AIS Software, the software development division of BL/AIS has announced Release 3.1 of Balise.
Balise is an SGML processing software which supports both event-driven and tree-based approaches to SGML transformation processes. The Balise language is as close to C/C++ as it can be, within the requirements of an SGML-aware, interpreted language with automatic memory management. Similar to Java, the Balise language makes Balise programs integrally portable through all supported platforms without the need to distribute source code.
The Balise development environment also includes the Balise Software Developer's Kit, a C/C++ level API to the Balise system which provides a means for extending the language, interfacing Balise with other software such as databases, or embedding the Balise engine as part of OEM software.
Supported platforms are 32-bit PCs (Extended DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT) and Unix machines (Sun SPARC/SUN-OS, Sun SPARC/Solaris, IBM RS6000/AIX, HP 9000/HP-UX, SGI/Irix, Intel/Solaris X86).
Release 3.1 introduces the new "plugin architecture" through which Balise can now be dynamically extended or interfaced with other software, for increased usefulness as an SGML middleware component. The Balise software itself and any extension/interfacing module are now organized in a set of dynamic libraries (DLLs under Windows, shared libraries on Unix platforms).
Release 3.1 comes with a new documentation set which is delivered both in paper format and several hypertext-rich electronic formats, i.e., SGML with DynaText(TM) style sheets, HTML and PDF. It also provides minor enhancements and bug fixes.
The release date for Balise 3.1 is 15th November 1996.
AIS Software also introduce "Balise ODBC Gateway for Windows", the first in a series of commercially available Balise plugins.
The Balise ODBC Gateway provides direct communication between the Balise engine and major commercial relational databases supporting ODBC drivers. Relational database tables can be accessed, created and updated from within a Balise program, which allows all kinds of information exchange between RDBMS and active SGML documents.
The Balise plugin is to be released simultaneously with Balise 3.1.
For more information contact:
Xavier Dejoie
AIS Software
92200 Neuilly/seine
France
Tel: +33 1 46 40 84 00
Fax: +33 1 46 40 84 10
Email: balise@ais.berger-levrault.fr
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
