Welcome to the February 2007 edition of Riverace's ACE News and
Tips newsletter. This issue contains an advance look at some of the
things coming in ACE 6.0 later this spring.
If, after reading this issue, you'd like to get some new feature
into ACE, please let us know! Also be sure to forward this note to
other people you work with to be sure they get their input
registered as well!
What's Coming in ACE 6.0? |
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ACE 6.0 is the first major ACE release in nearly 8
years (ACE 5.0 was released July 31, 1999)! Remember those
days? The latest Red Hat Linux was version 6 and the tool to
use for Microsoft Windows builds was Visual C++ 6. Which
brings me to the first item of note for ACE 6: what's going
away. In order to bring newer C++ features in, the older stuff
has to go. Support for Visual C++ 6 has been removed, as has
support for any compiler that can't handle implicit template
instantiation, such as Sun Forte 6 and 7. So the first thing
to evaluate when considering a transition to ACE 6 is your
development environment. For Microsoft builds, VC7.1 (Visual
Studio .NET 2003) or VC 8 (Visual Studio .NET 2005) are the
recommended compilers. The most recent (or close to it)
vendor-supplied compilers are recommended on other platforms.
Riverace will continue to support VC6 for ACE 5.5 according to
our standard platform support policy. Please feel free to
contact us with any questions on compilers or development
environments.
Of course, there are many more improvements and additions
than removals, and we'll take a few newsletter issues to
describe the more significant ones. All user-visible changes
to ACE are described in the ACE_wrappers/NEWS
file of each ACE beta as development progresses. You can
review that file here.
In this issue, we'll look at the new added support for
multiple independent Service Repositories through
configuration contexts called "Gestalt". Full backwards
compatibility is maintained through the existing
ACE_Service_Config static methods, while direct
individual repository access is enabled through instances of
the new ACE_Service_Gestalt class.
ACE_Service_Config has changed to a
specialization of ACE_Service_Gestalt and is
responsible, as in prior ACE versions, for the process-wide
configuration.
When is this a good feature to take advantage of? Well, do
you have many independent services that can be reused and
dynamically configured into your deployments? Do you deploy
multiple levels of services in subsystems, or would you like
to? If yes, then ACE_Service_Gestalt is a feature
you should investigate. You can gain a large measure of
flexibility and freedom by separating service records into
different, independent subsystems rather than needing to be
concerned that two or more of your subsystems may try to load
the same service and inadvertantly get an error or introduce
some coupling that restricts how your systems can act or be
configured.
Want to try this new feature out for size before ACE 6.0 is
released? Grab a copy of the latest ACE beta
and try it out! If you get stuck or have questions, our new
Whitewater Level of ACE support can help you get going
quickly.
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New Support Service Levels Offer Access to
Everyone |
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Riverace recently completed a survey of the ACE user
community (thank you to all who responded!) to get feedback on
what you like and don't like as well as what services would
help more. One item that we learned was that there needs to be
more flexibility in the ways users can get support from
Riverace. The "one size fits all" plan we've had for a number
of years just isn't flexible enough or accessible enough for
everyone. Therefore, Riverace has expanded from the "one size
fits all" support model to a matrix of different service
levels and price models. There are three different levels of
service available to better fit your support needs. In
addition to our new service levels, we're also introducing
size options in order to make Riverace's world-class expertise
available to development groups of all sizes. Smaller groups
will now have the ability to buy services per-developer, while
larger groups still have the all-inclusive group-wide support
option available.
The new per-developer pricing method is per developer on
the project, not per contact that can call for support. All
developers can call for support. This has been a point of
confusion in the past, so please let us know if you have
questions. As an additional budgeting aid for small groups,
developer-based purchases can also select between an annual,
semi-annual, or monthly support term.
The new service levels are tiered to allow you to get all
the support you need without paying for things you don't need.
These new service levels are:
- Stream Level, for when you're cruising along without
much pressure but want expertise to be available. Free
access to all Riverace Fix Kits, and ask all the questions
you want via our support customer-only web site! If you
encounter a bug, we'll fix it in a future ACE version.
- River Level, when there are a few rocks and deep pockets
you could use some quick and sure help with. Free access to
all Riverace Fix Kits, and all the questions and issues you
can report. Plus, you can call us toll free (during normal
support hours) to discuss your questions quickly. And, we'll
get you any fixes you need patched into the supported ACE
version you reported it against, and carry it forward to
future ACE versions.
- Whitewater Level, when you're working with current ACE
development betas and you need expert guidance to
successfully navigate the rough stuff. All the features in
River Level, PLUS we'll do it all for the regularly
supported ACE versions AND the current beta. Whitewater
Level also includes up to 10 hours per year of expert
development assistance for adding new or enhanced features
to the ACE development stream.
So, you have new service options, price options, and
payment options. You can even change between service levels if
your needs change. We'll automatically renew your selected
term and you can cancel your service at the end of its current
term (month, half year, or year). In exchange for selecting a
group-wide year term (or, without a group, when there are 5 or
more developers on a year term) we commit to keep ACE
supported on your platform(s) for the year. We help each
other. And that's what Riverace is all about - helping you
succeed.
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