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APPLJED INTELLIGENCE
Software Tools Copy Manual Process of Creating lext

employees. Information: -management

short textual notes with each heading or nate these deficiencies by creating

a a Ma ee a PR ANINA ar EN EN EN ARA A pn Nia
LI zi

| the format, of these text items that
| conveys their primary value. To fully

profit from the ever-expanding corpo-
rate paper trail, organizations must be-
' gin to address the management of
textual information and provide con:
tent-based access to data.

To facilitate this new focus, soft:
ware tools that mimic the manual pro-
cess of creating text are making their
debut, helping writers shape a docu-

| ment;s meaning and content. Among
the new products in this class are out:
lining tools, document-assembly tools,
information managers and several

| groupware offerings, including Lotus

| Notes and Symbolics' Concordia.

| — To assist writers in developing and

| fine-tuning the structure of a docu-
ment, outlining software programs
work to emulate the classical manual

šl approach from which they were de-

| rived. The programs understand the
structure of an outline—for example, a
Roman numeral heading CI, II and so
on) that has alphabetized subheadings
| CA, B, C), which in turn can contain
numeric subheadings (1, 2, 3).
— As headings are Ze 'the software
automatically renumbers the structure.
| Some products can even associate

to create new documents from existing
boilerplates. While word processors com-
bine many segments of text into one
document, it is difficult to trace which
segments went into which documents. In
addition, word processors also create a
new file for the document, resulting in
higher storage reguirements.
Document-assembly products elimi-

First Look V Dažaflex Upgraded

Continued from Page 79

around, version 3.05 performance was fast:
er than version 2.3bs. |

- The OOP user interface is implemented

as an include file, so there is no additional
memory overhead if a developer chooses

to use the Dalatiča 28b MA

The Enter command, for example, can
handle all appends, deletes, gueries,
searches and edits to a database, as well.as
serolling through records.

Overall, the programming language has
been cleaned up considerably over version
- 2.3b and expanded to support a new com-
mand set that most programmers will con:

ap- ma m m ja eto work within then macros that define

RI -10 maximum. |

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ige. The source code for the 4GL

Sena indexes by 16 data  macros is available in a disk file for study
elements per index, up i sa version £.9l I: — and editin KLA

| ah those, who feel brave. Like-

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ROA, so Ti, O Derek, die ERI CIA

John Avakian

stance, generate many documents, such as
wills and contracts, that use similar and
even identical sections of text. Other orga-
nizations also reuse text items: User
guides, for example, very often extract
text from reference manuals, and text
contained in a human:resources guide
may also be used in an employee hand-
book that is distributed to prospective

This is the subheading, which are also moved in scripts that describe how segments are products are a third class of tools that
third article in tandem with the heading or subheading. to be combined. When a segment is can be applied to track and retrieve
a series on text An outline can be reviewed in either col- changed, the scripts can help determine textual information. |
; management lapsed form (just the skeleton) or ex- which documents are affected, thus | cre- Personal information managers s
ze and its influ- — panded form to include associated notes.  ating an electronic trail. (PIMs) provide facilities for -capturi )
ence in the cor-  Document-assembly products, another This process can be useful in many modifying, retrieving, recombining an
porate envi- category of text-management tools, help business applications. Lawyers, for in- reproducing unstructured information.
ronment. A ANI AD PIMs are ie EN" meče work ]
Tre šiččess PONA AE A k o o EME povej PEPA with random, free-form short pieces o
of any organi- ManagiHg tHe Electroni C Ttail text sre establish Te ne ni
zatio amo ese pieces oi tex e
| on cave DoctijteHit Assembly Products isa etike similar to an outline, but
LA communication. Na To Credte Net Doeitihents from Existihg leg unlike outlining products, PIMs assign
PEPPTU NE are de items to the categories in the outline.
MARTIN MK a — Mla toritlen O A NES RE ANE z.
z on the written sa designed to support "shared under-
| | word, and it is the content rather than standing" in work-group environments.

Individuals create structures that are
meaningful personally, but not neces-
sarily to others in the group.

A new class of information managers
known as groupware promotes efficient
collaborations among work groups.

Groupware applications range from
ventures such as engineering projects to |
the preparation of documents for publi-
cation. Each member of the group re-
views sections (and possibly drawings)

of the final document; group members'
comments are EO EN into ie 1e

The concepts in this article are de-
scribed in a new volume, Text Man-
agement, of The James Martin Re-
port Series. For more information
on this volume, call (800) 242-1240
or (617) 639-1958. For information
on seminars, contact Technology
Transfer Institute, 741 10th St., San-
ta Monica, Calif. 90402 (213) 394-
8305 (in the United States and Cana-
da). In Europe, contact Savant, 2
New St., Carnforth, Lanecs., LA5 9BX
United Kingdom (0524) 734 505.

CASE ! Data Modeling GOM. 4,0

Continued. from Page 79

grams, and Ban Entity Relationship
diagrams.

Without this data-modeling horsepow-
er, the current, version of Visible Analyst

Workbench lacks a key feature of its high-

er-priced competitors, according to CASE
analysts.

ČO aa dan that have passed over Vis-

ible Analyst Workbench for other tools,

V such as Index Technology Corp.s Exceler-
ator, will now have a reason to consider

the prod uct, said David Sharon, president

of CASE Associates Inc., an Oregon City,
Ore,, rogcsroh and consulting firm that

pecializes in CASE.

4tn the past, [users of Visible's tools] had
to go out and buy someone else's data-
modeling tool to round out their tool set,"
Sharon said. "With data modeling added to
the [existing] process-modeling and design

 componenta, they have a complete analy-

sis and design solution."
With Visible Analyst Workbench 4.0, us-

ers will be able to create data models at
either the project level or the corporate-
wide level. Version 4.0 maintains data in-
tegrity among multiple projects spread
across an O gobova company officials
said.

Another key f me of the new version
is its ability to automatically diagram and

| ing to loka

Mass., company.

"I£you ENE A
can't print on a page, it will organize it for

you in logical ea koje mapof

how to put the pieces € when deo
prints out," Nash said. — k
Visible Systems is IA tne middle ot.

z its price structure and has not.

| yet settled on a price for the upgrade. |

The current release of Visible asi

Workbench costs $1,785 for a single-user

version and $4,950 for a three-node net-
work version.

Visible Systems Corp. can be reached at.
(617) 890-2273.8

SAVE and  avokable AE H