Allegiant releases Roadster for Windows.SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 1996-- New Roadster plug-in now provides cross-platform playback of high-performance multimedia applications on the World Wide Web Allegiant Technologies Inc. Wednesday announced availability of the first Windows public beta of Roadster, its revolutionary new Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. plug-in for delivering interactive multimedia applications over the Internet. Roadster points the way to a new paradigm New Paradigm In the investing world, a totally new way of doing things that has a huge effect on business. Notes: The word "paradigm" is defined as a pattern or model, and it has been used in science to refer to a theoretical framework. of compelling Web development, one that sidesteps the need for complex HTML HTML in full HyperText Markup Language Markup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for documents on the World Wide Web. documents, Java applets and multiple plug-ins. By providing developers with its mature, award-winning SuperCard authoring tool, updated with new Web authoring features, and a means to play back multimedia projects over the World Wide Web utilizing Roadster, Allegiant has significantly lowered the barriers to entry for getting media-rich, highly interactive content and courseware on the Web. "With the extensive capabilities of SuperTalk, SuperCard's scripting language A high-level programming, or command, language that is interpreted (translated on the fly) rather than compiled ahead of time. A scripting, or script, language may be a general-purpose programming language or it may be limited to specific functions used to augment the running of an , you can build applications that rival Java applets at a fraction of the time and cost," said Sean Baird, product manager for Roadster. "To deliver content for Roadster, you work with the same media content and scripts used for delivering desktop applications in SuperCard," Baird added. The Roadster for Windows announcement arrives just ahead of the upcoming release of SuperCard 3.0, which will be the first major authoring tool to integrate Web authoring capabilities into its core application feature set. The Roadster for Macintosh plug-in, available since August on Allegiant's Web site, has already been used to deploy numerous unique entertainment and business applications. Because Roadster supports a full multimedia application development environment, developers can deliver complete applications within a single plug-in. Roadster is based on Allegiant's well-respected SuperCard authoring tool, and provides the most complete and flexible environment for authoring multimedia applications on the Web. This includes support for bitmapped and vector graphics The representation of a digital image as points, lines and other geometric entities. All computer-aided design (CAD), drawing and diagramming programs create vector graphics formats, such as AI, DXF and WMF (see graphics formats). , text, animation, sound and QuickTime video. These media types can either be native objects within a Roadster project or external media on the Internet or CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). . Roadster also gives developers unprecedented script control over loading and caching media, thus maximizing the use of scarce bandwidth. Rather than requiring viewers to wait while an entire project downloads, as do other plug-ins, Roadster lets developers provide a simple start-up interface, or "shell," and stream additional data in the background as bandwidth allows. "The fact that a Roadster project can access both Internet media and local media at the same time is a very big feature and benefit," said Paul Hibbetts of Republic Software Design. "I built a `Virtual Plant Library' using SuperCard, and was worried about the speed of loading the graphics environment (over the Internet). With Roadster, I can have the environment shipped out on a CD-ROM, and rely upon the downloaded Roadster project to load all the really big media locally. "The Internet is then used for supplying the smaller `case- specific' media. Allegiant's work with checking and accessing streaming media See streaming audio, streaming video and digital media hub. is really great," Hibbetts added. New features designed specifically for Roadster include: -- Script language enhancements to simulate different modem speeds, support for URLs for all path names and additions to the "Go" and "Open" commands to allow navigating to other Roadster projects or standard HTML Web pages, and more. -- New graphic file formats, including support for Internet standards JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. and GIF GIF in full Graphics Interchange Format Standard computer file format for graphic images. GIF files use data compression to reduce the file size. The original version of the format was developed by CompuServe in 1987. , as well as BMP (1) (BitMaP) Also known as a "bump" file, it is the native, bitmapped graphics format in Windows. A BMP can be saved in several color options: 1-, 4-, 8- and 24-bit color provide 2, 16, 256 and 16,000,000 colors respectively. BMP files use the .BMP or . and ART-compressed files. -- Rich text format Rich Text Format - (RTF) An interchange format from Microsoft for exchange of documents between Word and other document preparation systems. (RTF (Rich Text Format) A document format from Microsoft for encoding text and graphics. It was adapted from IBM's DCA format and supports ANSI, IBM PC and Macintosh character sets. ) import support to allow externalization The ability to easily connect to and transfer information between business partners. Increasingly, information systems are designed to make their data available to outside partners and customers. This type of collaboration is expected to be a vital part of IT in the 21st century. See EDI. of text information into SuperCard's fully editable text fields. Pricing and availability The Roadster plug-in for both Macintosh and Windows is available free of charge from Allegiant's Web site at http://www.allegiant.com/ About Allegiant Allegiant Technologies develops and markets innovative multimedia, Internet and application development software that empowers people to interactively educate, entertain, present and manage information. A White Paper that outlines the Allegiant's Internet strategies is available from the firm's Web site at http://www.allegiant.com/whitepaper/whitepaper.html Allegiant's flagship product, SuperCard 2.5, was recently honored with the 1995 MacUser Editors' Choice ("Eddy") award for "Best New Multimedia Authoring Application." Allegiant also publishes Allegiant Marionet, a highly rated script-level interface to the Internet that allows developers to integrate complete Internet protocol support inside most popular authoring tools and productivity applications. Marionet was recently licensed by Apple Computer to provide core capabilities for deploying custom Internet applications to serve their broad base of Internet users. CONTACT: Allegiant Technologies Inc., San Diego Kevin La Rue, 619/587-0500, ext. 106 619/587-1314 (fax) info@allegiant.com www.allegiant.com |
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