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Tue, 30 Jul 2002
Portraits & Prints Updated to Version 1.2
Oviedo, Florida -- July 30, 2002 -- Portraits & Printsü, the personal photo
studio for Mac OS X, gets updated with several new features. This update
comes packed with more advanced cropping features, several photo scaling
options, full Applescript support, and contrast control including the
ability to apply enhancements to multiple images at once.
Complete control over cropping is realized with two new features. Crops can
now be drawn while maintaining aspect ratio using the new úConstraintî
feature. Furthermore, the new úPresetî crop feature enables you to create
crops of any combination of size, position, aspect ratio and save them for
future use on other photos. These features make it very easy to crop large
batches of photos and maintain the aspect ratio.
A contrast setting was added to the enhancement tool set which already
included brightness, sharpness and saturation. Portraits & Prints now has
the ability to create settings using all four tools and then add them to a
pop-up list for use anytime. Create your own or use the set of commonly used
enhancements already provided.
Photos can now be scaled for printing in three different ways. They can be
auto-cropped, fitted proportionally, or stretched to fit giving complete
flexibility in printing photos.
Portraits & Prints continues to improve and was recently named in the
following publications: iPhoto: The Missing Manual by David Pogue, Joseph
Schorr, & Derrick Story, iPhoto 1.1 for Mac OS X by Adam Engst, and The
Macintosh Digital Hub by Jim Heid. These publications cited Portraits &
Prints as a great companion application to iPhoto. Go to
www.econtechnologies.com, try the demo, and find out for yourself what all
the hype is about.
Purchase Portraits & Prints for $20.00 and its companion Portraits & Prints
Template Maker for $10.00 online at the Econ Technologies, Inc. web site
(http://www.econtechnologies.com). Free demo versions are available for
download. For more information on Portraits & Prints, Portraits & Prints
Template Maker, and Econ Technologies, please contact Joseph Japes at
407-365-4209 or at jjapes@econtechnologies.com.
Fix Up 4D v1.0.1
Free Product Now Compatible with 4D v6.7.4
Vero Beach, FL - Tuesday, July 30th, 2002: Deep Sky Technologies, Inc.,
today announced the release of Fix Up 4D (FU4D) v1.0.1 for Macintosh and
Windows. FU4D is a set of 4D extensions which enhance, improve, and correct
the 4th Dimension development and runtime environment. 4D extensions allow
for the actual 4D environment to be patched, repaired, and improved. FU4D
provides a comprehensive basis of individual improvements to the 4D
environment which all 4D developers can take advantage of immediately.
The documents included in the FU4D package all work independently of each
other and there is no requirement that any combination of them be used at
any time. This makes it simple for the developer to choose which
improvements in particular benefit development and only install the 4D
extension documents in FU4D package which are most useful.
Installing the FU4D package is exceedingly simple. Just drag the items in
the 4D Extensions folder within the FU4D archive into the 4D Extensions
folder next to your current 4D application. Do not replace the 4D
Extensions folder, only add the items in the FU4D archive to the items
already in your existing 4D Extensions folder. If you are using any
previous versions of the FU4D package, remove those items from your 4D
Extensions folder. FU4D works with both 4th Dimension and 4D Client, as
long as the FU4D documents are in the 4D Extensions folder next to the
currently running 4D based application.
You can learn more about FU4D and download the free software directly on
the Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., web site at:
http://www.deepskytech.com/prod_4dextensions/fu4d/
New in this Release
Fix Up 4D v1.0.1 is targetted merely for the 4th Dimension v6.7.4
product line. For no perceptible reason, the final release of 4D
v6.7.4 has most of the resource IDs of the internal forms used in the
4D environment increased by one. The only apparent reason for this is
to break the functionality provided for in Fix Up 4D v1.0.0.
FU4D v1.0.1, this release, has the sole change of bringing the
resource IDs back in agreement between the forms in FU4D and 4D
v6.7.4.
For this reason, if you continue to run any 4D product in the v6.7.x
product line which is v6.7.3 or below, you should continue to use FU4D
v1.0.0.
If you are running any 4D product of v6.7.4, you should use FU4D
v1.0.1.
Developers Everywhere are Talking
"Great initiative. I am looking for the doc. on how to do it myself!"
- Jim Dorrance, jim@dorrance.net
June 26th, 2002
"I'm really excited about Fix Up 4D. It's really cool. I attended
Thibaud's session at the last summit on hacking 4D, but I never took
the time to actually go in and do some hacking on my own. Now I'm
inspired. Any cool hacks I come up with, I'll let you know."
- Tim Nevels, timnevels@sunflower.com
Innovative Solutions
June 26th, 2002
"Hey, thanks you guys at Deep Sky, these are great little additions to
4D..."
- Peter Hay, peter@foreground.co.nz
Managing Director, Foreground Software Ltd.
June 25th, 2002
"This is great! Thanks for making it available."
- David Lieb, david_lieb@post.harvard.edu
Harvard University
June 25th, 2002
"Thanks for Fix Up 4D..."
- Simon Wright, swright@knowledgesharing.com
Knowledge Sharing, Inc.
June 25th, 2002
"Great little toy... I am especially impressed with the patched global
Find dialog. 4D's own frustrates me all the time, since the dialog
defaults to 'Expression' which rarely works. I almost always use the
'All' option. Thanks for releasing FU4D as gift to the community.
Keep up the good work!"
- Adam Soos, adam@nskinc.com
NSK, Inc.
June 25th, 2002
"The ability to see your entire method name in the Explorer is reason
enough to use this tool. Like the other quality programmer tools,
you're going to wonder how you worked without it. We've asked 4D for
these features year after year, and Deep Sky has delivered for us."
- Justin Leavens, jleavens@lizeric.com
Lizeric, Inc.
June 21st, 2002
"And it ain't even April 1st..."
- Steve Hussey, shush@rockisland.com
Editor, Dimensions Magazine
June 22nd, 2002
"I love it!"
"FIND: The ability to call the main Find window by keypress, plus to
be able to sort the resulting "found" window (and close it by
keypress) are *very* welcome! For me, the only remaining "missing" bit
is a way to bring to the front a "found" window that has been covered
by another window."
"EXPLORER WINDOW: At last!!! The ability to completely see a full
length method name, instead of having to guess. The splitter is a
*very* welcome addition. I wonder if there is any way to get 4D to
remember the width set? (what do you mean "they're never satisfied!"
;-)"
"Keyboard access to the Database Structure window is a nice touch
also. FU4D solves some niggly shortcomings that have existed in the
Design enviroment for many years. I hope there are more gems like
these up your sleeves..."
- Keith Goebel, keith.g@clear.net.nz
June 22nd, 2002
"This extension will save tons of time for me every day! When I saw
how it was written in 4D and how quick he did it, I was wondering why
4DInc wouldn't make this more well known or release extensions that
enhance the developer experience. Everybody who uses 4D, should also
get FU4D."
- Michael Ginsberg, mike@mdg.com
President, MDG Computer Services, Inc.
June 21st, 2002
Features in the FU4D extensions
The different documents in the FU4D package allow the developer to
individually choose what functionality is to be improved in the 4D
environment. The following is a listing of all of the documents in the FU4D
package and the enhancements that each provides to the 4D environment:
FU4D_Explorer.4XR:
* Vertical splitter has been added next to hierarchical listing;
* Object method added to twiddle to allow for proper resizing of collapsing
form with respect to the new splitter;
FU4D_Find.4XR:
* Enterable area has been widened to more easily accommodate longer search
strings; the wrapping of longer search strings now occurs at approximately
40 characters instead of the default 25 characters;
* Form has been widened to accommodate widened enterable area;
* Popup selection defaults to All when form opens; this is obviously the
most used option in the Find form;
* Previous search string is selected when form opens; no more need to
select the previous search results by selecting the text, instead developer
can just start typing to replace the selected search string;
* Get Frontmost Window Name button added just to the left of the enterable
area; this puts the name of the current frontmost window into the enterable
search area; great for doing searches throughout structure when currently
editting a method or form;
FU4D_Find_Results.4XR:
* Sort button added to top of form allows search results to be sorted; the
sorting of the search results is done alphabetically from the result names
found;
FU4D_Menus.4XR:
* Command-W is no longer the default Flush Buffers catch; it is now Command-' ;
* Method Properties... menu item is available with Command-; keyboard
equivalent;
* Form Properties... menu item is available with Command-; keyboard equivalent;
* Find... menu item is available with Command-I keyboard equivalent;
NOTE: on Windows, all command key equivalents are available as Control key
equivalents.
Pricing and Availability
The FU4D package is available for free to all 4D developers worldwide.
There is no development or deployment costs or licenses of any kind with
this software package.
The FU4D package can be downloaded by following the Downloads link on the
Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., web site, located at:
http://www.deepskytech.com/
The FU4D package, in its current state, has not been tested for
compatibility with 4D v6.8.x. Full compatibility has been tested only with
4D v6.7.x. It is recommended at this time that FU4D be used only with 4D
v6.7.x.
In the near future, Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., will release a 4D v6.8.x
compatible version of the FU4D package.
About Deep Sky Technologies, Inc.
Based in Vero Beach, Florida, Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., provides
software development, consulting, hosting, and colocation services. Founded
in 1997, Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., develops and supports a wide variety
of software development tools and services to aid in the creation of custom
applications and web sites for the Macintosh and Windows platform. For more
information, please visit our web site at http://www.deepskytech.com/.
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