Proceedings are available for the ARPA/NSF Int. Workshop on an Infrastructure for Temporal Databases (6/93, Arlington, TX). 43 papers, 624 pp. $35 from Robyn Austin (robyn@cs.arizona.edu), (602) 621-8448. [dbworld, 8/20/93.]

David Muir Sharnoff is compiling a descriptive catalog of free database software -- flat, relational, object-oriented, full-text, WAIS, etc. The current version may be FTP'd as pub/free-databases from idiom.berkeley.ca.us. Contact muir@idiom.berkeley.ca.us with any additions. [net-hap, 8/26/93.]

Papers on declarative database visualization are available from the Hy+/GraphLog project at UToronto. Hy+ is a system for visualizing and querying databases of nested graphs (called "hygraphs"); GraphLog is its visual query language. FTP csri-technical-reports/285 from csri.toronto.edu or request a paper copy from reports@csri.toronto.edu. [Alberto Mendelzon (mendel@db.toronto.edu), dbworld, 8/14/93.]

Have you heard about the object-oriented extension to COBOL? Taking a lead from C++, the ANSI committee is calling it Add one to COBOL giving COBOL. [Christopher Small (chris@soi.com), rec.humor.funny, 7/14/93.]

Scott Fahlman (sef@cs.cmu.edu) and the CMU Common Lisp wizards are working on Igor, an ARPA-funded development environment based on Apple's Dylan language. (CMU CL will still be supported, and will be used for a Fall '94 implementation of Dylan.) Igor will support a "hypercode" style of programming, with user-controlled views of linked instructions, class definitions, foreign modules, specifications, comments, test code, etc. (In some ways it will resemble InterLisp.) Platform-specific compilers will provide compact, fast "delivery modules" competitive with C, FORTRAN, or Ada. Igor will be copyrighted but free for non-commercial use, with blanket permission to use library and runtime code. Releases will be announced on comp.lang.dylan. [info-dylan @ministry.cambridge.apple.com, 8/17/93. Tim Finin.]

1,500 developers are awaiting the fall release of Newton Toolkit. About 100 developers are using beta copies. The toolkit will include NewtonScript, reusable components, an interactive development cycle, cross-development features, and tools for content creation and graphical layout. Early MessagePad applications will be shipped on diskettes for downloading from PCs, since PCMCIA cards cost about $15 each in small runs. [James Daly, CW, 8/23, p. 101.]

How does NewtonScript compare with Lisp? It has a lambda capability, called func. The reader can't "eval" data strings, but you can compile them to get function objects. You get closures/blocks and message passing, but not continuations. Slots can be added to objects after instantiation, unless they are in your application's read-only space. Inheritance can follow two paths, from a parent and from a "proto" template. Garbage collection usually takes less than .1 second. There is only one scheduling thread in version 1.0. [Walter Smith (wrs@apple.com), comp.sys.pen. Bill Park, 8/12/93.]

Bill Park reports that the Develop magazine from Apple has put Inside Macintosh on its Develop Bookmark CD-ROM, as promised. The Toolbox Essentials document is over 900 pages, and there are 95MB total on files, devices, interapplication communications, memory, processes, QuickTime, and overview. Apple Document Viewer 1.0 lets you browse, bookmark, paste, and print images and text from the books. Bill thanks editor Caroline Rose (crose@applelink.apple.com). [park@netcom.com, 9/10/93.]

Robert Shenot's "The Shareware Book" can be FTP'd as sharbk1.zip from /mirrors/msdos/info on wuarchive.wustl.edu. "... every aspect of using the shareware marketing channel," esp. in the American market. You also get a copy of the book when you use Andrew Saucci's Megapost, a commercial service that works with shareware authors and places their products on at least 30 servers. [Don Branson (314-935-5320), SEML, 9/8/93. Bill Park.]