In the context of the PostgreSQL Conference in Ottawa, Canada, Alaska Software will hold a lecture concerning the forthcoming Xbase++ support of the PostgreSQL DBMS. The lecture is based on Xbase++ 1.9 and an early experience version of the new PostgreSQL technology. Active subscription customers shall be able to lay hands on that technology shortly after the PGCon 2008 conference. More details regarding the forthcoming PostgreSQL support in the context of the "Arctica" project can be found here.

There is also a XUG meeting in Toronto, on May 25th, 2008. The meeting will be initially set up by Alaska Software and Boris Borzic, author of Xb2.NET and SQLExpress. The more people attend this meeting the more likely it is that this meeting will turn into another successfull regular XUG event! More details regarding the XUG Toronto can be found here.

More information on the previously mentioned and other community events around Xbase++ can be found here.
 

In accordance with our Product-Maintenance-Policy another series of Hotfix-Rollups for Xbase++ 1.90 have gone online. It consists of 8 Hotfix-Rollups covering around 40 PDRs.

More details about each Hotfix-Rollup including download information can be found under Login->MyAccount->Downloads->Hotfix Rollups or here.

Check it out yourself!
 

Our application servers are going to be replaced by a couple of Quad-Core Xeon boxes. Hence, some of our online and web-application services may be disrupted over the easter weekend.

Simultanously we would like to announce the rollout of a new web-application and inhouse solution infrastructure. All applications are developed using Xbase++ only: Web-applications are based upon the latest internal alpha build #402, rich client graphical user interface applications are deployed with the current validation level of Xbase++ 1.9 Service Level #1.

All active Subscription customers can try out the Login feature on our homepage to setup their initial online account. As an immediate benefit, new Hotfix Rollups are available for download to all eligible users.

Bear in mind, this rollout of these new solutions and technologies will be done in a step-by-step manner, accompanied by various technology previews available for active subscription customers.

Should there be any disruption of our services we apologize upfront.
 

As we all know, the numerous technical problems of the Vista platform have confronted many software and hardware vendors with an array of unexcpected issues. Now this may soon come to an end: On March 18th, 2008 the ServicePack #1 for Windows Vista has been "officially" made available.

Alaska Software has been waiting for this step for months as many corrections and feature enhancements applied to the Xbase++ 1.9 platform are to be tested against Vista SP1. Unfortunately, testing in the past against various pre-release versions available has always led to different results, forcing us to continue awaiting the availability of Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008.

Actually both platforms Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced massive and fundamental changes in almost all technical areas of the operating system. Scenarios such as Single User-Desktop applications with and without the Aero user interface, network-based multi-user applications with and without Opportunistic Locking and the new SMB2 file/print sharing protocol had to be validated. In addition, careful testing and verification of Terminal Server and/or Remote Application-deployments were carried.

Currently, final validation is on its way; after its completion a first wave of Hotfix-Rollups will be released to provide a dedicated update/resolution path for specific issues. After that a preview of the Service Level #1 for Xbase++ will be made available to our active Subscription customers. And shortly thereafter, the final version of the Service Level #1 for Xbase++ will be released.
 

Alaska Software Inc. is very proud to announce that the 25,000th product-unit has been sold and shipped last week.

Alaska Software would like to thank its customers for its loyality and perpetual support. Also, for those of you who are still not sure whether or not to go for the Xbase++ route, be invited to glance over an excerpt of the Customer and Reference List of Alaska Software. All these companies and institutions have trust in Xbase⁺⁺ doing reliably its job! So can you!!
 

We would like to invite our customers to rethink their application design. Why not breaking your monolithic application into pieces and connecting them together?

The infrastructure to connect your application parts is at your fingertips! Learn more about SOA and how Xbase++ 1.9 and Microsoft Message Queueing connect smaller application parts together; there was also a dedicated Session at the European Xbase++ DevCon. The presentation, the sample source code and a small ACast introducing Message Queueing with Xbase++ 1.9 is available for download for you!

• ACast, Message Queueing with Xbase++ 1.9
• Presentation, Source Code and Readme.

Take a breath over the holidays, get some distance from your daily work and enjoy the download material above. Maybe you will rethink your application design?

Enjoy the Christmas holidays and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a successfull and happy new year 2008.

More than 150++ attendees from more than 22 countries gathered in Berlin to share their common thirst and passion for Xbase++! ATTENTION: We are currently in the process of assembling the material for the DevCon-CD. Therefore, we need to remind all those speakers who have added so-called "last-minute changes" to their presentations and/or sourcecode: PLEASE SEND IN THE REVISED CONTENT ASAP; but no later than Wednesday, Nov. 28th, 2007. Consequently, the DevCon CD will be produced thereafter, and shipped to you via snail-mail in due course. It was just awesome to have been able to welcome and meet you all in Berlin. We already look forward to see you all again at the next DevCon - wherever that may be!!!

Alaskas Data Bear Impressions from the European Xbase++ DevCon Berlin 2007

For those of you that did not find the time to join us in Berlin, we plan to publish streaming media of the session held by Alaska Software in the following weeks and months. So please stay tuned.

Yours,
  Alaska Software

  Monday, Nov. 12th, 2007 until Monday, Nov. 19th, 2007.

We are counting upon your understanding and cooperation. Regular office hours will resume on Tuesday, Nov. 20th, 2007!

For those of you who are going to attend the DevCon in Berlin, we are looking forward to welcoming you there!!

Recently, we have been experiencing intermittent connectivity problems with our news server (news://news.alaska-software.com). Consequently, access to the Alaska news groups may be temporarily unavailable. Together with our hosting provider, we are working on a solution to this problem.

Alaska Software apologizes for any inconvenience.

As a subscription customer, you may have received a letter from Alaska Software regarding your Subscription renewal and about the forthcoming European Xbase++ Developers conference. These letters have been send out weeks ago from our US and European offices to our worldwide customers. We've only just learned that some of the letters are still on their way - snail mail indeed! To ensure that all our subscription customers can take their time to perform an educated purchase decision, Alaska Software extends the timeframe for receiving the discounted upgrade price until October 30th, 2007.

To further assist you with the decision process, Alaska Software has assembled a list of Questions and Answers (Q&A) regarding the Subscription service in general, based on the feedback received from our customers worldwide. In the event you still have a question regarding the Subscription Service or your individual Subscription status, please feel free to drop us an email to info@alaska-software.com.

Finally, we would like to thank those Subscription customers which already have renewed their subscription for their trust into Alaska Software and support of Xbase++ as their platform of choice.

Since the release of Xbase++ 1.9, a lot of work has been acomplished at our different labs. For the last 18 months, an array of research projects have been going on. Furthermore, research and evaluation of the broad list of requirements collected from our customers got taken care of. Hence, at long last, we have determined the future product features and release plan for version 2.0 of Xbase++. As soon as the detailed release schedule has been worked out, the official product roadmap will be updated, serving our customers as guideline and outlook about when to expect these new technology or features. Due to the great number of new technologies and changes in the pipeline for the Xbase++ 2.0 technology platform, we would like to take this opportunity to afford our customers a glance and a rough idea about what's coming next. Please find below our product outlook for the next 12 month.

Alaska Software Product Outloook 2007 - 2008:
The Xbase++ 2.0 technology platform

For those of you who are still not sure whether or not to attend the European Xbase++ DevCon 2007, we simply can not emphasize it enough, that the DevCon is going to be the place to prepare yourself for all the changes ahead, especially in the context of the Xbae++ 2.0 technology platform.

In case you have questions regarding the European Xbase++ DevCon 2007 or need any assistance in the process of planning your trip to Berlin, please feel free to drop us an email; we are happy to assist you.

Still haven´t signed up yet for the European Xbase++ DevCon 2007 in Berlin? -- Then, hurry up, if you still want to get charged the regular fee.

Remember the European Xbase++ DevCon 2007 is the place to get started with Xbase++ as there is a special track with 5 sessions only for Clipper migration candidates. It is therefore the world's most aggregated place to learn how to give your existing Clipper solution or your xBase knowledge a new life.

But that's not all! The first conference day is dedicated to prepare you for the latest technologies in our industry. Alaska Software will in great detail reveal its plans for Xbase++ 2.0, show you how to prepare yourself to reap benefits almost instantly out of new technologies and features soon to be disclosed. So much upfront, the technology platform of Xbase++ 2.0 will be revolutionary in the following areas:

• how data-access and management is done
• makes Web 2.0 applicaton development a snap
• dramatically increases developer productivity

For all of you who are still hesitant and contemplating whether or not to come to the DevCon in Berlin, you should get going, as ticket prices will go up starting Oct. 1st. 2007!!

Hurry, check out the website www.xbasedevcon.com, and put your name on the list of attendees!
You won´t regret it!!

Still not enrolled as a participant for the 3rd European Xbase++ DevCon in Berlin? Hurry up and act now. You can save EURO 50.00 by making use of the early-bird discount if your enroll at www.xbasedevcon.com before June, 15th, 2007.

In case you have questions regarding the DevCon or need any assistance in the process of planning your trip to Berlin - please feel free to drop us an email; we are happy to assist you.

We would like to welcome all of you in Berlin this fall at the 3rd European Xbase++ Developer Conference!

This Conference will take place in Berlin in the time between Nov. 13th and Nov. 16th, 2007 - four days packed with information, knowledge and fun.

Visit the official DevCon 2007 Website,

• to get an idea of the overwhelmingly broad topics around Xbase++,
• to know whose well-elaborated application will be presented, and
• to find out which topics are going to be covered in the session program.

Furthermore we like to encourage everyone to attend this event to stay in touch with the Xbase++ community and of course to make use of the opportunity to discuss personally your individual requirements with speakers and Alaska Software!

Got more questions? Just drop us an email; we are happy to assist you.

The BIG APPLE´s most important and easiest way to travel is - no doubt about that - the YELLOW CAB. Alaska Software likes to extent all the best wishes to its 100th BIRTHDAY!!

... allow us to point out to you that next time around you take a 'Caby', you do not just rely upon the driver´s abilities and versatility, but also upon the power of Xbase++!! Yes, indeed, all YELLOW CABs in New York City are managed, scheduled, dispatched, planned, administered and tracked by a powerful Xbase++ application!! ... Happy birthday, to you, .... Happy Birthday,... !!

In accordance with our Product-Maintenance-Policy we release today another series of Hotfix-Rollups for Xbase++ 1.90. More details about each Hotfix-Rollup including download information can be found here.

Alaska Software Inc. and HyCare GmbH are proud to announce the happening of the year 2007 for the Xbase⁺⁺ community:

The 3rd. European Xbase++ Developers Conference will come up this fall in the German capital: BERLIN. So, make sure to ear-mark following dates: November 13th until Nov. 16th, 2007, as we would love to welcoming all of you there!!

As always, stay tuned, more details will follow shortly.
Sincerely yours, Alaska Software Inc.

BTW:
If you would be up for running a presentation of your Xbase++ application, sharing you developing experiences and techical expertise with others, then we would welcome your proposal-email in which you should also specify the foreseen title of your would-be presentation. Hurry up, as session-slots are limited.

In accordance with the New Product-Maintenance-Policy we would like to invite our customers to reap benefits from it, accessing and downloading the first series of Hotfix-Rollups for Xbase++ 1.90. More details about each Hotfix-Rollup including download information can be found here.

In case your PDR is not tackled by this first series, stay tuned, as the next rollup-day is scheduled for second half of January.

In the aftermath of the Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 release, and in order to serve better our customer base and respond more adequately to individual customer demands, we would like to present Alaska Software’s newly elaborated Product-Maintenance-Policy stipulations.

We are convinced that delivering a great product can always be only one side of the coin; the other side ought to be the services and support completing the product. Hence, to cut down time-to-market for critical fixes and to provide all Xbase⁺⁺ developers a continuous stream of hotfixes and/or new features, it was indispensable to have a New Product-Maintenance-Policy worded out and put into practice.

Therefore, we encourage every Xbase⁺⁺ customer to carefully read through the Product-Maintenance-Policy documentation, which explains in great detail the definitions of Hotfixes, Hotfix-Rollups, Service-Levels, and how they will be handled going forward.

Should you have questions, or you would like to voice your opinion and/or give us constructive feedback related to these new stipulations; in any case, we look forward to receiving your emails.

You have not yet familiarized yourself with Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9? Take a few minutes and click here to learn more about the ever enhanced Clipper compatibility, the various fixes that have been accomplished and an extraordinary extensive catalog of innovative features. But, stay wired as the first set of hotfix-rollups is already in the pipeline.

Sense the new feel of Clipper compatibility, touch base with the ActiveX technology and its cool components, utilize multithreading with just one line of code. Explore a new world of programming with virtually no limits - check out Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90!

The Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 Trial Version is as of now availble to be downloaded and evaluated. You will have the choice to check out the trial version in English and in German, whichever you prefer. Of course, about 4.000 pages of online documentation are there, awaiting to be consulted. Additionally, you should not miss to review more than 300 samples introducing the different features of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90.

And the best of all is that there are no restrictions in terms of the programming capabilities in this trial version. The only restriction you will encounter is the time limit of 30 consecutive days for the evaluation.

Anybody still programming with Clipper is invited to take a closer look at Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9, given the fact that the meter is running for all your 16-bit applications. Get rid of your old 16-bit stuff and make the world of 32-bit / 64-bit operating systems yours using the power of Xbase⁺⁺.

Download the Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 trial version by clicking here. Since you get the download information via email, please make sure that you provide your complete and correct email address. Details about Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 and its new features, all the closed PDRs and all the changes made to the documentation, can be found here.

Since the release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 in May 2006, the shipment of more than 4.000 packages to more than 120 different countries on this globe has been completed!

Hence doubtlessly depicting its strength as the leading application development tool for xbase-dialect-based programming as well as for migration of Clipper-based business applications. These Xbase⁺⁺ applications are deployed at global corporations as well as at small one-man shops around the corner. Geographically speaking, Xbase⁺⁺ applications are deployed all over the world: ranging from Anchorage to Auckland, and from Upsala to Ushuaia.

Hereby, we like to remind all our subscription customers, that by now you should have received your Volume 6 CD and booklet. If you have bought Alaska Software products after November 1st 2004, you should also have received your free replacement delivery. We strongly encourage you to get in touch with us in the event you haven't received your Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 yet.

If questions pop up, then get in touch with us.

Refreshed, recreated and inspired from a positive US-DevCon, a successful release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 and the extremely high temperatures which were persistent all over Europe. Having resumed their normal schedule, the development team is in the midst of re-grouping, focusing and setting up new priorities.

Meanwhile, if you are still working with Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 or even an older version of Xbase⁺⁺, you really should take a minute or two to glean over the features included in Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9, ensuring you are up-to-date on the latest possibilites with Xbase⁺⁺.

So, what has been proclaimed by our customers about this release yet?

• "Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 should be relabeled to 2.0, this is truely an amazing, solid release!"

• "Thank you so much for the good and productive cooperation! We really look forward to laying hands on the final release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9, so that we can get started using it in our productive and operational environment."

• "Also I would like to congratulate Alaska for the way that it is treating the customers. With certainty now we will go to invest in Xbase⁺⁺."

• "By the way, we are impressed with 320. The list of PDRs fixed is enormous. PDR 4970, on which we had almost given up hope, is fixed. And on top of that, we get quick response from the Alaska beta team."

• "For the rest I find the software Xbase⁺⁺ fabulous, stupendous, powerful. I don't know what to say more, it's beautiful!!! Makes me dream!!! It is almost stable in everything and for everything."

• "The improvements in beta 1.9 are considerable compared to 1.82 - the Alaska team are performing a great job as far as I can see. In my view 1.9 RC is already the best Xbase⁺⁺ on the market. Is Alaska Software driving the degree of perfection too far?"

• "I am quite happy with it and with all the new features that are availble with 1.90, especially ActiveX. So far I have not yet got any reports of problems other than the ones we made ourselves. So I would reccomend anybody to move over to this version."

The 3^rd US-DevCon has been a great success! Do you want to know what you missed out? Check here. All participants have taken home a wealth of information, new impressions, great ideas, and memories of interesting conversations and new friendships.

Major topics covered by Alaska Software during the US-DevCon were:

• ActiveX Overview and Introduction
• High level overview of .NET, comparison with Xbase⁺⁺
• Using .NET components and .NET Forms with Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9
• Overview about data access technologies; this presentation is a perfect guideline regarding which data access technology should be used when and for what purpose.

Alaska Software has collected all the DevCon information together. All presentations and sample source code from Alaska Software speakers, plus product demos, PowerPoint presentations and lots of sample code from the Technology Partners who held their sessions at the 3rd. US-DevCon. For a complete listing of the sessions held, please click here, and choose: Session Schedule. If you are interested in obtaining the DevCon presentations and other goods, we like to invite you to get yourself this incredible 1 GB USB-Memory-Stick! For that, just check out our Online-Shop

If you still have questions, let us know.

The time has finally come to inform you that the final version of Xbase⁺⁺ V1.90 has been released to the public.

Customers with a valid Subscription product and customers which already bought Xbase⁺⁺ V1.90, can get ahold of the new version via electronic download. To obtain the access codes for your respective product, please send an e-mail to our ESD system (Electronic Software Delivery) with the word HELP in the subject line. You will be immediately provided with an automatic reply containing the required next steps.

The subscription products, as well as the free-of-charge replacement CD shipments will be shipped to your street address in due course, after we will have received them from the production plant.

In the meantime, we hope all of you will enjoy exploring all the great new features while programming with Xbase⁺⁺!!

Looking forward to meeting you at the Xbase⁺⁺ US DevCon 2006 next week.

Actually, we closed more than 200 PDRs and an array of these changes will prove to be of the benefit to all of you. The value added by Alaska Software to the new release, is estimated to amount to about 6 man-years of hard development work.

Having said this, the bad news is that we are again behind our latest projection in terms of availability. The good news is that the master- build 1.90.331 is already being tested and validated. The Basic User Guides which comprises of about 350 pages has been released for production.

The contents of the Subscriptions is ready, so that the packaging process can be triggered. All this is a tedious and time-consuming labor; however, we should be able to have it completed by the end of this week.

Since the packaging process is the last step before CD-ROM production starts, the software packages will be readily available for download, ie. for the ESD (electronic-software-delivery), in the week before the US DevCon 2006 starts.

Looking forward to meeting you at the forthcoming Xbase⁺⁺ US DevCon 2006 and/or at the European Advantage Conference in Frankfurt.

Secure your US-Dev-Con-Tickets!! Make sure you will be sitting in the first row during number

of the US-Xbase++ Developer Conference, which will take place in Manchester, N.H./USA, starting on Sunday, May 21st, concluding on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006. More information is available here. To get all the details about Speakers present, Topics spoken about, Add-On-Vendors being on site and much more. Check out the DevCons webpage at USDevCon-Homepage.

And don´t forget, apart from catching up with the latest developments and technical features, there is also the priceless side-effect of being able to meet the people of Alaska Software and your peer Xbase⁺⁺ Developers in person, shop-talking the days and nights away!!

This is really hard to beat!! - See you there.

On April 4th, Alaska Software has made available Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90.330 final to its Technology Partners and a selected group of 15 companies. The goal of build 1.90.330 is to field test changes made to the new ActiveX/.NET interoperability features.

Please also take a note that our offices are closed on the following days:

Good Friday, April 14th, 2006, and
Easter Monday, April 17th, 2006.

Since the first release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 RC-2 (release candidate #2) in December/January, Alaska Software has released several refreshes of RC-2 to dedicated beta testers. These intermediate revisions addressed issues found in the initial RC-2 build. Currently, the development team at Alaska Software is working on the Xbase++ 1.9 final build, which should be available in the next 30 days.

Alaska Software also wants to draw your attention to the fact that by the end of this month, Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90.322 (release candidate #1) will stop working due to an internal timebomb mechanism. In the event that you already have distributed RC-1 to your customers, it is therefore important to update these RC-1 installation as soon as possible. Registered customers can request a timebomb-free version of RC-1 from Alaska Software by simply sending an email to beta@alaska-software.com. Please be sure to include your customer number.

Finally, we would like to point out to you, again, the Xbase⁺⁺ Developers Conference being held in May. If you are interested in the new features of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9, or just need a jump-start into the new worlds of ActiveX, backoffice integration and .NET component usage, then this DevCon is a must to attend! Even if you are planning a new application or an upgrade of an existing one, the DevCon will be especially worthwhile for you to attend. Because a special focus is put on Microsoft's forthcoming technologies such as Windows Vista and .NET, attending the DevCon will provide you with valuable hands-on and background knowledge for competing in the IT market.

More information can be found here, and at the conference website.

Alaska Software and Professional Teledata are proud to be able to announce the 3rd Xbase⁺⁺ U.S. Developers Conference 2006. This DevCon will be held at the Highlander Inn Hotel in Manchester, NH (USA), and will take place between Sunday, May 21st and Wednesday, May 24th, 2006.

Not only will there be covered an array of themes related to Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9, but it will also address the latest trends and technologies, such as .NET and Windows Vista. Among other things, attendees will learn how developers can utilize .NET components with Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9.

Add-On vendors, like Donnay Software, Clayton Jones Software, Boris Borzic, iAnywhere and DS-Datasoft will also be present to give presentations or just to talk shop.

More information can be found here, and at the conference website.

Maintenance work has been completed and the new server system has been doing its job for more than a week now. Customers who have not yet re-configured their news-reader should do so right away.

The refined list of newsgroups, plus a short description of them, can be found here. By default, anonymous users will only have read-only access! To post a message, you will have to configure your news-reader to log on to the news server using the username "guest" and the password "guest". Once you have enabled authentication, you will be authorized to post messages to the newsgroups. Authenticating users is by far the most effective way to avoid spam.

We apologize for any inconvenience that arose from the news server transition.

Enjoy the spam-free newsgroups!

Due to the constantly growing traffic on our news server (news.alaska-software.com), a larger dedicated server system will be set up over this weekend, i.e. Jan. 14- 15, 2006. The new server system will add new features, such as automated spam filtering and a new web-frontend, to name just the most important changes.

In order to make the transition, all newsgroups will become read-only beginning on Saturday, Jan. 14th, 2006, until the new server system is up and running for good.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

There have been more than 100 issues resolved since the RC-1 drop, hence the release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 is coming closer and closer. Furthermore, you will enjoy an introduction chapter on ActiveX while laying hands on the RC-2; also, you will find a lot of fixes related to the ODBC DatabaseEngine. Beyond that, the RC-2 contains fixes and minor refinements in almost all areas of the product. Thus, we like to ask our beta participants to read up carefully the READ-ME included as well as the list-of-changes in the Online Documentation.

Any customer who currently uses the RC-1 should update immediately to RC-2, since the former stops working on February 28th, 2006.

To download Xbase⁺⁺ RC-2, simply employ one of the following links in conjunction with the username and password previously provided to you to download RC1. The corresponding links to your license purchased are: Customers with an Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 license registered use the following link: www.alaska-software.com/rc2_Xb. Customers with a valid Foundation Subscription use:www.alaska-software.com/rc2_found Customers with a valid Professional Subscription use: www.alaska-software.com/rc2_prof.

Note: To get access information regarding the appropriate download account, just drop an e-mail to our ESD System (Electronic Software Delivery) with the word HELP in the subject line. You will be immediately provided with an automatic reply containing the required next steps.

Alaska Software does not plan to issue another release candidate, besides the RC-2. Therefore, the final release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 shall be available approximately 30-60 days thereafter.

If you currently use Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and want to update, please check out our Subscription products.

New to Xbase⁺⁺? If so, buy now Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and get Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 for free. This way you get 2 products for the price of one! Should you have any questions, then we look forward to receiving your email.

... .. Santa Claus is still busily writing down your wishes,... hence we are still busily writing source code. But for the following dates, our offices will be closed:

For more than two weeks now, all of our In-House applications and Web solutions at Alaska Software have been using the latest build of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 as their new foundation. Hence the average transaction time got reduced by more than 30%, and our Web applications handle now a much larger amount of simultanous transactions.

Development at Alaska Software is currently heading towards the RC-2 (release candidate #2) build. The RC-2 shall be availabe in the course of the next weeks and includes a significant amount of fixes and/or improvements mainly having been reported by our esteemed beta-testers. Customers who have deployed RC-1-based code in their production environments or at their customer sites should upgrade immediatly to RC-2 upon its availability.

Alaska Software does not plan to issue another release candidate, besides RC-2. Therefore, the final release of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 ought to follow the RC-2 approximately 30 days thereafer. RC-2 availability will be announced seperatly as soon as it will have passed all regular validation procedures, packaging, etc.

If you currently use Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and want to update, please check out our Subscription products.

New to Xbase⁺⁺? If so, buy now Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and get Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 for free. This way you get 2 products for the price of one! Should you have any questions, then we look forward to receiving your email.

We are currently in the process of upgrading all our web-based and in-house applications to Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 (RC1). During the upgrade period, the following systems may be temporarily unavailable:

• Knowledgebase
• Online Shop
• Downlod Area
• Xbase⁺⁺ Free Trial
• WAA in action

The transition should be concluded within one to two days. We apologize for this inconvenience.

As of today, 2005-10-21, the release candidate #1 (RC-1) of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 is available for download. Whereas past release candidates were made available only to a limited number of beta testers, this time we encourage all our registered customer to get a hold of this release candidate!

While having tremendously invested into Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9, Alaska Software not only has expanded the featureset of Xbase⁺⁺, but also extended the platform-support.

Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 is now validated against Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP/SP1/SP2 and Windows Server 2003, hence does support all of them. In addition, Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 also supports systems with Hardware DEP (Dynamic Execution Protection) enabled, nowadays a necessary security feature in modern platforms against malware and viruses. Furthermore Windows XP 64Bit constitutes an integral part of our standard validation procedure, and is therefore officially backed. On the network side, we added Samba to the supported file server systems. The new ActiveX feature of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 has been validated against the so-called COM Interop layer of Microsoft .NET, allowing Xbase⁺⁺ developers to fully utilize the .NET framework and its features.

To download Xbase⁺⁺ RC-1, simply use one of the following links corresponding to your license purchased: Customers with an Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 license registered use the following link: www.alaska-software.com/RC1_Xb. Customers with a valid Foundation Subscription use: www.alaska-software.com/RC1_found. Customers with a valid Professional Subscription use: www.alaska-software.com/RC1_prof.

Note: To get access information regarding the appropriate download account, just drop an e-mail to our ESD System (Electronic Software Delivery) with the word HELP in the subject line. You will be immediately provided with an automatic reply containing the required next steps.

Are you interested in Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9? If you currently use Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and you want to upgrade, then our Subscription Products might be an interesting offer.

New to Xbase⁺⁺? If so, buy now Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and get Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 for free. This way you get 2 products for the price of one! Should you have any questions, then we look forward to your email!

Feedback from Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 beta testers clearly demonstrates, that Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 is not only about to be a milestone release, but is in fact a steadfast and solid foundation for any large scale mission critical application.

Ever more Beta participants have been reporting successful transitions of large in-house, retail or branch-specific solutions to Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90. These Xbase⁺⁺ applications are currently being deployed at end-user sites to collect more detailed information. While the field tests continue and reports pour in, the development team at Alaska Software concentrates on the release candidate 1 (RC-1) of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90.

RC-1 availability is anticipated for second half of October 2005. A dedicated announcement will be made soon. A list containing new features and changes related to Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 can be found here.

If you currently use Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and want to upgrade, please check out our Subscription products.

New to Xbase⁺⁺? If so, buy now Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 and get Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 for free. This way you get 2 products for the price of one! Should you have any questions, then we look forward to your email l!

We have reached the finishing line for the pre-finals! The Fourth BETA DROP of Xbase⁺⁺ V.1.90 has been released. What has happened in the meanwhile?

• More than 160 Issues (PDRs) have been resolved!
  
• The List of Changes comprises more than 150 Positions !
• The documentation has been greatly extented, clarified and enhanced.
• Development has benefited greatly from the agile feedback provided by our beta testers. Again, the very productive and mutually fruitful cooperation has provided valuable feedback for enhancing the Xbase⁺⁺ product.

Currently we are working on the designated Release Candidate (RC-1) which ought to be released as the next step towards Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9. So swing by. If you have questions or need more information, drop us an email .

The meetings of the Dutch Xbase⁺⁺ - the XXP Netherlands - are quite an instituion by now! Last Friday your Dutch Xbase⁺⁺ colleagues met again in Utrecht.

Take a look what they have talked about, since Till Warweg and Andreas Herdt from Alaska Software's development team had gladly followed an invitation to join this meeting.
Of course they shared an array of news, tips and trick all around Xbase⁺⁺!
Curious by now? Well, check out some of the topics talked over.

Currently Alaska Software is working on the final beta drop of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90.

Initially we envisaged for the Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 release merely new features, such as ActiveX and enhancements related to the database engines. However, as it turns out now version 1.90 of Xbase⁺⁺ is truly going to be a milestone in its history!

Alaska Software will be participating, i.e. holding a few sessions about Xbase⁺⁺ & Advantage Database Server at the upcoming European Advantage Conference 2005.

Please take a look at the Conference Schedule.

The Conference will take place on April 14th and 15th, 2005 in the outskirts of Frankfurt/M.
Hope to see you there! You may want to sign up right here: Register Me .

Those of you who are located in the vicinity of London, please be advised that this Conference will also be held on April 11th and 12th, 2005 in London, but without an Alaska Software Speaker!

We are going to perform maintenance on our T1 line over the following days. Due to the constantly increasing demand of our customers, a bandwidth upgrade to T2 is going to take place in the following days. Although we tried to ensure that the upgrade procedure does not affect current operations, irregularities may occur.

We apologize up front for any connection problems with our server systems during the transition phase.

With regards,
Alaska Software

Make sure you check out the second BETA DROP of Xbase⁺⁺ which has gone online today! This second beta drop (beta-2) for Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 contains the following major modifications:

• All Add-On products, such as ADS or ODBC DatabaseEngine, the XbToolsIII, WAA and Visual Xbase⁺⁺ 2.0 pre-release are now available.
  
• The paint/re-paint behavior was revised to avoid flickering when GUI dialogs repaint; Furthermore the ActiveX control paint behavior got optimized.
• NULL/NIL value supporting functions were added. The automatic database field transformation for NULL/NIL values to/from empty field values were also added.
• ADS DatabaseEngine now supports ADT tables including dictionary connections and transparent NULL/NIL value support.

To download beta-2, simply use one of the following links corresponding to your license purchased:
For registered customers of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82: www.alaska-software.com/beta19. For customers with a valid Foundation Subscription: www.alaska-software.com/beta19_found. Customer owning a valid Professional Subscription: www.alaska-software.com/beta19_prof.

Your web-browser will display a dialog asking for username and password. Please enter username and password as provided to you by the ESD system. In case you have lost your authentification data please send email to esd@alaska-software.com with HELP in the subject line. The ESD system will guide you through the process. Alternatively, you may want to send an email to info@alaska-software.com in order to get access to the Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 beta-2 drop; do not forget to provide your CID!

Currently we anticipate providing to you a third beta drop; availability to be announced. This third beta drop is meant to be the release candidate for Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9 - more details will be put forward in due course.

Have fun!

Starting today you may use our Online-Shop at a 24/7 basis to place your orders. Remaining work regarding our mail-servers are going to be completed by the end of this week.

As you surely have taken a note of, the Visual-ActiveX BETA (Build# 1.90.314) has gone online for download just in time for the Christmas Holidays. Eligible for downloading this BETA-Drop for free are all registered Xbase⁺⁺ Version 1.82 customers, as well as all our Professional and Foundation subscription customers. Please log on to www.alaska-software.com/beta19 and use the Username and Password which you have used for the original product. In case you do not have these access-codes readily handy, just drop an email to esd@alaska-software.com with the word HELP in the subject line.

We also like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for the overwhelming feedback received in response to this last BETA drop.

Moreover, we like to remind you that each customer purchasing Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 today, will automatically be receiving Version 1.9 free of any further costs. This way you will be receiving two versions of Xbase⁺⁺ for the price of one!

Check out the detailed component description of Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9.

We would like to thank all our customers, vendors, business and technology partners for their support and for having greatly contributed to the continued success of Xbase⁺⁺, hence of Alaska Software's.

Alaska Software wishes to extend to all of you all the best for the New Year.

Response as well as the ambiance having prevailed at the European Developers Conference which took place on Friday and Saturday of last week, turned out to have been simply overwhelmingly positively!

Therefore, we like to invite you to glean over the resume of the topics discussed as well as over the Keynote. Click here .

Check out our updated Roadmap, now reflecting the recent progress made at development. We are very well aware of the fact that some of you are waiting anxiously for Xbase⁺⁺ 1.9. But stay tuned! Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 is worth to wait for. Not only have we added the features listed here, but there are also an array of fixes which we will present in detail at the forthcoming European Developer Conference. Just to name a few: Enhanced garbage collection and the ability to customize XbasePARTs.

The private BETAs for ADS-DBE V 1.90, and for the ActiveX automation feature available in Xbase⁺⁺ V 1.90, have provided to our development team a lot of invaluable input which already made its way into the product. A big THANK YOU goes to all BETA participants.

Right now, we are getting ready for the European Developer Conference in the Netherlands taking place next Friday and Saturday. Looking forward to meeting and getting to know you there in person. Xbase⁺⁺ V 1.90 will be presented on the DevCon. Details about the architecture,the ratio behind it as well as a lot of samples are going to be elaborated on.

Alaska Software is working hard to wrap up Xbase⁺⁺ V 1.90 for you aiming to put it under your Christmas tree! And the best of all, if you buy Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 now you are getting Xbase⁺⁺ 1.90 for free. Therefore, there is no reason to wait: get started working with Xbase⁺⁺ today, and be on top of things when it comes to Clipper migration to the Windows platform.

We are proud to be able to invite all of you to participate at the European Xbase⁺⁺ Developer Conference! This Conference is going to take place near Venlo in the Netherlands for two full days of interesting sessions and workshops held on Nov. 12th and Nov. 13th 2004.

So check out the Session-Schedule as well as the overhelmingly broad topics around Xbase⁺⁺ for which an array of internationally well-recognized Speakers are preparing their sessions and talks. Click here to find out more about the event.

Furthermore we like to encourage everyone to attend this event to get in touch with the Xbase⁺⁺ community and of course make use of the opportunity to discuss personally your individual requirements with the Speakers and members of the development team of Alaska Software! Got more questions? Just drop us an email; we are happy to assist you.

The ADS-DBE Beta has been well received and most issues initially reported have already been resolved. The 3rd. and final beta-drop is currently under development. With the forthcoming ActiveX support for Xbase⁺⁺ we are somewhat behind our initial schedule. However, a first beta-drop will be out soon.

Besides improved ADS-DBE and ActiveX support, an array of improvements in the realm of database technology has been added to the kernel of Xbase⁺⁺. Check out the latest improvements for Xbase⁺⁺ V.1.9!

Our Roadmap got updated. Check it out, as you can also sign up for being considered as participant for the ADS-DBE Beta and/or for theActiveX Beta.

Both will be limited betas, i.e. the number of participants is limited, so get your preliminiary email application in as soon as possible! Both betas comence in June.

Ascension Day, Thursday, May 20th, 2004, and

Friday, May 21th, 2004.

 

We will resume to regular office hours on Monday, May 24th, 2004.

Alaska Software Inc. has published a roadmap illustrating the next milestones in its product release schedule. The roadmap also has background information on product updates and feature set. The roadmap can be found here.

Meticulous evaluation has brought about an immediate release of a Service Level for Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82! This Service Level includes next to 100 PDRs fixed, which makes it by far the most comprehensive SL in the company's history ever.

The Service Level is going to be made available for free to all Xbase⁺⁺ 1.82 customers.

Availability announcement is to follow soon. Please visit our website regularly for this announcement respectively.

Please take a note that there are bogus emails circulating! Thus, there seems to be a virus spreading to customers that appears to stem from support@de.alaska-software.com or support@us.alaska-software.com.

ATTENTION: Do NOT open them! Delete these emails! Generally we never send unsolicited emails with attachments to our customers, unless that was discussed in previous correspondence.

Our File Library has gone online again.

The Weblib contains a wealth of information in form of White Papers, Feature-Summaries, as well as Trial-Versions of our valued Technology Partners and AS-Certified Solutions.

Moreover, our highly consulted and frequently visited KnowledgeBase (WebKB) is up and running, and accessible again. The KnowledgeBase contains a wealth of information for any Xbase⁺⁺ version ever released!

It is frequently used to research work-arounds for known shortcomings and allows to review the current development stage of a PDR, whose priority may also be increased simply by pushing a button.

Finally the transferal of the email-server has been completed not just legally but also from a technical viewpoint.
Please makes sure to take a note of the following permanent email-contact addresses:

• News-Server: news.alaska-software.com
• Generic info: info@alaska-software.com
• For pre-sales/sales/order-processing: sales@alaska-software.com
• Electronic-Software-Delivery: esd@alaska-software.com
• Technical Support: support@alaska-software.com