Just received this e-mail from Terry Wiechmann at ESI. It gives you some
more information about the future for MUMPS.... Since Terry is releasing
this much information it should be ok for me to pass it on.
-art
Arthur B. Smith
Principal Prog. Analyst Voice: 573-884-4516
W209 Vet. Med. Bldg Fax: 573-884-4496
1600 E. Rollins Rd. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Columbia, MO 65211 ICQ: 30211122
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Wiechmann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2000 11:36 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: EsiObjects Announcements
As some of you know ESI has decided to move its EsiObjects system under Open
Source licensing. Many of you have probably heard me state (once or twice?)
that our original goal in implementing a robust object layer on top of
standard M was to give the technology a future.
You may not know that recently a company (anonymous at this point until they
make the announcement) here in the United States (not InterSystems)
contributed their Linux MUMPS implementation to Open Source. ESI will be
entering a business relationship with this company. Without getting into the
details, here are the most important aspects of this relationship:
The donor has made all the sources to their implementations available to ESI
under the agreement.
ESI will become a Value Added Reseller of the donor's VMS implementation
which is *not* being put into Open Source.
Since we have already tested the implementation against EsiObjects, ESI's
immediate goal is to implement what 1995 standard features are needed to run
EsiObjects. All enhanced code that is applicable to the Linux Open Source
submission will be submitted to the Open Source (FreeM) base once the donor
makes its contribution - making it immediately available to the FreeM
contributors.
ESI's next goal will be to work with other contributors in getting the
implementation to some practical level of 1995 compliance.
I can't explain how personally excited I am about finally having the
opportunity to make a contribution back to the M community. I personally
feel that the generous contribution of the donor and their commitment to the
Open Source Initiative have destroyed all the barriers standing in the way
of a true rebirth of M Technology. Now it's up to the M community.
Consequently, ESI will vigorously apply its talented engineers (most of us
have implemented M systems) to the FreeM initiative to help make this
happen. However, make no mistake about our intentions, we are not here to
maintain the status quo. As far as ESI is concerned, this is only the first
step in moving M Technology to Object Technology. Beyond working on 95
compliance, we will apply our efforts to moving core EsiObjects
functionality to the system level. If you are interested in our vision,
please follow the Open Source link on our web site at
http://www.esitechnology.com.
What does this mean for the M community? You will have a choice again! From
a strictly Open Source perspective, you will be able to create a totally
free system based on Linux and EsiObjects (that will contain the M
implementation). Additionally, if you are a VMS or UNIX shop, you will also
be able to purchase the M implementation with the Open Source installed.
Also, for those of you who have been waiting for the new EsiObjects V4, we
will be making the Beta 2 version of that available for download from our
Web site within the next two weeks. We will make another announcement when
it is available.
Thank you for your interest. Remember, we welcome your comments.
Terry L. Wiechmann
ESI Technology Corporation
1-508-651-1400
http://www.esitechnology.com
