PCthreads(tm)

                          The TriTechnologies Company
                               16209 Northup Way
                             Bellevue, WA   98008
                                (206) 957-1579

                        Compuserve:        70272, 3671

TriTechnologies is soliciting beta testers for its PCthreads(tm) for Windows
Application Programming Interface.  The PCthreads/WIN API is intended to
provide an applications programming interface that closely complies with draft
4 of the POSIX 1003.4a standard for multithread services.

Included in this kit is an example of a multithreaded MDI application,
MDIT.EXE, plus the source from which the application was built.  To run the
demo type 'win mdit' and see how simple it is to create multiple simultaneous
windows within an MDI Frame window.

The PCthreads/WIN package offers the following capabilities:

    o Create multiple threads within a single application.  The number of
      threads is limited only by your system's memory.
      
      Context switching is very fast.  On a 33 Mhz 386 PC, it takes approx
      150 microseconds to create a thread, context switch to that thread,
      execute a null procedure (i.e., call and return), terminate the thread,
      and then context switch back to the creating thread.

    o Full mutex support including multiple mutex scheduling protocols, lock,
      unlock, and trylock.  In PCthreads, locking and unlocking mutexes is
      very fast.  Under noload conditions a mutex can be locked/unlocked
      in less than 25 machine instructions.

    o Full condition variable support including signal, broadcast, timed
      waits.

    o Multiple, priority-based, fully-preemptive and individual thread
      scheduling policies including preemptive priority-decay, round-robin,
      and fcfs.

    o Structured Exception Handling using TRY-CATCH-ENDTRY-FINALLY semantics.
    
Beta testers will be provided the following (at no charge, of course):

    - A laser printed PCthreads User's Guide and Programmer's Reference
      Guide for your review and comment.
    - A complete PCthreads/WIN API.
    - When the production release is shipped, all beta testers will receive
      an updated manual and single-user license at no charge.
      
Our primary goal for the beta test is to develop a better understanding of the
applicability of multithreading to windows programming generally and GUI
design specifically.  We are mostly low-level kernel jocks with a limited
understanding of, and in some awe of, Windows programming.  In that spirit we
would require the following of our beta testers:

    - That you help us understand to what extent multithreading is
      applicable to Windows Application development, and how we can make
      it more useful  -- For example, what tools and documentation do you
      require?
      
    - That you use the package and give us your feedback -- Especially
      any attributes with which you are dissatisfied.

    - That you find us some BUGS!

    - We expect to support PCthreads/WIN in beta test for at least 3
      months.

    - Code donations.  We would like to include example application source
      code as part of the production distribution kit.
      
If you want to be a beta tester, please let us know quickly.  If you will
send the following information (via compuserve, U.S. Mail, or even calling
us on our support line -- see above) we'll get back to you ASAP.

Application:

    Name:
    Address:
    City/State/Zip:
    Phone:
    EMAIL:
         Compuserve:
         Internet:
         UUCP:
             
    Compiler (Borland or Microsoft):
    Diskette (5.25" or 3.5"):

    Application Area/Interest:
    
Requirements:

    - 80286 or greater running Win3.0.
    - Enhanced (Protected Mode) only.
    - Microsoft V6.0 and Borland/Turbo compiler support.

Known Bugs and Limitations:

    - PCthreads/WIN does not yet support asynchronous timer interrupts.  We
      expect such support to be in the final release, or in an upgrade
      shortly after release.

    Copyright (C) 1991, The TriTechnologies Company.  All rights reserved
    PCthreads(tm) is a registered trademark of The TriTechnologies Company
    UNIX(tm) is a trademark of AT&T somewhere in New Jersey.
    MS-DOS(tm) is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA.