We tried to run one of the development systems and got "error: name/password incorrect"

ANSWER: You must enter the Customer ID and password that was emailed to you at the initial screen. The initial password is "flexsys" which you may change under the File pulldown.  For details, please read the download and installation directions:

Sorry to appear so stupid. You warned me that using such a tool required some skills, training and/or experience but since I've been programming for several years, I thought I could skip the tutorials.

ANSWER: You certainly are NOT "stupid". Flexsys, more so SoftBuilder and even more so AutoBuilder strongly encourage you to think about software differently.  While simpler, and more intuitive, these systems may effect the way you think about many programming tasks -- almost all dramatically reduce the effort required.  They are also extremely powerful and flexible.  

The tutors are absolutely essential in learning how to get the most out of these systems.  Many features are obvious, and can be discovered by simple experimentation, others require training, etc.  Many things can be done in more than one way. Training is not essential, but it certainly helps. It should also be noted that making full use of Flexsys customization capabilities, requires some familiarity with grammars, programming languages and parsing technology.

Is it possible to obtain a manual or document giving the logic and guidelines of the different steps, what files they produce and how to interpret the contents of these files.

ANSWER: On-line help (from the main menu) is rather extensive and provides a broad range of information. Of particular interest in using Flexsys will be the sections of reverse engineering (the first step in using Flexsys to maintain legacy source code), the sections on how to create automated reverse engineers and custom converters and SLANG Rules (on the SLANG language used in constructing custom reverse engineers and/or converters).   The sections on (High Level Design or HLD) Libraries will be invaluable both in creating custom applications and tools for manipulating Abstract Syntax Trees (visually displayed as Flexforms). Modular ASTs may be processed much faster than ASTs used in other repositories. Instead of going up exponentially with size, processing times with Flexsys ASTs goes up only linearly. Furthermore, whereas most ASTs can not be understood by humans, ASTs are represented visually in Flexforms where they may easily be understood, edited and otherwise manipulated as desired.  You will also find sections in the help on everything from reverse engineering and code generation to developing distributed systems and guaranteed correctness.

I would like to follow Flextutor and see how starting from one of the sample files you provide it creates an intermediate code (*.inc ), and how this intermediate code is in turn translated in another language but, so far, I haven't succeeded. Maybe my assumptions about the way it works are totally wrong.

ANSWER: *.inc files are Included File Flexforms listing references to other Flexforms (e.g., modules in a system), not intermediate code per se. They are constructed automatically during reverse engineering and during translation. They can also be constructed and/or edited manually.

Do you have any suggestions about how we can use Flexsys, SoftBuilder and/or AutoBuilder to accomplish xyz in our abc environment?

ANSWER: This kind of question is characteristic of what our commercialization partners ask from time to time.  To help, we typically need to know something about both your environment and your goals. If you think we can be of help, please see "Support Services".

I have downloaded the files, unzipped them and attempted to run them. What should I do next?

ANSWER: Please follow the INSTALLATION AND AUTHORIZATION INSTRUCTIONS under Knowledge Base. After installation, we suggest that you get started by: a) First exploring the pulldown structure to get an idea of how things are organized, and b) then starting and going through the tutorials.

To run flx.exe, I have to find the .exe and click on it (I am running NT3.5). The program forces me to reboot (soft) to get to the task list where I can then terminate the job. I am sure I am missing something. Is the program is looking for a file or something? I get a litany of error messages such as unable to read file cmpnts\author\autflexs.prb etc. The program seems to have a preordained directory structure.

ANSWER: Flexsys is designed for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and later. The best thing to do is to upgrade your operating system.

What is the price of your tools?

ANSWER: Please see the options under Order.

How is your software distributed? What kind of licenses do you provide?

ANSWER: All Scandura development systems are available for use over the Internet on a usage basis. Once the software has been ordered and downloaded, a license is set up automatically so you can begin work immediately. Special licensing arrangements may be made for qualified defense and other high-security organizations where an isolated work environment is essential. For details, please see the Licensing panel.

Do you have local support in Europe?

ANSWER: Please see the Support and Services panel for the latest information.

Do you have versions of your software running on workstations or servers (Sun, SGI, IBM, etc.)?

ANSWER: Not our development systems, or other systems having a human interface. However, our Integration Environment also runs on Sun and most other Unix platforms. (Please see The Technologies: A Closer Look under Products.)  Custom support may be available for other platforms in the future.

What kinds of services do you provide?

ANSWER: We provide technical support, training, consulting and custom development services exclusively through our commercialization partners. Please Support and Services for details.

Is it possible to send you some of our sample source code for you to reverse engineer, convert to a new language, etc.?

ANSWER: We can only do this on a consulting, or custom services basis. Again, exclusively through our commercialization partners.  Please see the Support and Services.

Some comments on the tutors:

(a) We appreciate your guidelines on the operations a potential customer is supposed to do in order to understand the whole process. What is the logical starting point and path?  Should we just start from the beginning?

ANSWER: This is generally a good idea.  The only exception may be Flexsys where you may want to begin with C/C++ (the most extensively developed) and move to the other languages in which you are most interested.  (You should, however, go through all of Flextutor's Meta tutorials.)

(b) Would it be possible during the tutorial to show the actual files before or while they are being read, created or used -- for example, in reverse engineering having the initial source on the screen. This could make the whole process easier to understand.

ANSWER: Our goal is to continually improve the tutorials so we also very much appreciate your suggestions. The above suggestion is excellent, and has been incorporated into Flexsys.