Newsletter June 2008

A Special Offer

We would like users who do not already run Genius EIS tools from desktop clients to examine the potential for distributing business intelligence more widely throughout the organisation.

We are offering a free one year licence to install and evaluate the Windows VistaT version of the Genius Application Suite. Users who have an ongoing M&S agreement will automatically be entitled to email/phone support for the trial period and we will also discount our normal rates for site attendance and training. If you would like to receive the VistaT distribution kit please contact the support desk.

Our New Website

Launched to coincide with the mid-year newsletter, we have re-designed our

It is comforting to know that when market conditions demand an effective and nimble response, our business applications are flexible and adaptable.

Faced with an increasingly competitive environment characterised by rising input costs and financing/funding constraints, all our users need to exploit the full potential of their information systems. And RapidGen Software is keen to assist.

website, updated the content where appropriate and added a site search facility to make information easier to find.

Work is in hand to update and improve the Genius documentation and help files and when this is completed, we plan to provide our users with login access to an online help section of our website. This will include a full text search facility for faster and more effective assistance.

XML: the new standard for portable data.

You have probably heard of XML (eXtended Markup Language), but may be wondering what it is and why it matters.

Briefly, it is a generalized version of the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) used for Web pages. Without getting too technical, the basic idea is that it represents a hierarchical structure of user-definable objects with optional attributes. The syntax can easily be checked by program, and the structure of the content automatically validated against a predefined schema. This makes XML ideal for storing self-describing data such as the content of a database table, including definitions of column names, datatypes etc. (GDE, the Genius Dictionary Editor, has an option for exporting definitions in XML, for example).

Being pure text, XML is readily portable between platforms lacking binary compatibility; hence software packages (including Microsoft Office and competitors such as OpenOffice) increasingly offer XML as an alternative to their traditional storage formats.

But the real power of XML is the ability to transform it automatically into a different XML schema, HTML or almost anything else, using a language called XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation, itself a type of XML). The uses of this are limited only by imagination and understanding

of the relevant schemas:

Web sites can separate content (in XML) from presentation , using XSLT to transform it into HTML.

Whole documents can be converted from one format to another.

Data queries can run directly against XML-structured data without a database

Etc., etc.

Among the uses we foresee for XML/XSLT in Genius is transforming easyGenius Query output directly into Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF etc. using user-definable templates. No doubt there will be many others - we welcome your suggestions. We can also offer in-depth technical advice on using this exciting new technology.

It's not just Alpha VMS.

We tend to forget that beside the VAX and Alpha hardware which we are familiar with running Genius - there are other platforms which either run the same versions of the Genius solution, or run the ancestors of Genius on historic platforms.

The most common other hardware platform for Genius is the Intel X86, whether running a version of Windows Server, Windows XP, Vista, or Linux. It also runs on SCO Unix.

The same release of Genius also runs on a number of proprietary Unix boxes, including Sun Sparc based Solaris systems, IBM RS/6000 and p-series AIX systems, HP Precision Architecture HP-UX systems and also Digital Tru64 Unix on Alpha platforms. All the Unix releases feature a C-ISAM compatible ISAM file system and use the same database interfaces as the Alpha VMS platform, eg Oracle.

The version for the next generation OpenVMS platform, Itanium, is about to go into field test.

To the less obvious such as a new feature or function that you really want.

In the latter case, this could be an application or package that you can't get elsewhere but feel we may be able to deliver using our wealth of experience. It does not even need to be connected to our existing offerings.

We are currently developing some ideas based on previous feedback but we may not provide exactly what your organisation wants unless you tell us about it.

We are here to support YOU!

For many years we have prided ourselves in delivering what our users want.

So, without any promises on delivery - only of serious consideration; what do YOU want?

We would welcome all your ideas, ranging from the very simple, such as tweaks in an existing module, through the more ambitious, such as a new tool to complement those we already offer,

Green It. Recycle and Reuse.

Some two hundred top level IT users and suppliers attended the National Computing Centre's recent conference on "Sustainable IT and Green IT". It proved to be a stimulating and thought provoking conference.

The keynote speaker Simon Post, CTO of The Carphone Warehouse focussed on Sustainability, emphasising that people are still paramount despite the rapid advance of technology. Top class people and flexible, adaptable systems are the key

to sustainability. He gave the example of their billing system built on RPL (RapidGen) software that had been evolved and updated over 17 years and continued to meet a very important part of their billing requirements.

There is, of course, nothing new in the concept of sustainability. The wheel was created five milennia ago and with evolutionary updates, continues to work brilliantly today. So what is the lesson for ICT in 2008 and beyond?

Did You Know?

One of the new features added in the 2.4 release is a file server that allows Genius programs running on WindowsT to directly access data in RMS files on OpenVMS system. The release notes about this and the documentation issued at the time are somewhat sparse and we plan to include a full section in the next documentation issue. Those customers that have discovered this have found it to be a very powerful tool and have been impressed by the ease of use, performance and flexibility that it gives them.

There is a simple setup procedure which involves running a command procedure on your VAX or Alpha called RSRRMS_DEF.COM. The procedure takes a number of optional parameters which are prompted for if omitted and defaults to installing the file server using UCX port 8045. Commonly this is included in the normal system STARTUP procedures. The service does require either HP's TCPIP Services for OpenVMS (UCX) or Process Software's TCPWare to be installed on the server.

Once installed it is simply a case of defining the RMS files in your data dictionary and then creating a program or report to access the data. Each of the standard RPL file operations is supported and so full read/write and transaction support is provided if you need it. File access and data security is not compromised and can be controlled by standard operating system security and rights lists. Standard OpenVMS filenaming conventions are used for files and employ node names as defined as in a HOSTS file or other network definitions. You can use the service on any number of nodes. It supports both logical filenames as defined on the OpenVMS systems or full file specifications . The node must always be present to determine the target file server. A typical example of a filename that you could therefore use under WindowsT would be:-
NODE1::DATA$DISK2:[LIVECUST.DATA]ADDRESS.DAT. It's as easy as that!

Clearly, the enduring value of evolution, elegant simplicity and adaptability in design. But as the "aging profile" of hardware and software in use in large organisations continues to lengthen, these qualities assume ever greater importance.

Our team continues to assimilate new technologies but our ethos of ensuring adaptability and connectivity means we are already no strangers to the concept of sustainability.