JSB Computer Systems Ltd of Macclesfield in Cheshire – a long term advocate of windowing systems that don’t require expensive graphics terminals – has made its first nod towards the X Window System by licensing technology from IXI Ltd of Cambridge. JSB’s MultiView DeskTerm product incorporates IXI’s X.deskterm, which is designed to enable character-based applications to be quickly adapted to run under X Window-based graphical user interfaces such as OSF/Motif. Using the Deskterm technology, JSB will extend the product to include support for Microsoft Corp Windows 3 user interfaces running on personal computers – enabling it to offer application developers and users the choice of dumb terminals, personal computers or X-terminals for the user interface, independently of the application. Software needs only simple modifications to use the Deskterm protocol directly, according to the two companies, or alternatively an English-like script language can be used via the Soft Option product from IXI’s neighbouring software house Cambridge Connectivity Ltd. Work on the Microsoft Windows version should be completed early next year, and JSB is hoping that Uniplex Ltd, which currently takes X.deskterm from IXI, will also include its Windows 3 extensions with the Uniplex office automation suite. JSB Computer, which has won numerous worldwide bundling deals for its JSB Multiview products, plans to unveil its full strategy at the next UniForum show in early January.
