QM version 2.1-0 Release Announcement
Doug Dumitru
Ladybridge has just released QM version 2.1-0. This is a major
release that includes the following new features:
o New free Personal-QM for Windows.
o AccuTerm is now included with all commercial QM licenses.
o Terminfo enhancements for Linux.
o QMBasic now does full-screen debugging with AccuTerm 5.2.
o P (pattern matching) conversion support.
o ED and SED now support editing "values".
o New NO.CASE keyword for query processor.
o New OS.EXECUTE capturing clause.
o Subroutine and Function enhancements to enforce pass-by-value.
o Enhancements to query heading/footings.
o Enhancements to trigger functions.
o Enhancements to networking logins/timeouts.
o Direct access to serial ports.
o New support for A and S type dictionary entries.
o New support for "conversion/correlective" processing.
o New support for "PQN" style procs.
o New support for Pick style copy verb.
These new features build on top of recent QM additions including:
o Generic C-call interface allowing BASIC to C library calls.
o Case insensitive file handling.
Additional items either just released or due shortly include:
o The Coyote web server is running on QM and will be bundled once
some licensing hooks are tied in.
o The Nucleus 4GL is running on QM and will be available shortly w/
very aggressive pricing. Pricing is expected to be free for the
1st three users and $72/seat thereafter.
o OpenTPH for QM is in the works. It is expected to be priced at
about $40/seat.
OpenQM - GPL news
o OpenQM source code has been downloaded over 300 times with users on
every continent (except Antarctica).
o The OpenQM mailing list has over 120 users.
o The OpenQM mailing list has been a bit quiet, mostly because there
do not seem to be any bugs to report.
o QM 2.1-0 should be available under the GPL in about a week.
Information about QM and OpenQM are available at:
http://openqm.com - Commercial QM home page
http://easyco.com/initiative/ - EasyCo QM/mv-tools home page
http://openqm.sourceforge.net - OpenQM home page and mailing lists
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Doug Dumitru 800-470-2756 (610-237-2000)
EasyCo LLC do...@easyco.com http://easyco.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
D3, U2, jBase Virtual Servers. Off-site backup over the internet.
Develop/test/deploy from $20/mo. Fast, secure, cheaper than tape.
http://mirroredservers.com http://mirroredbackup.com
Dawn M. Wolthuis
news:cjtdu0151sf7nr343...@4ax.com...
> For those that don't watch the OpenQM-devel email list:
>
> Ladybridge has just released QM version 2.1-0. This is a major
> release that includes the following new features:
Doug -- Is there is any news on the Java to OpenQM interface?
hanks. --dawn
Doug Dumitru
<dw...@tincat-group.comREMOVE> wrote:
>Doug -- Is there is any news on the Java to OpenQM interface?
>hanks. --dawn
Manny Goyenechea posted the following message to the OpenQM-devel
email list on 10/3/2004:
- - - - - - -
Hello,
I am posting this to let everyone know that I have released
QMClient.NET, formally QM.NET, and QMClient.Java.
QMClient.NET 1.0.3 10/03/2004 can be found at:
http://www.servertec.com/openqm/qmclient_net.zip
QMClient.Java 1.0.0 10/03/2004 can be found at:
http://www.servertec.com/openqm/qmclient_java.zip
Manny
- - - - - - -
I have not used this personally, but the OpenQM client API layer
(which is a C interface) is very easy to build to.
Ed Sheehan
2. Cannot uninstall the "non-free" version - Not in uninstall list.
3. Maybe stick with Linux - Windows seems like a steep hill.
Ed
Doug Dumitru
<NOed...@xmission.com> wrote:
>1. No link to the free windows version
You did not look very hard.
Also, I mistated the "free" version being limited to Windows. You can
run under the "personal" rules on any platform.
>2. Cannot uninstall the "non-free" version - Not in uninstall list.
Ask Martin about this on the OpenQM-devel mail list (or at his support
email address). I had never noticed this before. An uninstaller
would definately be "good form".
>3. Maybe stick with Linux - Windows seems like a steep hill.
If you have Linux, stick with it. If you have windows, consider
changing to Linux, but if you like windows, that is OK as well.
EasyCo is beginning to deply QM system on our Linux virtual servers.
Their operation is basically a "non event". It is nice when something
just works.
>Ed
Also, before the "flames" about the personal edition's limits descend,
the personal version is a "free".. Personally, I believe that for
personal use, you are better off with the GPL version on Linux. If
you really "need" windows to play with, then the personal license is
for you.
In addition to the personal license, zero charge developers licenses
are available from EasyCo.
[ ... snipped ... ]
>> Information about QM and OpenQM are available at:
>>
>> http://openqm.com - Commercial QM home page
>> http://easyco.com/initiative/ - EasyCo QM/mv-tools home page
>> http://openqm.sourceforge.net - OpenQM home page and mailing lists
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Doug Dumitru 800-470-2756 (610-237-2000)
EasyCo LLC do...@easyco.com http://easyco.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
D3/U2/jBase/QM Virtual Servers. Off-site backup over the internet.
Dawn M. Wolthuis
> On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 19:17:04 -0600, "Dawn M. Wolthuis"
> <dw...@tincat-group.comREMOVE> wrote:
>
>>Doug -- Is there is any news on the Java to OpenQM interface?
>>hanks. --dawn
>
> Manny Goyenechea posted the following message to the OpenQM-devel
> email list on 10/3/2004:
Thanks and sorry to ask on this forum. I'll check that out. --dawn
Thomas Dickey
> For those that don't watch the OpenQM-devel email list:
...and for those who pick up this via google.
I downloaded the openqm_2.0-8-2004-28-04.tar.bz2 tarball, and am not flattered
to see a chunk of ncurses incorporated into this without mentioning it
anywhere.
The current version of ncurses is 5.4 (20040208)
There's an faq at
http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html
--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net
Doug Dumitru
<dic...@saltmine.radix.net> wrote:
>Doug Dumitru <do...@easyco.com> wrote:
>> For those that don't watch the OpenQM-devel email list:
>
>...and for those who pick up this via google.
>
>I downloaded the openqm_2.0-8-2004-28-04.tar.bz2 tarball, and am not flattered
>to see a chunk of ncurses incorporated into this without mentioning it
>anywhere.
>
>The current version of ncurses is 5.4 (20040208)
>There's an faq at
> http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html
Mr. Dickey,
Thank you for your posting and private email.
In looking at the ncurses code and it's copyright notice, I believe
that QM's use is "legal", but that giving credit to ncurses would be
appropriate.
For those that want to dig into this, the Linux OpenQM routine
qmtermlb.c uses a number of functions to dig control strings out of
the Linux termcap databases. These are used for input handling and at
the programming level with the TERMCAP(...) function.
Here is the current copyright notice for ncurses (from ncurses.h):
/**************************************************************************
Copyright (c) 1998,1999,2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR
THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright
holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the
sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written
authorization.
****************************************************************************/
This is a very permissive license and does not appear to preclude
using ncurses inside of any commercial or open source package. This
appears to be a truely "free software" license. The "shall be
included ..." clause appears to imply complete, or nearly complete
redistribution of the entire ncurses package. I don't think that
OpenQM's one source file triggers this clause, but I will not argue
this. OpenQM's source should have included references back to ncurses
or should have just soft-linked ncurses instead of using code.
Regardless, I dont think this is a license violation of ncurses in
that ncurses grants "... to deal in the Software without restriction
..." which is pretty all inclusive.
While I have not seen the code yet, one of the new features of QM
2-1.0 is to start using QM's private Windows termcap libraries on
Linux. This implies that QM 2-1.0 will no longer use ncurses-based
code.
Again, Mr. Dickey, my appologies for not having the notices in place
and thank you for providing this useful set of libraries to the open
source community.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Doug Dumitru 800-470-2756 (610-237-2000)
EasyCo LLC do...@easyco.com http://easyco.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
D3/U2/jBase/QM Virtual Servers. Off-site backup over the internet.
Martin
Hi Tom,
> > In looking at the ncurses code and it's copyright notice, I believe
that QM's
> > use is "legal", but that giving credit to ncurses would be
appropriate.
You appear to be right.
Our qmtermlb.c module was built using code snippets that were extracted
from various documents which were believed to be public domain. As far
as I can tell (I do not have the ncurses cource to hand on a Sunday
morning!), the functions of concern are tparm and its lower level
subroutines, the other code in this module all being either totally new
or rewritten to the same specification.
We have made some small changes along the way to the apparently
"borrowed" code and the next release includes a few more as we have
finally divorced ourselves from the standard Linux terminfo database so
that we can add some tokens of our own without any concerns of clashing
with other usage.
I will certainly ensure that credit to ncurses appears in the source.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention and please accept my
apologies that the problem occured in the first place.
Martin Phillips
Ladybridge Systems
17b Coldstream Lane, Hardingstone, Northampton NN4 6DB
+44-(0)1604-709200
Thomas Dickey
> A copy of a reply sent directly to Tom.....
I'd prefer email only for private matters; complimentary copies of news
postings tend to make it harder to see where I responded.
> Hi Tom,
>> > In looking at the ncurses code and it's copyright notice, I believe
> that QM's
>> > use is "legal", but that giving credit to ncurses would be
> appropriate.
> You appear to be right.
not quite - each file has a copy of the copyright notice -
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
* in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
> Our qmtermlb.c module was built using code snippets that were extracted
> from various documents which were believed to be public domain. As far
> as I can tell (I do not have the ncurses cource to hand on a Sunday
> morning!), the functions of concern are tparm and its lower level
> subroutines, the other code in this module all being either totally new
> or rewritten to the same specification.
about 1000 lines of code in a 1200-line file :-(
> We have made some small changes along the way to the apparently
> "borrowed" code and the next release includes a few more as we have
> finally divorced ourselves from the standard Linux terminfo database so
> that we can add some tokens of our own without any concerns of clashing
> with other usage.
That sounds interesting.
> I will certainly ensure that credit to ncurses appears in the source.
> Thank you for bringing this to our attention and please accept my
> apologies that the problem occured in the first place.
Thanks for the followup.
Gulraj Rijhwani
<cjtdu0151sf7nr343...@4ax.com> do...@easyco.com
"Doug Dumitru" wrote:
> For those that don't watch the OpenQM-devel email list:
> Ladybridge has just released QM version 2.1-0. This is a major
> release that includes the following new features:
I've recently discovered that my posting route to this newsgroup seems
to be functioning once more, I'm glad to say. I took a look at this,
whilst browsing a few sites this week.
I'm a little puzzled by the choice of packaging for the Windows product.
The the self-extracting archives are (appear to be) created with a product
called SXAzip, the name of which suggests that the resultant archive should
be ZIP compatible. Practice indicates otherwise. PKZip, Winzip and
InfoZip all fail to recognise the file format.
On the Ladybridge site there is the following admonition:
"VIRUS WARNING
All software distributed by Ladybridge Systems is checked for viruses
before release to the web site or on disk using the latest version of the
Norton AntiVirus definitions. Because of the high rate of new virus
threats, there may be viruses that were in circulation but not included in
these definitions when the software was released. We strongly recommend
that users downloading software should apply their own anti-virus
precautions before installing the software."
The result of the choice of Zip incompatible archive is that only the
extractor stub can be virus checked. The contents of the archive itself
cannot be.
--
Gulraj Rijhwani \\ Courtfields Limited, Chessington, Surrey, UK
g...@courtfields.com \\ Tel: +44 (0)20 8255 4667 Mo: 07976 431936
http://www.courtfld.demon.co.uk \\ Fax: +44 (0)20 8287 8381
----- Specialist in Pick, Unidata, datacomms and general connectivity -----
All material copyright Gulraj Rijhwani and Courtfields. ALL RIGHTS RETAINED.
Gulraj Rijhwani
<88bju0ltd3p3b8dme...@4ax.com> do...@easyco.com
"Doug Dumitru" wrote:
> While I have not seen the code yet, one of the new features of QM
> 2-1.0 is to start using QM's private Windows termcap libraries on
> Linux. This implies that QM 2-1.0 will no longer use ncurses-based
> code.
Another strange choice. Why reinvent the wheel? Having different termcap
libraries for different purposes on the same library is a sure way to
confusion. Probably not an appropriate place to ask, really, and there's
no doubt reams of back history, but superficially it seems to fly in the
face of all principles of reducing variances in system adminstration.
Martin
> > 2-1.0 is to start using QM's private Windows termcap libraries on
> > Linux. This implies that QM 2-1.0 will no longer use ncurses-based
> > code.
>
> Another strange choice. Why reinvent the wheel? Having different
termcap
> libraries for different purposes on the same library is a sure way to
> confusion. Probably not an appropriate place to ask, really, and
there's
> no doubt reams of back history, but superficially it seems to fly in
the
> face of all principles of reducing variances in system adminstration.
Not quite true. QM will continue to use exactly the same code (with due
acknowledgement to the author) but will use a separate terminfo
library. The issue here is simple and, whilst the details are
different, is the same issue and solution as chosen by VMark when they
implemented UniVerse....
We need to add some new terminfo entries that are not part of the
standard set. As soon as we do this, we open up possibilities of
incompatibility. Let's say that we add a block of new string
capabilities. Another, totally separate product also adds a block of
new string capabilities. The two compiled files are now incompatible.
The same file cannot be used by both applications. This, of course, is
the potential problem of any system that allows source level
modifications.
By taking the standard terminfo file as a basis and then forking off
our own extensions into a separate database, a terminfo library entry
can always be moved by decompiling and recompiling it. In most cases,
the compiled item can be moved.
With our use of terminfo on a growing range of platforms it is
inevitable that we will encounter situations where this clash of
implementations appears. What we have done is to retain the excellent
mechanism of terminfo but use a separate library. We haven't so much
reinvented the wheel as changed the tyre.
Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems.
Martin
We are aware that it has some problems and it is likely that we will
adopt the more widely used ZIP format in future.
Re the virus checking problem, certainly the virus checker that we use
scans the items as they are unpacked so this is no less secure than the
ZIP approach. I would be surprised if any good realtime virus checker
did not do the same.
Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems.
Thomas Dickey
> Not quite true. QM will continue to use exactly the same code (with due
> acknowledgement to the author) but will use a separate terminfo
> library. The issue here is simple and, whilst the details are
> different, is the same issue and solution as chosen by VMark when they
> implemented UniVerse....
UniVerse is a different issue (it used features which were not standard
15 years ago).
> We need to add some new terminfo entries that are not part of the
> standard set. As soon as we do this, we open up possibilities of
Is that new "entries" or "capabilities". For either, ncurses does that
without requiring one to modify the library. Adding custom capabilities
has been a feature since 5.0
> incompatibility. Let's say that we add a block of new string
> capabilities. Another, totally separate product also adds a block of
> new string capabilities. The two compiled files are now incompatible.
It's unclear why they are incompatible. Some discussion at this point
would help.
> The same file cannot be used by both applications. This, of course, is
> the potential problem of any system that allows source level
> modifications.
> By taking the standard terminfo file as a basis and then forking off
> our own extensions into a separate database, a terminfo library entry
> can always be moved by decompiling and recompiling it. In most cases,
> the compiled item can be moved.
Other than references to initialiation files, e.g., tabset, there aren't
any reasons why a compiled terminfo file cannot be moved.
Tony Gravagno
Please forgive a "fork" (pun intended) of the main discussion, but I
thought the idea of open source was to make changes and then provide
them back to the source so that everyone can benefit. Why is it that
these core libraries received enhancements 15 years ago and it was
considered a fork and not a contribution - and now the exact same
thing is being done with similar code? I don't do ncurses or terminfo
development so at one level feel free to say I don't have a clue, but
at another level it seems this open source concept falls apart if
everyone starts to believe that their code is so special that it
requires a fork.
Maybe same thing another way: The business case for open source is
that there is supposed to be a world of people out there who can fix
and enhance the code should it be necessary. Don't major forks defeat
that purpose? Outside of the fact that the source is free (liberty)
for changes like that to happen, if someone really wants and needs
such a change, there is nothing free (beer) about the fact that some
skilled technician needs to learn the forked nuances before making a
tweek. We can always hope that the said technician is going to be a
generous contributor of free (beer) time to the open source cause, but
there are no guarantees there. At what point is an open source fork
as bad as proprietary code?
A fork also means that libs and fixes which integrate with the
standard package "may" not integrate with the fork, so users of the
fork need to decide if they want the features that the rest of the
world is using (now possibly/probably at a cost) or if they can do
without. With software as old as that being discussed, maybe this
isn't a concern. I'm questioning the general principle of the thing,
and again please feel free to tell me I don't have a clue - but I hope
to see a clueful answer anyway. :)
Thank you kindly.
Tony
Martin
to be uploaded on the web site will ue WinZip format.
Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems
Martin
we get to. We will publish the final outcome on this list.
Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems.
Bruce Nichol
On 24 Jan 2005 01:29:39 -0800, "Martin" <m...@ladybridge.com> wrote:
>We chose SXA zip because we had used it for other software in the past.
>We are aware that it has some problems and it is likely that we will
>adopt the more widely used ZIP format in future.
Oh no! Now you're going to take the fun out of upgrades!!!
Please don't do it until I work out the firing order!!!
Regards,
Bruce Nichol
Talon Computer Services
ALBURY NSW Australia
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is....