Marketing

Rev: ANNOUNCE_0.5:1.1

ANNOUNCE_0.5

+Pike 0.5b
+
+Pike 0.5 is now available for public beta testing, though
+unfortunately a bit crippled. Unfortunately, we are not able to supply the
+cryptographic toolkit and the full library of algorithms, due to Swedish
+export restrictions. However an application is being processed by the
+the authorities and as soon as we get an export license we will
+make an updated distribution available. However, this document is a
+brief presentation of the major characteristics of Pike 0.5.
+
+In spite of its youth, Pike has matured over the last few years and
+the coordination of the development is now managed by a team at Idonex
+AB. Still, Pike is released under the GNU General Public License
+(GPL), and is freely distributed and will continue being so. In short,
+this means that you are free to use and modify the source code in any
+way you please, see the file COPYING for details. Though, Idonex
+maintains the right to the brand name and the copyright, which is a
+guarantee that Pike future will be continuously developed and enhanced
+and to remain free software.
+
+Pike is an easy programming language to learn. Just as easily Pike
+lets you develop powerful applications. Pike is designed to be useful
+and powerful. As the syntax of Pike is similar to C, most programmers
+will find it easy to use. Being a a high-level, interpreted and
+modular object-oriented language, powerful applications can be
+developed rapidly. Pike has evolved rather than been designed. The
+changes to Pike that have been made have been guided by its users'
+needs. In general, the better you get to know Pike, the better you
+will appreciate it, from a user's perspective.
+
+Pike is just as suitable for intricate and large applications as for
+creating use-once scripts. When needed, you can also write
+Pike-modules in C, to gain better performance or access C
+libraries. This is transparent to the module's users; the modules
+written in C and those written in Pike are accessed in exactly the
+same way.
+
+Pike comes with 0.5 comes a comprehensive manual, including both a
+tutorial and a reference. This will help you to quickly get the most
+out of Pike. A concise list of characteristics, or pros, of Pike:
+
+        + General Purpose Programming Language 
+	+ Freely distributed under the GPL
+        + Interpreted - No compilation and linking needed to run code
+        + Object Oriented - Straightforward and powerful object
+	  orientation, including multiple inheritance
+        + Modular - Extendible with modules written in C or Pike
+        + Powerful - High-level language, concise code
+        + Incremental - Allows on-the-fly modifications and recompilations
+        + Source Code Available - To promote sharing of useful code
+        + Portable - Platform independent and available on most flavors of Unix
+	  At present the following platforms are supported:
+	  
+	     Solaris 2.5 & 2.6 (Sun SPARC & Intel x86) 
+             Digital UNIX 4.0 
+             AIX 4.2.1
+             IRIX 6.3 
+             SCO UnixWare 
+             FreeBSD 2.2.2 
+             HP-UX 10.20 
+             Linux Red Hat 4.2 (Intel x86) 
+
+        + Powerful, Flexible and Efficient Data Types
+        + Automatic Memory Management
+        + Scalable - as useful for small scripts as for powerful and
+	  complex applications.
+        + Text Processing - e.g. for filtering
+        + Exception Handling
+        + Multi-Threaded Application Development Possible
+
+How Pike relates to other programming languages:
+	
+        + Optimized - Faster run-times than Perl, Python, tcl and Java
+        + Faster Development than in C or C++
+        + C-like Syntax - Easy to learn
+
+Below you will find a list of some desired but missing features, or
+cons, of Pike. As indicated by the version number 0.5, Pike is still
+under development and the goal is to incorporate those in future
+versions.
+
+        - No Pike native compiler or debugger available
+        - Limited image format import and export support
+        - Not optimal for heavy numeric processing jobs
+        - Not for GUI based applications
+        - Limited range special effect image filters for image processing
+
+
+Some successful applications using Pike include:
+
+        + Network Applications - as Client/Server applications
+          e.g. the Roxen Challenger Server and a range of server extensions
+	       Mail Gateways
+	       Client/server Protocol Implementations
+	       Multi-User-Dungeons
+        + System Administration Tools & Utilities - Even as quick one-shots
+	  e.g. adduser or adddomain scripts that setup users/domains 
+	       Real-time Client/Server Status Monitor
+	+ Assorted Text Processing Utilities 
+        + CGI Programs
+
+Pike is distributed with a set of modules that, some of whicha are
+described below.
+
+
+Image - Image Processing Module
+
+The Image module lets you perform common image manipulation and
+processing operations from Pike programs. The supported operations
+include cut and paste, scaling, rotation, linear filtering of most
+kinds, rendering text, etc. All drawing uses anti-alias. Using the
+Image module, you can automate jobs that you would otherwise have
+required tedious work in an interactive image processing program such
+as Adobe PhotoShop.
+
+Currently, the only input format is ppm. Output formats are ppm and
+gif.
+
+
+Sql - Interface to SQL Databases 
+
+The SQL interface makes it possible to use common SQL databases from
+within your applications. It includes support for mSQL, MySQL and
+Postgres. 
+
+
+MIME - Multimedia Internet Mail Extension Module
+
+This module makes it easy to create and decode e-mails, including
+attachments. 
+
+
+Gz - Data Compression Module
+
+With this module you can compress data. It's name is a little
+misleading, as it uses ZLIB. ZLIB uses the same compression algorithm
+as gzip, but the format for the compressed data is not compatible with
+gzip.
+
+
+Crypto - Cryptographic Toolkit
+
+The crypto toolkit is a set of objects implementing various
+cryptographic algorithms, as well as objects used to glue the other
+objects together. The toolkit includes block ciphers IDEA, DES
+(includng tripple DES) and CAST, the RC4 stream cipher, the hash
+functions MD5 and SHA, and the public key cryptography algoritm
+RSA. It also includes a some randomness sources.
+
+The toolkit can be used for most kinds of cryptographic applications,
+including encrypted network connections, as well as encryption of
+files or other data. 
+
+Unfortunately, the cryptograpy toolkit in this release has been
+stripped of all real cryptography. It includes only the hash functions
+and the glue objects. The full cryptographic toolkit will be released
+as soon as the export issues have been resolved.
+
+