THE VISIBLE EDGE

Issue: September 15, 2007

Feature Story
- Razor 5.2 Released

Razor Promotions

• Sales Promotion
• Maintenance Promotion

Razor Training
- Web-based Training

Razor Tech Tip
- Annotating Issue text pane entries with username, timestamp

Puzzler

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Feature Story
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RAZOR v5.2 Released

Razor v5.2 was recently released to the user community. This release includes the following:

• Enhanced the issue text panes so a date/userid entry is added when the issue is updated. User may set a new Options entry to control this feature.
• Added new paper clip glyph to issues that is automatically set when file attachments are present.
• Updated ONE_OF_MANY_LIST rendering so the selected item is displayed when the issue is opened.
• Added capabilities for remote Razor command line. Users should review the README.razorRemoteCLI file for details.
• Updated the Razor Desktop on Windows so it will start as a small window at upper-left hand side when user shrinks the window and then exits.
• Updated the Guiffy diff/merge engine on Windows to the latest version.
• Corrected the Guiffy diff/merge engine execution on remote UNIX/Linux clients.
• Corrected problem when terminating branches and not decrementing NUM_BRANCHES variable.
• Added support for Apple OS X (x86, PPC) platforms.
• Added support for Linux 2.6.x platforms.
• Changed the location of Razor.ini on Windows to the user's $HOME area.
• Updated the RCS archive engine on Windows to help with 'diff' issues on Windows 2003 Server.
• Added option to use ssh to authenticate remote users instead of 'rexec'.

Please note, Razor 5.2 supports the following operating systems only:

• Solaris 2.5 (SPARC)
• Solaris 2.6 and higher (SPARC, x86),
• HP-UX 11.x
• IRIX (5.x, 6.x)
• IRIX 6.5 (64-bit)
• AIX (4.x, 5.x)
• Linux (2.4.x, 2.6.x kernels)
• Windows 2000/2003/XP (client)
• Windows 2000/2003/XP (server)
• Apple OS X 10.4+ (PPC, x86)

Razor v5.2 is available for download at: http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/Download/Razor/razor_download.htm

Please review the RELEASE_NOTES for Razor v5.2 for additional information. The release notes may be found at the following Location on the Visible web site:
http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/Download/Razor/docs/RELEASE_NOTES_Razor_v52.txt

As always, contact razor_support@visiblesystemscorp.com if you have any questions.

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Razor Sales Promotion
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Razor Sales Promotion: Expires 10/31/2007

Any new or current customer who purchases 5 or more licenses of Razor by October 31, 2007 can select ONE of the following options for FREE:

• 2 additional licenses of Razor - You receive a total of 7 licenses of Razor.
• IssueWeaver - Razor's web based interface to the problem tracking.

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Razor Maintenance Promo
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We are pleased to announce a special "welcome back" program to our existing Razor customers whose maintenance contract has expired. This program will allow you to update your licenses, no matter how old they are, for just a fraction of the actual cost. This offer is available until October 31, 2007.

To calculate the cost of the update, simply take the actual cost ($150/license) for a 1 year subscription and divide it in half. This will be the cost to update your license(s) to the latest Razor release.

For further questions or to renew, please contact Jennifer Stone at (315) 363-8000 or email at jennifer.stone@visiblesystemscorp.com.

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Razor Web-based Training:
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In order to meet everyone's busy schedules, we are now offering web-training. Convenient, Cost Effective, and Smart!

Train right from your workstation at a time that is convenient for you. There is no need to travel or clear out busy schedules. Visible's new web-based training program is based on the same technology through which we deliver interactive Webinars. In order to maintain the highest level of quality and personal attention, e-training sessions are limited to a maximum of 4 students per session. In addition to our Razor user and Administrator e-training classes, we have now expanded our e-training offerings to include: Implementing a Process, Product Life Cycle Management and Model Driven Architecture ...

Please contact us at razor_training for more details our visit our website at http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/Services/training/web-based_training.htm

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Razor Tech Tip
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One of the new features in Razor 5.2 is an option to have each of the Issues form's text panes pre-append a timestamp and username each time a user modifies an issue. This has the effect of annotating each text pane entry to clearly identify who added what and when.

The $RAZOR_UNIVERSE_DIR/Tables/Options file governs whether or not a given text pane uses the annotations. The new (Razor 5.2) Options file template includes the following entries:

########################################################################
######
#
# IssueText1AnnotateMods - issues
# IssueText2AnnotateMods - issues
# Options for specifying whether editable (i.e. Writeable,
# AppendOnly) text pane entries are annotated by pre-appending
# a timestamp and username each time the issue is modified.
# The default setting does not annotate the text pane contents.
#
# setting:
# TRUE - Each time an issue is modified annotate editable text panes
# with timestamp and username.
#
# FALSE - Do not annotate text pane modifications with timestamp, username
#
IssueText1AnnotateMods FALSE
#IssueText1AnnotateMods TRUE
#
IssueText2AnnotateMods FALSE
#IssueText2AnnotateMods TRUE
#
#
########################################################################
######


After upgrading to Razor 5.2, a Razor Administrator would need to add these two new Options file entries in each of the legacy database's Options file.

Once the Issues form text pane annotations are enabled, the annotations are inserted each time the issue form is modified. The following snapshot illustrates the annotations:

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Puzzler
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Question:

"Take away my first letter; take away my second letter; take away all my letters, and I would remain the same. What am I?"

The answer to the above puzzle can be found at:
http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/News/puzzles.htm