VISTA has Arrived

February 2, 2007 – Well I’m sure you have all heard by now that Microsoft has released their latest operating system offering – Windows Vista. This new system has been a long time coming and includes significant new features for the user. With any new software product, also comes a completely new set of issues that we in the computer business need to deal with.

In order to help you prepare for the fact that soon all new computers will likely be shipping with Vista, we have made our Vista compatible version of PxPlus openly available in Beta form.

Why Beta form you might ask? We would like to give you the opportunity to start testing Vista with your own application, while we work on the documentation. Even though we have tested the product thoroughly, it is impossible for us to know and test for every possible scenario that our dealer community might throw at the software. Your testing will help ensure that any remaining issues are corrected prior to making a final release. Assuming all goes well, our target for the final release is mid February, which should be in plenty of time to allow for early adopters of Vista.

As for problems that have been reported when running prior PxPlus/ProvideX versions on Vista, there are a few. Two, in particular, that could affect a number of clients. An old issue with child windows has re-surfaced, that is, when using a 'Window' with an input field (MULTI_LINE) the system will not allow the user to set focus or highlight the data using the mouse. This problem originally surfaced back in the Windows 2000 days at which point a solution was found. Unfortunately, that solution doesn't work in Vista so we had to develop a new one.

The second issue has to do with the use of 'Virtual Stores', which are enabled by default on Vista. For those of you not familiar with the 'Virtual Store' concept, it is a great feature but, if not handled properly, can cause major headaches. What Virtual Store allows the system to do is protect operating system files (such as those found in the Program Files and Windows directories) from updates by end users. Whenever an end user updates and changes a file in either of these directories, the system makes a private copy for the user and uses that copy transparently instead of the primary system copy. This prevents users from updating critical system files in a manner that could comprise system security or reliability.

Unfortunately, there are a number of important PxPlus/ProvideX files that are impacted by the use of Virtual Stores so that using prior versions of PxPlus/ProvideX on Vista can cause problems. While these problems can be avoided by disabling the Virtual Store feature, this may compromise system security. Our Vista compatible build of PxPlus addresses this issue.

One great advantage that our approach to Virtual Stores provides is that all "user specific" information, such as, WindX configuration and the INI files for windows, editor, and Nomads settings are all automatically maintained by user. This allows a system shared by multiple users to have user specific settings for each.

IT is Reborn

For those of you who have long suffered with various ways to edit and debug Business Basic programs, have we got a tool for you. 'C' programmers have tools like Microsoft Visual Studio, Java programmers have Eclipse. Now IT is packed with a whole new set of tricks and features to make your life easier and programming fun again.

Some of the new features include:

• Remote debugging with trace, breakpoints, call stack, watch values, and file list
• Program Synopsis window with dynamic contents showing variables, labels, functions, etc.
• Public and Private Workspaces to better manage your work
• Direct access to Nomads libraries
• Support of Program libraries
• Built-in macro text libraries with ability to assign Hot keys to insert custom text values
• Split screen with "SIZER' controls for a better User Interface

We have included so much with this edition of *it that we decided a new name was in order. Thus, the "Integrated Toolkit" was born or IT for short. A new name, but still just as easy to remember.

Click here to visit our web site and view all the features, as well as, a variety of tutorials on the new IT.

IT is back

IT is better than ever

IT is what you have been waiting for

.....and IT is only from

PVX Plus Technologies

See our Online Services section to get your copy of the
Vista compatible beta with the Integrated Toolkit