01.11.03 | ISSUE 2

Welcome
Hello everybody... I started this newsletter idea with the best of intentions. I wanted to periodically update folks like you on data/software architecture items as well as keep the Orthogonal Software Corporation website updated and timely. I succeeded, too -- for approximately two weeks.

Along the way, I started working 60-hour weeks. This is a good problem to have when you are an independent consultant, I suppose, but it caused me to let this part of the operation lapse. Sorry about that....

Orthogonal Software Corporation News


Terry Halpin was kind enough to mention the Orthogonal Toolbox on the 25th episode of the .Net Show. The next day, the website’s hit count skyrocketed. The Orthogonal Toolbox was more popular than I had expected: Thousands of folks have downloaded it.

Many people wrote me to tell me how they are using it and many of them also offered suggestions for enhancements. I really appreciate the feedback, please keep it coming! I am currently thinking about the next round of enhancements so if you have any ideas, now would be the time to tell me.

Better yet, if any of you have created nice XSLT for formatting the output of the toolbox into custom formats/reports, and would be willing to share them with other Orthogonal Toolbox users, drop me a line (scot at orthogonal software dot com). I’d like to add them for download -- and of course your contribution can be prominently credited to you/your company or anonymously, as per your preferences.

Website Updates
Along with this newsletter, I made an attempt at updating the website. Among the more notable updates is the events section. There are a number of interesting conferences in 2003. Some of them even promise to have ORM-related content.

Bookstore and Charitable Contributions
In the resources section, you may have noticed the bookstore. “Another ‘affiliated bookstore’ with a not-so-subtle attempt to make money off of my purchases”, you say?

Not quite. If you buy a book via the Orthogonal website, we will match the referral fee and donate it all to charity. You can read more about it here, but in summary: if you are going to buy a book anyway, why not buy it this way and have some money donated to a worthy cause?

Other News Items

1. Visual Studio .Net 2003 (formerly known as “Everett”) is in its final beta and is due to be released this spring. The Enterprise Architect version of this release still contains the database and software modeling support of its predecessor – albeit in an updated form.
2. Microsoft is offering a free Visio viewer that you can use for folks who need to see your Visio drawings (e.g. models) but don’t have Visio installed. You can download it here.

About Orthogonal Software Corporation
Orthogonal Software Corporation provides software consulting and training services in addition to software products and is located in Minneapolis, MN.

Our consulting practice focuses on the requirements analysis, design, and construction phases of orthogonal software projects. We also bridge the gap between business requirements and their technical implementation by acting as a liaison between business stakeholders and technical staff.

Our education services practice focuses on providing the knowledge needed to create orthogonal software. One of the ways we do this is to provide training in Object-Role Modeling (which we are certified to consult and train). We also offer many publications on these topics.

Our software products practice is currently focused on providing tools that enable the development of orthogonal software. One offering towards this goal is Orthogonal Toolbox, now in version 1.0.

For more information on Orthogonal Software Corporation, our services, and/or our products, feel free to contact us.