From: deepak@archetype.prospect.com
Subject: Press release from Archetype for beta release of Document engine
Followup-To: poster
Keywords: archetype document engine NeXT press 
Reply-To: info@archetype.prospect.com
Organization: Archetype, Inc.
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:12:37 GMT

BOSTON, MA, July 10, 1992-- Archetype,Inc., of Waltham, MA, a developer of  
publishing productivity software, today released the beta version of Archetype  
Document Engine, an object-oriented development tool for NeXT computers that  
enables developers and users to quickly build modular, expandable publishing  
applications. Archetype introduced its Document Engine (DE) at Seybold Seminars  
'92. The DE Developer Kit, including a Beta version of the DE and some sample  
applications based on the DE for NeXT computers, is available from Archetype  
for $XXX.YY. Archetype plans to make the DE available on all popular platforms.  
Archetype will place the DE specification in the public domain.

Modular Publishing Applications

The Archetype Document Engine provides a toolkit of ready-to-use "DE objects"  
(objects are the fundamental building blocks of object-oriented programs) that  
can be dynamically linked to form fully-featured publishing applications. "Just  
as the hardware industry began with a flood of proprietary architectures and  
operating systems, the software industry today is highly fragmented and  
inefficient," said Paul Trevithick, president of Archetype. "Each massive,  
monolithic application today is custom written and proprietary. Users are  
presented with complex applications containing hundreds of features, yet these  
applications are still not flexible enough to meet the needs of vertical  
markets," he noted. "We are moving towards a day when users or in-house  
development groups will create their own custom applications from libraries of  
pre-written objects, much like snapping Lego blocks together," he added.

How Does The Document Engine Work?


The DE provides developers with an overall "Document Architecture" and a  
library of compatible sub-objects. Potential applications include page layout,  
workflow managers, database publishing, forms, report writer, word processing,  
signature imposition, and page dummying. The DE-objects managed by DE are  
polygons, circles, bezier curves, pages, groups, rules, and pictures.   
Developers can add new DE objects to the DE to extend its capability at run  
time.

Any application created using the DE is compatible with other DE applications.  
For instance, a report from a DE-based word processing application can be used  
as-is by a DE page layout application without modification, even when used on a  
different hardware platform. The report from the word processor looks exactly  
the same on the layout application, right down to the same line breaks,  
formatting, and type faces. This high degree of document interchange is  
currently unavailable with other software systems today.

Faster, More Efficient Development

"Unlike the massive development effort required to create monolithic  
applications such as Lotus 1,2,3 or PageMaker, object-oriented programs require  
far fewer programmers," Trevithick said.  "Many small companies will be able to  
produce modular applications that run on top of the Archetype Document Engine,  
and because they run on the same engine, they can cooperate among each other.   
That means users will be able to buy the application tools they need now and  
add others later as the need arises," he noted.

Workgroup Publishing

Archetype is working to extend the DE to support true workgroup functionality.  
This will allow multiple users to edit the same document from different  
machines simultaneously using any DE compatible application. This functionality  
will be provided by selective locking and unlocking of the various objects  
present on the page in the document.

Archetype,  Inc.

Archetype, Inc. specializes in productivity software for computer publishing  
users.  In addition to the Document Engine,  Archetype also offers InterSep, an  
image management environment and PostScript productivity enhancer.

Additional Contacts: (617) 890-7544  Paul Trevithick, President & CEO 
Sue Robertson, Exec.VP Product development Jan Melvold, International Sales  
Manager.
Internet  e-mail: info@archetype.prospect.com.

Archetype is a registered trademark, and InterSep is a trademark of Archetype,  
Inc.  All other products mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective  
companies.

[ until a policy change, price will be x'ed as in this post -todd ]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce