O'REILLY & ASSOCIATES LAUNCHES DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT (DCE)
SERIES

Sebastopol, CA -- October 12, 1992 -- The Distributed Computing Environment
(DCE) from the Open Software Foundation (OSF) has engendered a growing
demand, throughout the computer field and the general business world, for
explanations of the technology and what it can accomplish. O'Reilly &
Associates, publishers of the Nutshell Handbooks and the definitive X
Windows System series, are meeting this need through a new series of books
on DCE.

Two have just been published: UNDERSTANDING DCE and GUIDE TO WRITING DCE
APPLICATIONS. For 1993, subject to market demand, we are planning books on
system administration and advanced programming topics.

"O'Reilly & Associates is making a major publishing commitment to this
emerging technology," said the series' editor Andy Oram. "The series will
grow along with the readership -- as the applications become more
ambitious and complex, we will keep pace with books that programmers,
administrators, and users can rely upon."

UNDERSTANDING DCE

Understanding DCE is a technical and conceptual overview of DCE for all
whose lives may be affected by this new technology: purchasers,
programmers, technical managers, sales and marketing staff, and computer
system administrators. People in direct contact with DCE will find this
book an almost indispendable preparation for the more narrowly-focused
vendor documentation, as well as the books that follow in the O'Reilly
series.

The book emerged from a collaboration between O'Reilly & Associates and
three writers from Digital Equipment Corporation: Ward Rosenberry, who led
their DCE documentation project; David Kenney, who intensively studied DCE
and wrote significant sections of the guides; and Gerry Fisher, a software
technical writing supervisor in the distributed-computing area.

Understanding DCE is organized into three parts. The first part examines
the architecture and components of DCE, showing how each component
contributes to the overall goals. The second part presents general
configuration and management considerations that new DCE administrators
have to face, including the problems of mapping their configuration to the
needs of their organization, and dividing responsibilities among different
administrative staff. The final part includes a sample DCE application,
answers to common questions from new users, and other subsidiary
materials.

FOR PROGRAMMERS: GUIDE TO WRITING DCE APPLICATIONS

For programmers who are considering DCE applications, O'Reilly has
publihsed GUIDE TO WRITING DCE APPLICATIONS by John Shirley. Like
Understanding DCE, this book was developed in a cooperative effort between
Digital and O'Reilly. It features small, working applications, and a
careful step-by-step introduction to concepts, so that programmers new to
DCE can start writing real servers and clients.

"The programmer writing her first DCE application will find this book the
perfect resource," sadi Oram. "The idea is to get the programmer up and
running with working examples of client/server applications, and to
provide a comprehensive model for the development of distributed
applications."

DCE's GOALS

The expectations behind for DCE have always been ambitious. Its overall
goal is to tie computers together throughout a network, allowing people
and entire organizations to share their data, programs, and processing
power. DCE promises to make applications more portable and extendible than
existing site-specific or commercial solutions. In particular, it offers
the major features assocated with Network File System (NFS) and the other
Open Network Computing (ONC) offerings developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
But DCE's features go much further than those on ONC, and its design
offers more potential for use across different operating systems.

It is too early to evaluate the claims being made for DCE. But the wide
range of organizations promising to support it - including Digital
Equipment Corporation, Groupe Bull, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Unix System
Laboratories, and many smaller companies -- indicate that it will be an
important and commonly used technology within the next few years.
Certainly, the public needs to learn more about DCE's intended role in
information processing, and about its performance at actual installed
sites.

Some of the specific features offered by DCE include: a single file system
that embraces computers throughout an organization; network-wide security;
dynamic location of application servers; development tools supporting the
creation of distributed applications; and automatic time synchronization
across multiple hosts and networks.

DCE offers some very new models for programming and administration
requiring an investment of study even for people familiar with other forms
of distributed processing. The goal of O'Reilly & Associates here, as with
all of our books, is to put more power into the hands of the users by
offering clear explanations of both the tools and the concepts behind
them.

WHO O'REILLY & ASSOCIATES ARE

O'Reilly & Associates is recognized worldwide for its definitive books on
UNIX and the X Window System. Working closely with developers of new
technologies, O'Reilly's editors are "computer people" who use the
software they write about. The company's planning and review cycles link
together authors, computer vendors, and technical experts throughout the
industry, in a creative collaboration that mirrors the strengths of the
"open systems" philosophy itself.

In 1993, O'Reilly has tentatively scheduled books on DCE administration,
programming for personal computers, and programming for distributed
commercial applications.

Understanding DCE
By Ward Rosenberry, David Kenney and Gerry Fisher
282 pages, ISBN 1-565592-004-X, $24.95

Guide to Writing DCE Applications
by John Shirley
266 pages, ISBN 1-56592-005-8, $24.95

O'Reilly & Associates, 103 Morris St, #A, Sebastopol, CA 95472
707-829-0515; Internet Email: brian@ora.com

  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
  |   From the America Online - New Product Information Services  |
  +===============================================================+
  | This information was processed from data provided by the      |
  | above mentioned company. For additional details, contact the  |
  | company at the address or telephone number indicated above.   |
  |    All submissions for this service should be addressed to    |
  |   BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A.  |
  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
