KIC E-News -- -Volume 2 Issue 4

July 3, 1998

K'nechtology Inc. respects your on-line time and Internet privacy. If you prefer not to receive any further issues of KIC E-News, simply reply to this message with the subject "remove" and add "your name" and "e-mail address" (that KIC E-News was sent to) in the body.

KIC E-News Summary

COMMENTARY:

E-Mail Adresses That Work

With the explosion of Internet use world-wide, many companies and individuals have tried to become creative with their e-mail address.

How many times have you seen strange, funny, unique e-mail id's only to wonder who is this person and why do I want to read their e-mail. Or even worse, it's in your e-mail address book and you don't remember who it belongs to amongst the other 30 "funny" addresses.

A typical e-mail address might be cooldude@whatever.com. What does this e-mail address tell you about the person, frankly, nothing at all. On receiving this e-mail one might assume it was junk mail and simply delete it before it is ever read.

So what does it take to have an e-mail address that works? Make sure the e-mail address says something about yourself that people actually know. This can include your name, initials, job title, etc.

Next, always be sure to use your e-mail program to the fullest and enter your real name so that it shows up on the “FROM” line in every e-mail you send. This will ensure that the receiver actually knows who the e-mail is from.

Finally, when publishing or giving out your e-mail address don’t assume that it’s easy to remember. Make sure to print it out using the correct upper and lower characters in a large enough and clear typeface. It only takes one small mistake “an extra period or wrong letter” for the e-mail to fail.

PRODUCT REVIEW

iNet Developer 3.1
COLABORATIVE INTRATNET DEVELOPMENT MADE EASY

Supplier: Pictorius Incorporated, Halifax NS
Price: $1,995
Platform: Windows 95 / NT 4.0 & Macintosh System 7.5.3 & Macintosh (iNet Developer 1.0)
Web Site: www.pictorius.com
Pros:

  • No need to learn HTML
  • Group connectivity & security
  • Supports DHTML
  • Imports existing HTML code
    Cons:
  • Poor documentation
    Use: Intranet development
    Audience: Integrated web development teams.
    Installation:
  • No problems on both a Windows 95 environment and NT 4.0
  • Integrated completely into a variety of web servers.
    The Product: “iNet Developer” is composed of these elements:
  • the site editor
  • the development environment
  • iNet server environment
  • Prograph (not evaluated)

    The Site Editor
    The site editor serves as the Intranet site’s development and production security control panel. The site administrator can grant everything from view only (used for the approval process) to full read/write privileges to any page, directory or the complete site. This utility was simple to use and extremely powerful.

    The Development Environment
    The development environment separates “iNet Developer” from basic visual HTML editors. What's hard to understand is that “there is no more need to know HTML”. “iNet Developer” uses a simple creation area. Simply by dragging and dropping elements on to the page, elements can be arranged anywhere on the screen and if desired aligned to a predefined grid.

    Elements include:
    * the traditional HTML form elements
    * text boxes and graphics,
    * scripts and Java Applets

    There is a slight learning curve, since you need to forget how you used to create something with HTML. HTML code items such as “order lists” and standardized commands (i.e. the HTML "center" command) are not available. This was far from a hindrance as “iNet Developer” supports a wider choice of design utilities and precision positioning of design elements.

    Once the shackles of HTML were shrugged-off creativity abounded and didn’t stop with the page layout. Pictorius includes the ability to incorporate any ODBC compliant database easily into the web.

    As with many higher-end web page development tools, “iNet Developer” allows the use of standardized page information such as headers and footers. This feature allows the layout artist to create a truly effective page template, and allows the content providers to provide content.

    One of the problems collaborative efforts have is “synchronization”. “iNet Developer” ensures that only one developer has access to a particular page at any time. Warnings are given that the page is in use and the developer is simply locked out.

    INet Server Environment
    Through its sever environment “iNet Developer” customizes and optimizes all designs into HTML for any web browser on the fly. “iNet Developer” accomplishes this by first evaluating the browser being used and then generating the appropriate browser specific code to ensure that each page looks virtually the same in any browser. This feature frees the development team from testing each page with a variety of browsers and eliminates the need for multiple designs of a page to meet browser specific requirements.

    During testing “iNet Developer” delivered web pages quickly and accurately to both Netscape 3 and 4 and Internet Explorer 3 and 4.

    Prograph “iNet Developer” ships with a utility called “Prograph”. Prograph is a visual programming language designed for object-oriented programming. With this module scripts can be written to extend the server’s functionality including adding a behavior to a clickable object or database connectivity.

    Due to time constraints, this module was not tested. It is important to note that “iNet Developer” allows other methods for extending the servers’ functionality, these include Java, C++, or Visual Basic.

    Documentation
    This is the weakest area of the “iNet Developer”. As with many software packages on the market, “iNet Developer” has chosen to reduce the amount of printing and has placed virtually all of the documentation in PDF format on the software CD.

    While well written, the documentation contained on the CD was difficult if not impossible to use without first printing it out.

    Overall, Pictorius has delivered with “iNet Developer” a robust product well suited to any collaborate Intranet development environment. Additionally, this product provides a viable solution to any environment where the web browsers in use span several brands and versions.

    UNDER REVIEW

    K'nechtology Inc. has completed or is currently reviewing the following software products, be sure to look for the next issue of KIC E-News for more reviews.
    • Emblaze Web Charger by GEO – Final marks 3.5 out 5
    • Emblaze Hot Spots by GEO – Final marks 2.5 out 5
    • Live Picture’s Reality Studio – Preliminary marks 4.0 out of 5
    For more information on any topic covered in KIC E-News or if you have a product you would like to see reviewed, please e-mail us at answers@knechtology.com or by telephone at 416.855.6351.

    Please feel free to circulate KIC E-News to your friends and colleagues. Commentary is always welcomed and should be directed to answers@knechtology.com.

    If you would like to find out more about K'nechtology Inc. please visit our web site at www.knechtology.com.