Testing and bug fixing of a Windows NT/98/95 version of the package is almost completed. It is MRC's intention that academic and profit making organisations will have to pay a commercial rate for this version of the package, but that the UNIX version will remain free to academics. MRC are seeking commercial distributors for the Windows version and it is expected that it will be on sale shortly.
The NT/98/95 version includes Pregap4 (and associated programs), Gap4, Sip4 and Nip4.
For those interested in program portability and computer languages, the package is written in C, Tcl and Tk plus a small amount of FORTRAN; the initial port from UNIX took 2 man months of work and left us with a common source for UNIX and NT. The short time is largely due to the use of standard coding practices and the ability for Tcl and Tk to work without source code changes on both operating systems. This means that we will be able to continue the development of the package on both types of platform with the minimum of effort.
We would like to hear from anyone interested in supporting a similar project to port the package to the Macintosh. We know there is considerable demand for the package on the Mac, but (with little real knowledge) expect that a port to the Mac might be more problematic.
We are getting increasing numbers of requests for a Mac Linux version. It is likely that a version will be produced by an interested site in the near future, and we will make it available. However, at least in the first instance, we will not have the resources to support it in the way we do other Linux/UNIX versions.