MKS Software - Unix Development / Porting for Windows

UNIX Porting

2010-11-22T22:20:00.002-05:00

Porting software is the process of translating a software program from one operating system to another which includes transferring the software program in question from one programming language to another.

MKS Toolkit assists in migrating (porting) software from UNIX/Linux operating systems to Windows operating systems. The basic porting process includes:

Compiling and linking.
Gaining access to the source code on Windows.
Examining files for porting issues.
Debugging.
Porting scripts.
Fixing linkage issues.
Integrating with Windows.
Distributing the application.

For more information on UNIX / Linux Porting visit MKS Software.

What Happened to Hummingbird Exceed?

2010-10-20T20:39:00.003-04:00

Hummingbird Exceed was Hummingbird's flagship product, a Canadian company specializing in the PC X Server. Over the past several years Hummingbird moved into the ECM market (Enterprise Content Management). At this point Hummingbird was aquired by an enterprise software company.

Since Hummingbird hit the market MKS Software developed a competition PC X Server (MKS X/Server) which provides the same level of performance at a lower cost. With the ability to aquire the X Server rights, MKS was able to enhance the product which compares to the excellent Hummingbird Exceed product at a lower cost.

MKS has specifically developed a swap out program to help move from Exceed to MKS X/Server. More information can be found here.

Customer Support Product FAQs

2010-08-24T22:33:00.003-04:00

any type of product information you might need can be found in our Product FAQs section located here.

Find information on licensing terms, product contents, system requirements and light technical information on a given product. Product knowledge includes: MKS Toolkit, MKS X/Server, MKS Lex & Yacc and MKS AlertCentre.

Case Study - UNIX-to-Windows Porting Makes Development a Cinch

2010-07-20T22:05:00.004-04:00

Businesses that are successful today base their IT investments on power and flexibility, and heterogeneous environments are the norm rather than the exception. Organizations can no longer deliver only UNIX-based systems customers. The marketplace requires additional offerings. With an increasing demand for PC-based, multi-platform products, enterprises around the world are looking for solutions that can bridge UNIX and , so they can offer more than a single-platform product and remain competitive. When faced with the decision duplicate existing UNIX/Linux applications on and take advantage of the new Web development model, the options are clear: either perform a complete rewrite, or find a tool that lets you port the application.

Rewriting old applications can take anywhere from months years and requires ongoing maintenance of two separate source code bases, which is a major ongoing cost. The second option--porting--should be carefully considered because the price for selecting the wrong tool can be high.

The Situation
Recently, a large international consulting organization faced this UNIX/Linux-- challenge. The organization’s product is a UNIX-based system with the front end running on . Whenever the organization gave a demonstration a prospect, it would end up either renting a UNIX system and transporting it, or installing their software on the client's machine. In extreme cases, they would have dial up and connect. Additionally, the sales team had have the technical skills set up the environment, instead of concentrating on selling the product.

The company looked at both rewriting and porting their application so all modules could run on a standalone machine, which the sales team could then install only once on their laptops. This way, when they were on sales calls they could focus on their customers’problem and show them their solution.
Rewriting was ruled out because they would need continue update both their UNIX and versions with every new release of their product. As a result, they chose port their application .

The Solution
The company looked at three porting tools: Microsoft SFU, U/Win, and MKS Toolkit for
Enterprise Developers. In the end, they chose MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers because it offered the flexibility of using both UNIX APIs and APIs, an important consideration because the application uses Pro*C for its database calls. This option allowed this customer have a single code base, which drastically reduces the maintenance overhead.

Another consideration was the comfort of MKS’large user base and professional support. Although the primary objective was benefit the sales team, after completing the port with MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, the company realized it had uncovered a host of new business opportunities; it could market its product smaller customers who had only environments.

MKS Toolkit 9.4 with Windows 7 Support

2010-06-14T10:02:00.002-04:00

Enhancements found in the 9.4 release include Product Activation, support for Microsoft Visual Studio 010, updated operating system compatibility, and much more.

Product Activation allows you to install MKS Toolkit 9.4 with only a single Product Key similar to those keys used by other industry standard programs. In addition, Product Activation, combined with the new MKS Product Activation Account, provides you with better control of yourMKS Toolkit licenses.

MKS Toolkit 9.4 is fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. MKS Toolkit 9.4 is also compatible with the final release versions of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express (also known as Visual C++ 10.0 Express). Details on using previous versions of the Visual Studio or Visual C++ Express IDE to compile, link, and debug applications can be found in the "The Porting Process" and "Using the Visual C++ IDE" chapters of the online version of the MKS Toolkit UNIX to Windows Porting Guide.

for full features view the release here!

Make Sure your Updated

2010-05-07T15:18:00.002-04:00

The latest version of MKS Toolkit is: 9.2.
The latest version of MKS Lex & Yacc is: 3.4.
The latest version of MKS X/Server is: 8.5.

See http://www.mkssoftware.com/support/patches.asp for the latest patch level.

Support Tip:
Did you know that you can work with programs that require a backslash (\) without leaving the MKS Toolkit shells?

Find out more

Let Us Help You Choose!

2010-03-31T16:37:00.004-04:00

Are you running UNIX on Windows?
Are you Trying to run UNIX on Windows?
Are you looking for a PC X Server?
Are you trying to build a parser of some sort?
Are you looking for a UNIX / Linux like build environment?

Let us help you choose the right product. We ask you some simple questions and guide you in the right direction!

Help me Choose what to Run!

Case Study - ADP Employer Services

2010-02-24T14:56:00.002-05:00

ADP Employer Services

ADP Employer Services is one of the world's largest provider of payroll services and human resource management systems. ADP Employer Services is one of the four wings of the global company, Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP). ADP also provides services to the financial sector, for auto and truck dealers specific computing and consulting services and computerized information for the auto-repair industry. The services offered by ADP Employer Services range from solutions to the outsourcing of payroll systems and the management of administrative tasks. ADP has a staff of 37,000 worldwide and more than 450,000 clients.

In the 1999 fiscal year, ADP Employer Service Deutschland GmbH had a turnover of 120 million DM. In Germany, their customer base consist of more than 5.500 companies, and more than 7.5 Million pay slips are done with the ADP products or by ADP solutions/consulting, therefore every 5th employee in Germany receives their payroll from ADP. The company is optimally structured to serve businesses of all sizes: National Accounts Services (3,000 or more employees), Major Accounts Services (250-3000 employees) and Emerging Business Services (less than 250 employees).

Porting the UNIX-based Version of PAISY to Windows
PAISY, is ADP's client/server application which manages all functions within the Personnel Payroll and Information System. As their customer's began requesting a solution to run on the Windows platform, ADP looked for tools to achieve this task.

After looking at several solutions, ADP selected Toolkit for Developers to port this UNIX-based application. This solution enabled them to use Toolkit for Developers as a tool to support their existing development environment of C, C++ and a Cobol Compiler. During their tests, they found there was very little customizing effort and it was very easy to use.

Toolkit for Developers Supports Existing Development Environment
ADP uses all the KornShell commands, primarily for Scripting incl. if, while etc. and the output elements "I","<","." and commands for the manipulation of files (cp, mv, rm, ls, tar), and for the manipulation of file contents like (awk, sed, wc).

Development has about 250 shell-scripts and about 30 awk Scripts for the PAISY job control. Additionally, they use another source of scripts for compiling the PAISY programs and other administration functions. Internally, they also use scripts for the development, packaging, and the delivery of the programs.

ADP has now been utilizing Toolkit successfully for more than 4 years and are now able to write new scripts that will work in the UNIX and NT environments quickly and easily. There is no other alternative for ADP at this time.

For a complete list of Case Studies click here

What is MKS Toolkit?

2010-01-28T08:48:00.003-05:00

MKS Toolkit enables you to preserve your investments in UNIX software and expertise as you deploy Windows-based workstations and servers, because Toolkit allows you to port scripts, source code, and working environments quickly and easily from UNIX to Windows, essentially running Unix in a Windows environment.

The MKS Toolkit products also allow pure Windows users to automate routine tasks with scripting and increase productivity with file and text manipulation tools, batch search and replace tools, and scheduling interfaces. MKS Toolkit products provide solutions in the following areas:

User Productivity - a variety of UNIX shells and over 400 command-line utilities help make your software engineers and system administrators more productive on their Windows machines.
Platform Interoperability - a selection of connectivity utilities provides you with secure interactive access to both your remote Windows servers and workstations and your legacy systems.
Application Portability - more than 2700 APIs let you port all manner of UNIX/Linux applications to Windows, while maintaining a single source code baseline.

Testimonial - Adobe Systems Inc.

2009-12-22T15:30:00.004-05:00

"I am using bash script to drive our testing of our application InDesign, Photohop, Illustrator to handle crash recovery and start back up again from the point where it crash and continue with the testing. We do this on a daily basis on Mac side. Since I am a Mac Guy only I need a way to do the same thing on Windows systems. I tried to use Cygwin 1 year ago but had no luck….. I was also able to make ssh server work with Mkstoolkit and not Cygwin, that was a big bonus."

Adobe Systems Inc.

Porting from UNIX / Linux with MKS Toolkit

2009-11-18T10:33:00.003-05:00

MKS Toolkit makes the task of porting software from UNIX / Linux to Windows easy. MKS Toolkit includes over 2700 UNIX API's needed to run applications and over 300 commands and utilities needed to run scripts from systems.

The porting process includes:
- gaining access to windows source code
- examining make and header files along with source code for porting issues
- linking and compiling
- integrating with windows operating system
- debugging
- distributing
- fixing link issues
- porting scripts

Different versions of the MKS Toolkit are available for different needs.

Enterprise Developers 64-bit Edition:
- Porting to 64 bit operating systems
- standard x development environment
- contains MKS X/Server software package

Case Study - ABAS Software AG

2009-10-22T10:58:00.006-04:00

ABAS Software AG

abas-EKS, the product of ABAS Software AG, is a production planning and scheduling as well as merchandise management system. It contains integrated modules for business departments such as sales and buying, calculation, production, stock control and availability, financial accounting, cost accounting, workflow management, and others. The latest version, abas-EKS 8, contains an integrated connection to e-mail and the Internet, with direct access from within the software. The product is also well equipped for the new millennium and the introduction of the Euro currency.

abas-EKS was originally created for UNIX-based systems. In recent years, market demand has grown for a Windows version of the software system. The number of prospective buyers was rising steadily. ABAS Software AG had to react swiftly in order to benefit from this quickly emerging market opportunity and meet the challenge - and they did. Above all, a fast, cost-effective solution was therefore needed for porting abas-EKS from UNIX to Windows.

Time-to-market was an important issue for the software company. It needed a Windows product available in time to maintain customer loyalty and to stay ahead of competitors. But even without competitive pressures, ABAS Software AG sought a porting solution that could save time without high costs.

The Solution
The German software engineering company selected MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers (formerly NuTCRACKER) to automate its UNIX to Windows porting process. Interestingly, the abas project team found the information they needed about NuTCRACKER over the Internet at http://www.unilab-pb.de, the site of the German NuTCRACKER distributor. According to product manager Peter Forscht, "After looking at several possible tools, NuTCRACKER seemed to be the product best suited for the job."

For the Windows solution, the abas project team had to port approximately 350,000 lines of C source code from the overall system abas-EKS. Using NuTCRACKER, they needed about 3 months. The porting process began in November of 1996. One month was required to validate NuTCRACKER and another two months to conduct the port. The actual porting process took 20 staff-days, followed by a quality assurance period of about 3 months. Testing, installation procedures and optimizing the software environment for Win32 rounded off the project. The Windows solution of abas-EKS is now available.

Advantages and Benefits of Using NuTCRACKER
ABAS Software AG has been able to quickly bring its new Windows version of abas-EKS to market: It is now available, in time to benefit from the growth of the Windows sector of the production planning and scheduling marketplace.

NuTCRACKER has played a significant part in making this possible.

"NuTCRACKER met our expectations fully," says project head manager Erich Sartori. "Our ported Windows application demonstrates the same, full-scale performance as our UNIX installations."

In addition, NuTCRACKER dramatically cut the time required for the port. One advantage: The developers could use the run-time libraries and the shell environment that NuTCRACKER employs. Without them, many run-time functions would have had to be adjusted, taking up valuable time. Erich Sartori estimates that the company saved approximately nine
staff-months. The bundled UNIX commands and utilities saved at least another man-year.

For a complete list of Case Studies click here

What is Freeware Costing You!

2009-09-17T11:53:00.004-04:00

Are you tired of freeware tools that are a hassle to find and painful to keep current? And then, when you finally have everything you need the tools don’t quite get the job done.

What is freeware costing you?

Although it is true many tasks can be completed with freeware, developers and IT professionals inevitably run into problems collecting, updating, integrating and using these tools. These and other problems end up consuming valuable time, at a cost far more than the license and support fees that were originally "saved." One customer writes:

“…after floundering about attempting to cobble together various bits and pieces of freeware to help me complete some of the urgent engineering tasks that have been set out before me, somewhere in the back of my head I recalled the name MKS toolkit…” - Harry A. Kaplan, Artabolic Software Consulting

When a freeware binary is downloaded, do you have any idea who built it? What their credentials are? Do they rebuild regularly? Test their builds?

What alternatives are available to you?

For full article Click Here

The MKS PC X Server

2009-08-18T14:28:00.002-04:00

With present environments it is extremely important that integration is seamless. That integration happens between the UNIX/Linux server and the Windows desktop.

The MKS X/Server (PC X Server) provides secure, seamless access to UNIX applications from the desktop. It also provides the ability to optimize personal computing environments while minimizing their overall cost of ownership over time.

Some of the features include:
- Secure Shell 2 Support (SSH)
- cut and paste UNIX/Linux and Microsoft Windows applications
- Multi-monitor support
- OpenGL / GLX 1.4 support
- X Font Compiler
- Powerful font substitution

For a complete list of benefits on the PC X Server click here

Patch 3 for MKS Toolkit 9.2 With Windows 7 Candidate Support

2009-07-06T11:39:00.002-04:00

MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 3 is a maintenance update for MKS Toolkit 9.2. It includes all fixes provided in MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 1 and Patch 2 as well as those listed in Fixed Problems below:

- Windows 7 Release Candidate Support
MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 3 works specifically with the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 release candidates. Once Microsoft ships a Generally Available version of Windows 7, MKS will support this with a new MKS Toolkit release using standard support practices. The target date for this MKS release is no later than 30 days after Microsoft's official release.

- Improved sysinf Utility
The sysinf utility has been updated to provide additional system information and to support new features of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

- Cosmetic Improvements to MKS Toolkit Control Panel Applet

For details on the fixes visit the release notes:http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/rn/relnotes_tk92p3.asp

What is Terminal Emulation Software?

2009-06-29T12:19:00.003-04:00

To start, Terminal emulation or emulator is a program that emulates a video terminal within another display architecture. This, in essence, is like remote desktop in a form.

The word "terminal" refers to any kind of remote terminal including graphical interfaces.

Terminal Emulation Software is the actual software that provides this type of terminal emulator. MKS Software provides the MKS Toolkit which is in turn terminal emulation software.

Learn About Our Toolkits

2009-05-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

Get more information on the specific toolkits available from MKS Software:

MKS Toolkit for Developers: click here

MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers: click here

MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-bit: click here

Additional Products: click here
- MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers
- MKS Toolkit for Interoperability
- MKS Toolkit for System Administrators
- MKS Toolkit Porting and Migration Products — UNIX Runtime Options

If you are interested in purchasing one of our products please visit our online webstore

Think Freeware is FREE?

2009-04-21T16:46:00.000-04:00

Are you tired of freeware tools that are a hassle to find and painful to keep current? And then, when you finally have everything you need the tools don’t quite get the job done.

What is freeware costing you?

Although it is true many tasks can be completed with freeware, developers and IT professionals inevitably run into problems collecting, updating, integrating and using these tools. These and other problems end up consuming valuable time, at a cost far more than the license and support fees that were originally "saved." One customer writes ....

What is Freeware Costing You - Click Here for full article

Patch 2 for MKS Toolkit 9.2 and Patch 1 MKS X/Server 8.5

2009-03-13T10:53:00.000-04:00

Press Release on Patch 2 for MKS Toolkit 9.2 and Patch 1 MKS X/Server 8.5

MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 2
MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 2 is a maintenance update for MKS Toolkit 9.2. It includes all fixes provided in MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 1 as well as those listed in Fixed Problems. In addition, MKS Toolkit 9.2 Patch 2 includes the following new feature:

MKS X/Server 8.5 Patch 1
MKS Toolkit for Interoperability, MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, and MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-bit Edition have been updated to include MKS X/Server 8.5 Patch 1. New features in this edition of MKS X/Server include support for Overlay Planes and compressed font files. Details can be found in the MKS X/Server 8.5 Patch 1 release notes.

These are the following fixes:
- Fix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
- Improved Fortran Compiler Support
- Updated Operating System Compatibility
- MKS X/Server
- NuTCRACKER Platform Environment Now in ANSI

For details on the fixes visit the release notes:
http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/rn/relnotes_tk92p2.asp

Bring the Power of UNIX/Linux to Windows

2009-01-13T12:21:00.000-05:00

MKS Toolkit products have the most complete solution set for portability, interoperability, user compatibility and adaptability of applications in heterogeneous UNIX, Linux, Windows and Web environments. These products enable you to preserve your investments in UNIX software and expertise as you deploy Windows-based workstations and servers, because Toolkit allows you to port scripts, source code, and working environments quickly and easily from UNIX/Linux to Windows.

Feature and Benefits:

Lower Total Cost of Ownership. Most MIS organizations are opting for a mix of UNIX/Linux and Windows operating systems, requiring a single suite of tools that can help their teams be more productive.

Secure (secure shell and SFTP) and remote connectivity tools to meet security demands and easily access all applications and data that exist within those mixed computing environments.

Scripting - cross-platform software, script and Web development – write C, C++ and
Fortran code, or Korn Shell, C Shell, Perl, and Awk scripts once and deploy on Windows, UNIX and Linux.

Automate repetitive tasks. Use a powerful command line environment with over 400 industry standard commands & utilities. Remotely and securely administer all systems in the network with secure shell.

Whether your need is connectivity, compatibility or interoperability, we bring the power of Linux \ UNIX to Windows.

Request Evaluation: http://www.mkssoftware.com/eval/default.asp?distrib=IO-BLOG

About MKS Software

2009-01-05T16:56:00.000-05:00

MKS Software has established itself as a leader in application lifecycle management, which enables software engineering and IT organizations to manage their worldwide development activites. MKS supports customers worldwide with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.