[ANN] Dolphin Smalltalk 4.0 is Now Available

DOLPHIN SMALLTALK 4.0

We have just released the latest version of Dolphin Smalltalk --
version 4.0.

The new release is available for purchase and download from the Object
Arts web site at: http://www.object-arts.com. We are also offering
attractive promotional upgrade pricing for existing users of Dolphin
3.0, valid until 15th December 2000. Please see
http://www.object-arts.com/Upgrade.htm for more details or, to find
out what's been added in Dolphin 4.0, take a look at the WHAT'S NEW
section below.

PRICING

We have chosen to re-package the Dolphin range into three basic
products and we think this will make the pricing structure easier for
our users to understand. In addition to the commercial product range
described below, we will continue to offer the free Dolphin Smalltalk
2.1 "Learning Edition" for people who wish to gain their initial
experience of Smalltalk at no cost.

The new Dolphin 4.0 commercial product range is as follows:

DOLPHIN VALUE EDITION (DVE) -- $69.95

This is the entry-level version of the commercial Dolphin product. It
provides you with all of the basic tools you need to be able to
develop applications in Smalltalk and many hundreds of enhancements
over the free Learning Edition. It now includes:

* Full support for hosting ActiveX controls within the MVP application
framework, and for creating ActiveX automation clients and servers.
* Source management facilities that will allow your development
projects to be placed under the control of external source code
management tools such as Microsoft SourceSafe and WinCVS.
* DolphinSure digital signature and encryption package. DSA/SHA are
used for signing and PC1/Elgamal are available for
asymmetric/symmetric encryption with arbitrary key strengths.

The Value Edition does not include some of the more advanced features
that are available in the higher level products, such as database
access, TCP/IP sockets connectivity and the ability to deploy your
applications directly to executable (EXE) files or the Web. Note,
however, that it *is* possible to use DVE to create standalone
applications that are not in EXE format but based around supplying an
(IMG) file and a stub loader (DOLPHIN.EXE).

DOLPHIN STANDARD EDITION (DSE) -- $149.95

The Standard Edition product includes all of the features available in
DVE but also but adds to these new tools and pre-packaged facilities
that will make many programming tasks more straightforward. DSE
includes the following additional development packages:

* Database Connection-- for connecting to ODBC compliant databases.
* Sockets Connection -- for adding TCP/IP connectivity to your
applications.
* XML DOM -- interface to the Microsoft XML Document Object Model.
* AgentObjects -- interface to the Microsoft Agent character animation
system.
* ActiveX Scripting -- for interfacing to the Microsoft ActiveX
scripting control.

DSE also supplies the following new tools in addition to those
available in DVE:

* Source Browser -- a UI onto the source code management features.
* Process Monitor -- for monitoring and controlling the active
processes within the Dolphin development environment.

DOLPHIN PROFESSIONAL (DPRO) -- $295.00

The Professional Edition augments the features available in the
Standard Edition with tools to support deployment of applications to
stand-alone EXE files and for Internet distribution. DPRO adds these
packages to those in DSE:

* Lagoon Deployment Kit -- provides image stripping facilities to
remove unnecessary development classes and methods and the ability to
deploy your application as an EXE file.
* Web Deployment Kit -- allows you to export Binary Packages
containing your application classes. These packages are suitable for
distribution across the Internet and, in association with the Dolphin
Web Browser Plug-in, can be used to provide "applet" facilities for
Smalltalk in Windows based web browsers. If you would like to see an
example of some simple applets in use then visit our samples page at:

http://www.object-arts.com/Plug-in/Samples/Samples.htm.

WHAT'S NEW

Dolphin 4 offers many hundreds of improvements over the previous
commercial 3.0 release. The most important of these enhancements are
as follows:

* Full hosting of visual ActiveX controls (OCXs) within the MVP user
interface framework. A new ActiveX Control Browser tool allows
controls to be loaded and their facilities interactively interrogated.
* Addition of source code management facilities lets Dolphin source be
placed under the jurisdiction of an external file based change control
system such as SourceSafe, CVS or PVCS.
* It is now possible to create and deploy console (non-GUI) based
applications. These can be used as command line utilities or installed
as headless system services.
* The Application Deployment Kit (Professional only) has been
completely re-engineered to increase the effectiveness and reliability
of the image stripping process. It is now possible to deploy much
smaller executable files; i.e. from a 5Mb development image, a GUI
Hello World deploys to 490K, which is well under half the size
achievable with Dolphin 3.0. A console based Hello World deploys to an
even smaller 370K executable.
* An XML Document Object Model (DOM) framework based on the Microsoft
MSXML component is now included in the Standard Edition.
* The ActiveX Component Wizard has been improved to automatically
generate Smalltalk wrapper classes for ActiveX visual and automation
controls.
* Faster VM, with performance improvements of 20 to 30%.
* Completely new self-repairing installation based on the Microsoft
Installer. Merge modules simplify the set-up requirements of your own
applications.
* HTML Help based integrated documentation.
* Dolphin's renowned development environment is now even easier and
more productive to use.
* The Dolphin License has been extended to allow you to distribute
applications from any of the Dolphin versions providing you do not
include any of the "development" classes in your applications.
Shipping the Dolphin compiler as part of your application is still
permitted.
* And, of course, many more bug fixes and enhancements. For those of
you interested in the detail of such, it is available at:

http://www.object-arts.com/ReleaseNotes4.htm

We hope that you'll appreciate the advancement of the Dolphin
Smalltalk product and, if you are an existing user, you'll continue to
choose Dolphin to provide for your Windows development needs.

Remember the promotional upgrade prices are only available until
December 15th!

Best regards,

Andy Bower
Object Arts Ltd.
http://www.object-arts.com