| Upon release of
the Siemens 404/3 minicomputer in the mid-70's, one of the Austrosoft
founder members takes over responsibility for OS maintenance, including the authoring of
the Systems and Assembler/OS manuals, and the production of various
system utilities over the following two-year period Conversion of a FORTRAN IV weather forecasting package for Deutsche Wetterwarte, Frankfurt (the German Meteorological Service) Assembler development of an IBM CICS emulation package in cooperation with Softlab AG, Munich. The software enables CICS applications to be controlled by the Siemens BS1000 transaction monitor ASMUS Conversion of the AVBOB IBM S/38 site to a Siemens System 7.531 (RPG) Conversion of programs in preparation of benchmark testing for Siemens SA, in support of the bidding for various tenders |
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| Conversion of a FORTRAN IV CAD package for South African steel producer ISCOR |  |
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| The construction
of a new South African Railways marshalling yard at Bapsfontein (incidentally still
the largest facility of its kind on the African continent) requires the
installation of a broad range of electromechanical gear, electronic
controls, and computer equipment. Siemens Ltd. is awarded the contract for the development of a fail-safe computer system capable of running yard operations on a 24x7 basis. A system of six interlinked mainframe and network computers is proposed and implemented. H. Syrowatka of Austrosoft is appointed "Team leader for system software and OCS (Operations Control System) integration" and performs this function through a 2½-year period until project completion. The tasks involved require the development of low-level driver- and OS interface-software in support of applications programming. |
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 from 1983 |
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| Contracted by Johannesburg company Mercabank Ltd. for an eight month period to run and upgrade the 'orphaned' computer installation until suitable new staff can be found and trained; the contract is later extended to incorporate the development of a 'general ledger' package |  |
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| Contract work for Standard General Insurance (StanGen) results in the assembler modules SISAM and SISAMT, which stabilize the existing flat-file database system by adding advanced record locking and deadlock resolution features |  |
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| Chemical firm Bayer SA requires additional man power to cope with a backlog of COBOL programming |  |
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| Contracted on various occasions by Siemens Ltd. and Siemens-Nixdorf Ltd. for Assembler- and C-based developments |  |
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| Design and
implementation over a one-year period of ConPLAN, a comprehensive
compiler/emulator package for ICL 1900/2900 PLAN programs. ConPLAN enables ICL PLAN Assembler programs to execute on IBM / Siemens mainframes through software emulation, while at the same time supporting program maintenance by means of the build-in PLAN compiler functionality. The package is used for several years as a 'virtual machine' for ICL assembler programs which process and print the South African and Namibian telephone and fax directories (the 'white and yellow pages') The Siemens-Nixdorf Unix-derivative Sinix is chosen to handle communications between the Siemens mainframe running ConPLAN and the print shop hardware, a Linotron photo setting machine (the connection module 'Linotran' implements a proprietary protocol build on RS232C) |
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| Contracted by Nasionale Pers/Perskor for an Assembler-based development. An interface module enables programs written in a Unix COBOL dialect to execute in the Siemens BS2000 COBOL environment |  |
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After 1995, the focus shifts from mainframe to client/server and web server platforms. Programming and systems development concentrate on the Microsoft/Intel platform in combination with Borland software tools |
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| Various projects
have since been completed, a few posted on the Internet. One application
enables UDP-based Internet communications between clients with
dynamically allocated IP addresses without arbitrating server. Another
solution to the problem of the "moving IP target" exploits the
SMTP/POP3 protocols to achieve a sustained exchange of messages in
'near' real-time. A recent C++ development results in a nautical navigation program, which allows the user to manage a mixed archive of paper and electronic charts. Additionally, it accesses a public domain database of the 'coastlines of the world' and combines the information with relief data to create a 'false-colour' screen display, onto which it super-imposes a continuously updated, GPS-derived position |
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| In July 2006,
after 18 months of development, Version 1.0 of AS Club is released
and can be downloaded from the
Austrosoft website. The application combines the functions of a newly developed accounting package specifically designed for clubs and other membership organizations with Internet connectivity, enabling database-controlled email and SMS dispatches to club members. Payments made into the club bank account can be imported from electronic bank statements in MS Money format (OFC & OFX). Added in are convenience features, among them the automatic printing of club ID cards, or a webcam interface, allowing member photographs to be be imported directly into the database. A special 'one-click' feature allows the user to send the encrypted and compressed database to Austrosoft for diagnostic purposes. Highest on the list of priorities are the stability of the system and its ease of use through an intuitive user interface. AS Club is coded in Borland C++ Builder and uses the Borland BDE to interact with various database systems (a Paradox database by default) |
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