FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., Announces Release of BASh v1.5.6

Vero Beach, FL – Wednesday, May 16th, 2001: Deep Sky Technologies,
Inc., today announced the release of BASh v1.5.6 for Macintosh and
Windows. BASh is a 4th Dimension component which provides extensive
utility functionality for 4D programmers, including a dynamic stack
space module for reusing variable space, encoding and cryptography
routines, and much, much more.

BASh is the first 4D component publicly available after the release of
4D v6.7.0 by 4D, Inc., and 4D SA. And, in keeping with the tradition
of offering high quality and services, Deep Sky Technologies, Inc.,
has made the BASh component available for free to the developer
community.

“This latest release of the BASh component is important for DSTi”,
said Steven G. Willis, President, Deep Sky Technologies, Inc. “Version
1.5.6 includes the final core routines and bug fixes needed for our
next software offerings. It is exciting to be at a point to be able
to begin offering high quality code solutions to 4D developers around
the world.”

BASh v1.5.6 contains important bug fixes and one new method. All
total, the BASh component now consists of 223 methods across 22
modules of code. As well, this is the first release of the BASh
component that includes the documentation module, z_Library, as a
separate 4D Insider library.

Developers Everywhere are Talking

“4D should put BASh in the box with 4D. This free component provides
dozens of utility routines every 4D programmer is likely to need. I
particularly appreciate that many of the most common, and tedious,
conversion tasks are handled so gracefully. The dynamic variable
assignment module is worth the price of the component alone! This code
eliminates one of the 4D languages limits while treading lightly on
RAM. Thanks to Deep Sky for their generosity in writing and upgrading
this great tool. I’ve never gotten a 250 page manual with a free
developer tool before.”

– David Adams, Island Data Management
Kailua, HI
dpadams@island-data.com, 20010215

“… the DSS part looks real cool and there’s more than that in [BASh]
which saves me from trying to wrap up my own versions of similar
nature nicely…”

– Mark Mitchenall, Mitchenall.COM
London, England
mark@mitchenall.com, 20001211

“I have been using the DSS module for some time now. It’s rock solid
code. The ability to use the DSS module to implement a type of ‘pointer
to local variable’, makes programming 4D more intuitive and flexible.
Combine DSS with ObjectTools and you have a very powerful solution to
handle all those AreaList Pro objects in your database. And now it’s
bundled with a bunch of other useful stuff. So why not do yourself a
favour, install BASh. You’ll thank yourself for it, I guarantee it.”

– Phillip Hall, Sapphire Software Pty. Limited
Redfern, New South Wales, Australia
phillip@sapphire.com.au, 20001123

“Even if you only use the variable management system (DSS), this
component will allow you to structure your code as never before. This
and the other modules provided in BASh will provide even experienced
developers with features that they would have been using for years if
only they had been able to invest their time in the coding effort. Most
of us have not.”

– John Macrae, C4i Limited
Forncett St. Peter, Norwich, England
jmacrae@c4i.com, 20001127

Features in the BASh component

The BASh component consists of many different modules of methods which
provide extensive utility services in 4th Dimension applications. The
list of modules currently available in the BASh component is:

ARR – Array sizing, management, and manipulation methods;
BLOB – BLOB management and manipulation methods;
CODEC – encoding and decoding support for common formats;
CONV – conversion methods to handle data and type conversions;
CRYPT – encryption and decryption routines;
DATE – provides basic date manipulation routines;
DSS – Dynamic Stack Space; reusable variable management system;
DTS – Date-Time Stamps; generation and manipulation methods;
ENV – environmental information (program, OS, CPU, etc.);
FILE – path and file name utilities;
INIT – module and component initialization;
NULL – Variable clearing and initialization methods;
NVP – named value pair utilities and management;
PROS – process information accessors;
# RES – resource management and utility methods;
SEM – Semaphore management methods;
SERNO – serial number generation and confirmation methods;
STR – string manipulation, formatting, and filtering methods;
TIME – Time manipulation methods;
TYPE – Variable type comparison methods;
VAR – Variable utility methods.
WORD – manipulators for non-native four-byte values.

* – new to the latest release of BASh
# – expanded within the latest release of BASh

New Features in v1.5.6

Version 1.5.6 of the BASh component contains important bug fixes for
which can affect Windows deployment. As well, issues related to
non-existent resource forks have been addressed in this release.

BASh v1.5.6 is the first version to contain a copy of the z_Library, a
4D Insider library. The z_Library provides complete developer
documentation conventions, including full method templates, for
immediate use in your 4D projects.

Version 1.5.6 also includes a new Affix BASh document for placement in
the 4DX folder. The Affix BASh document contains all of the data and
resources necessary for the BASh component to operate seemlessly in
all 4D projects.

4D Pack, the plugin available from 4D, Inc., and 4D SA, is now a part
of the BASh component. Macintosh and Windows versions of 4D Pack
v6.7.1 have been included with the BASh component archive for ease of
installation into all 4D projects.

All of the new methods within the BASh v1.5.6 release are readily
upgradeable for current users of BASh. There are no changes required
in existing code to begin using the new version of BASh.

Pricing and Availability

The BASh component is officially released as peepware. For those
unfamiliar with peepware, it is similar to postcardware except that
Marshmallow Peeps (more information about Marshmallow Peeps available at
http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/ ) are requested from those developers
that find the BASh component to be useful in their 4th Dimension
projects.

The BASh component can be downloaded by following the Downloads link on
the Deep Sky Technologies, Inc., web site, located at:

http://www.deepskytech.com/

The BASh component can also be found by following the Freeware link on
the 4D Zine web site and searching for “BASh”. The 4D Zine web site can
be found at:

http://www.4dzine.com/

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/ .

For more information contact:

Steven G. Willis
President, Deep Sky Technologies, Inc.
sgwillis@deepskytech.com
http://www.deepskytech.com/
(561) 794-9494