Contact:

P & L Systems

12 The Broadway

Old Amersham

Bucks HP7 0HP, England

info@plsys.co.uk

+44 1494 432422

http://www.plsys.co.uk/plsys/

P & L SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES RHAPSODY VERSION OF ITS MESA SPREADSHEET

OLD AMERSHAM, JULY 31 1997 -- P & L Systems today announced a port of its Mesa spreadsheet to Apple's new Rhapsody operating system, featuring a number of enhancements to the NEXTSTEP version, including enhanced compatibility with Excel(TM), workbooks, and integration with databases through Apple's Enterprise Object Foundation.

Mesa is the leading spreadsheet for NEXTSTEP, and is currently being ported to Apple's new Rhapsody operating system. Alpha versions have already been demonstrated running on Rhapsody, and will be on show at MacWorld Boston. A beta release will be available from shortly after the Rhapsody DR1 release date.

"With Mesa we will be addressing one of the main concerns Mac-users will have in transitioning to the Rhapsody environment -- will they be able to access files created with their legacy applications, such as Excel," commented Matt Ware, Sales Manager of P & L, "However we believe that Mesa offers not only a migration path to the Yellow box, but also an enhanced user experience which will make them more productive."

The first release of Mesa for Rhapsody will contain the following new features:

• Improved Excel compatibility: import and export of Excel(TM) files up to version Excel95;
• Workbooks;
• A transparent UI for access to any data source supported by Apple's Enterprise Object Foundation (EOF): cell values can be retrieved from corporate databases.

Mesa for NEXTSTEP is priced at $375. Academic and bulk discounts are available. All purchasers of Release 2.0 of Mesa will be entitled to a free upgrade to the Rhapsody release.

For more information and screenshots, see P & L's WWW pages at http://www.plsys.co.uk/plsys/.

P & L Systems is the leading supplier of products and services for NeXTSTEP in the UK. With a complete range of software and hardware products and services, P & L Systems offer full support for customers in the aggressive and sometimes bewildering world of object oriented solutions. Products developed by P & L Systems include the Oracle Adaptor for Mesa; the QuickBase Adaptor for Mesa; Pager, a flexible application for pagers and beepers; PassKey, a password management tool for administrators; AppManager, a software usage monitoring and license allocation utility; and Informant!, a radical new real-time data feed distribution application for Reuters and other feeds on NeXTSTEP, Solaris and Windows NT.

For additional information about P & L Systems and its products and services, contact the company directly at +44 1494 432422, send electronic mail to info@plsys.co.uk, or visit P & L Systems' World Wide Web pages at http://www.plsys.co.uk/plsys/.

P & L Systems, AppManager, PassKey, Informant! and Mesa are trademarks of P & L Systems. NEXTSTEP is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Last updated July 31 1997.