Any one know this financial software

[pTeK]

Hi does any one know what this financial software was/is?

[stepleton]

I remember reading somewhere that NeXTs were popular in finance because people could whip up applications promptly --- there's a chance that this could be a proprietary program that was only ever used inside one company.

Finance seemed to nurture a number of unique programming preferences motivated by getting numbers crunched ASAP. At one point and in certain circles this included a fascination with APL and derived languages (e.g. A+ from Morgan Stanley).

Does anyone know if there's an APL out there for NeXT, BTW?

[nuss]

Re: @pTeK : Have not yet found the software, but still searching.
The screenshot seems to be from around the year 2000.
At the moment I think it might be a an app running on Rhapsody (besides the image-name) or OpenStep for Windows/Solaris.

Also @stepleton is right. This really might be some proprietary software, only used inside one company. My Usenet search showed plenty of job offers from financial companies for NeXT/OpenStep developers to create some great new trading tools in the 90s.

At least I have an answer for you @stepleton :

Code Select Expand

From news Sun Feb 1 19:04:40 91
From: ###@ecersg.ncsu.edu (###)
Subject: APL for the NeXT ?

I am taking a class in Logic, and we are using some programs on a PC
that are written in APL.  I would like to port those programs to my
wonderful station and avoid using those damned machines from hell.

Is there any sort of APL or APL-like language avail for the Next?

many thanks

###
From news Sun Feb 1 23:30:51 91
From: ###@pooh.caltech.edu (###)
Subject: Re: APL for the NeXT ?


>> Is there any sort of APL or APL-like language avail for the Next?

Yes.  Iverson (the creator of APL) has come up with the language J.  It
has much of the philosophy and characteristics of APL with a new structure
and format.  You can get a version compiled for the NeXT via anonymous ftp
at watserv1.waterloo.edu in languages/apl/j/next as J_NeXT.tar.Z.  I just
tried it under 2.0 and it seems to work fine.  I know it works under 1.0
(which is what it was compiled for).

I have appended to the end of this posting the readme.doc from J which has
the copyright notice with copying limitations and where to get a manual
from.

By the way, J is not APL.  In some ways it is better, and in others it
is perhaps a little more primitive.  J is still in its infancy, so expect
it to expand and improve significantly ove rthe next few years.

###
###@pooh.caltech.edu

--- readme.doc ---
Copyright (c) 1990, Iverson Software Inc.

J is a licensed product of Iverson Software Inc. (ISI).  Permission to copy
this software without fee is granted provided (0) the copies are not made
or distributed for direct commercial advantage, (1) this copyright notice
is included, and (2) notice is given that copying is by permission of ISI.
To copy otherwise requires the specific written permission of ISI.

The software is distributed on an "as is" basis.  ISI disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

Registered users receive a printed manual and notice of new releases.
To order or register your copy, send $24 + $6 for handling and shipping, to:

Iverson Software Inc.                 Iverson Software Inc.
33 Major Street                       3512 Cameron Mills Road
Toronto, Ontario, Canada  M5S 2K9     Alexandria, Virginia, USA  22305-1103
(416) 925 6096                        (703) 548 1799

In the software section there is:
http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Developer/Languages/.
http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Developer/Languages/apl.tar.gz
http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Developer/Languages/j.pkg.tar.gz

On Peanuts CDROM you can find:

Code Select Expand

        0 1996-10-26 15:07 Peanuts/NeXTSTEP/Developer/languages/apl/
    53806 1996-09-30 09:48 Peanuts/NeXTSTEP/Developer/languages/apl/Visage.1.0.NIHS.b.tar.gz
   109563 1992-03-01 23:22 Peanuts/NeXTSTEP/Developer/languages/apl/j.4.1.N.b.tar.gz
      613 1992-03-01 23:23 Peanuts/NeXTSTEP/Developer/languages/apl/j.README
      152 1992-06-15 00:18 Peanuts/NeXTSTEP/Developer/languages/apl/Visage.README


[stepleton]

Thanks for those finds! It appears that all of those packages are for the J programming language, an APL derivative that uses ASCII characters instead of the quirky APL character set. (Even the apl.tar.gz package is J.) This was probably the correct choice at the time, but I hope someone at some point made a NeXT APL with the funny symbols and everything. I suppose one still could...

[pTeK]

Re: @pTeK : Have not yet found the software, but still searching.
The screenshot seems to be from around the year 2000.
At the moment I think it might be a an app running on Rhapsody (besides the image-name) or OpenStep for Windows/Solaris.

Also @stepleton is right. This really might be some proprietary software, only used inside one company. My Usenet search showed plenty of job offers from financial companies for NeXT/OpenStep developers to create some great new trading tools in the 90s.

Once you mentioned the year 2000, I saw the date. What makes you think it could be a app on Rhapsody? I've only used Rhapsody DR2 and the only app that is still like OpenStep is Configure? I have not used Rhapsody DR1 yet. I'm guessing you could use the OpenStep OS look on Rhapsody?

OpenStep enterprise, the tool they used to develop Apps before they started to use bots that scan News Headlines and twitter early last decade.

Thanks @nuss for looking through your software archive

[nuss]

Hi @pTeK , the reason why I though it might be Rhapsody is many-fold:

- the screenshot did not look familiar and not like "normal" OpenStep to me
- my gut feelings lied to me about this may being Rhapsody
- and obviously I forgot how the Rhapsody versions really looked like

Although I have still not found this piece of financial (or even trading?) application, I stumbled upon this in the Usenet archive:

The Risk Management System is a NEXTSTEP-based custom
application designed and developed by FML for Creditanstalt,
Austrias leading bank. Creditanstalt uses the application to
monitor and report the risk and performance of portfolios in
their securities trading division.

Code Select Expand

From: ###@fml.tuwien.ac.at (###)
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Financial Markets Lab Vienna Wins Computerworld Object Application Award
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1993 15:33:34 GMT
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce

News:

For Immediate Release

Contact:

        ###
        Financial Markets Lab
        Technical University Vienna
        Treitlstrasse 3
        1040 Wien
        Austria, EUROPE
        +43(1) ###
        Email: ###@fml.tuwien.ac.at


Financial Markets Lab Vienna Wins Computerworld Object Application Award


VIENNA, June 17, 1993 -- The Risk Management System, developed
by the Financial Markets Lab (FML) of the Technical University
Vienna, has won the grand prize in the top category of the
Object Management Group's "1993 Computerworld Object Application
Awards Contest." 


The contest, co-sponsored by Computerworld magazine and the
Object Management Group, is designed to salute organizations
and developers who have successfully implemented object
technology in their operations.

The five award categories ranged from "Best Object-Based
Application Developed Using Non-Object Oriented Tools" to the top
category, "Best Application Utilizing Reusable Components Leveraged
from or for Use in Other Projects", where the advantages of
object-oriented technology are used to the utmost.

The Risk Management System is a NEXTSTEP-based custom
application designed and developed by FML for Creditanstalt,
Austrias leading bank. Creditanstalt uses the application to
monitor and report the risk and performance of portfolios in
their securities trading division.

"The NEXTSTEP environment allowed us to develop a complex
custom application in minimal time through remarkably simple
integration with other applications and existing class
libraries. Very little extra code was necessary to harness the
powerful mathematical capabilities of Mathematica and the
advanced layout and report generating functions of Improv for
our application. A lot of the functionality in the finished
application did not require any programming at all. The risk
manager himself dragged user interface items from our custom
Interface Builder palette and specified the computations in
the form of Mathematica expressions in the corresponding
Inspector panels. The savings in development time and
unnecessary communication overhead between the domain
expert and the programmers were enormous." said Werner
Staringer, head of the Financial Markets Lab.

The winners were announced yesterday at a special ObjectWorld Expo
awards banquet at the Moscone Center in San Franscisco. Steve Jobs,
CEO and Chairman of NeXT Computer, was the master of ceremonies. 


The Financial Markets Lab, based at the Institute of Software
Technology of the Technical University Vienna, specializes
in financial software. It maintains strong links with the finance
industry and is funded primarily through external research
contracts.

Mathematica is a trademark of Wolfram Research. Improv is
a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation. NEXTSTEP
and InterfaceBuilder are trademarks of NeXT Computer Inc.




#+#+#+#+#


[nuss]

Another side catch from down the rabbit hole was a German report from the year 2000.

Name: "Neues von Rohde & Schwarz - Testsystem für GSM-Interferenzen"
PDF: https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/file/rus_news168d.pdf

On page 5 are two screenshots of what seems to be a NeXTstep/OpenStep special application for this analyzer tool:

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMoMpSM6nXQsjg-rgZIATf-fJXTuE0Cl4kVZs_6

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Chartsmith maybe ? on the GS Corp solutions suite CD, I have an original, it is cool !  https://www.ebay.com/itm/275534069378

[pTeK]

@Rob Blessin Black Hole I can't access the photos on google drive?
@nuss How are you searching your file archive or do you have access to @wizard application database?

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

@Rob Blessin Black Hole I can't access the photos on google drive?
@nuss How are you searching your file archive or do you have access to @wizard application database?https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160955591072368&set=a.110712892367

I think if you click the facebook link now above it should work as Google drive has me stymied

[nuss]

Hallo @pTeK , the archive consists of the content of many CDROMs and mirrored ftp sites. My favorite for searching NeXT information from the 90s is the Usenet part of Peanuts, which I simply scan with `find` and `zgrep`.

[zombie]

Hallo @pTeK , the archive consists of the content of many CDROMs and mirrored ftp sites. My favorite for searching NeXT information from the 90s is the Usenet part of Peanuts, which I simply scan with `find` and `zgrep`.

Digital Librarian is calling!

[pTeK]

I think if you click the facebook link now above it should work as Google drive has me stymied

Ah thanks Rob, but it doesn't look like the App "Chart Smith" that you mentioned, I think it is looking more likely to be a custom app for the enterprise market.