreadsheet for NeXTSTEP.

Athena Design, Inc.
17 Saint Mary's Court
Boston, MA 02146
questions@athena.com
-----------------------------------------
NeXT and NeXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.
Lotus, Improv, and 1-2-3 are registered trademarks of the
Lotus Development Corporation.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce