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1.1 Overview

  NExS is an advanced spreadsheet designed specifically for the X Windows environment. By using the intuitive NExS user interface, you can easily access its powerful computational and graphical tools. You need only a few keystrokes or mouse clicks to analyze your data and then present the results with graphs ranging from simple line plots to 3D surfaces.

The NExS spreadsheet provides a flexible and comfortable visual environment in which to handle complex calculations and data manipulations. It calculates a full range of mathematical, statistical, matrix and string functions ­ all with the ease of a familiar spreadsheet format with point-and-click screen displays and pull-down menus.

The most compelling feature of NExS is its understanding that the world does not stand still. In a world of spreadsheets that only capture a snapshot in time, NExS is a step up to live action ­ capable of sending and receiving data and commands from other X Windows programs, even on other computers, and automatically recalculating your sheet and graphs to reflect the changes.

  This capability allows NExS to monitor and display data from multiple sources as it is calculated and to pass this information to other programs in a real-time environment.

        Using the NExS application program interface (API), a client/server application can be fully integrated with the spreadsheet, appearing to the user as a single unified application. This Connections API lets your program remotely control all aspects of the spreadsheet, including drawing graphs, printing, and calculating. NExS becomes your application's user interface, greatly reducing your development time and cost.

The API also provides the basis for extensions to NExS developed by the user or by other suppliers. These extensions range from factory automation to financial trading to parametric design to third-party database interfaces.




next up previous contents index
Next: 1.1.1 Computational Functions Up: 1 Introducing NExS Previous: 1 Introducing NExS

NExS User's Guide, Version 1.4.5
Grey Trout Software
11 April 1999