News and New Product Briefs (01/30/98)

Netscape scales back its Java virtual machine efforts

Starting with the next release of Communicator, version 5 (due this quarter) Netscape Communications Corp. has decided to scale back its development of Java virtual machines (JVMs) — the very technology that allows Java programs to run in Web browsers.

The task of writing JVMs will be turned over to vendors and other developers of operating systems.

Why the change in direction for Netscape? According to Marty Cagan, Netscape’s VP of platforms, as far as the Java front, the company will concentrate on developing Java applications, rather than focusing on JVMs.

In place of the virtual machines, the first developer’s release of Communicator version 5 will include the new OpenJava application programming interface. With this change, browser users will be able to choose from a variety of available virtual machines.

Standard Java to be the software backbone for NCs

More than one dozen NC product vendors came together in Cupertino on Wednesday and Thursday, January 14 and 15, to develop industry standards for Java-based network computers.

The group of more than a dozen companies collaborated on client software specifications, specifically focusing on the Java System Database which will be the platform-independent interface for different NC servers, some with proprietary management software that doesn’t work well with other software. (Look for it to be included in a future release of the JDK.)

IBM’s Howie Hunger says the company is pushing the JavaOS as a standard: with “a common operating system … we could have common device drivers,” noting that since JavaOS won’t ship until next month, the IBM Network Station uses a Unix-derived NC operating system.

Extensity suite manages corporate operations costs

Emeryville-based start-up Extensity announced the all-Java Extensity Operational Cost Management application suite, a set of tools designed to facilitate such large corporate operation costs as expense reports, time cards, and purchase orders.

With the software, corporate workers can file expense reports from anywhere over the Internet using common browsers. The software mails copies of the reports to the correct managers and notifies accounting of the amount to reimburse. It also helps employees track expenses (automatically noting when a particular purchase violates corporate policy).

The suite consists of:

Extensity Time Cards — automates the time-reporting cycle from submission through approval, helping to manage project accounting, cost of sales, bill back, and operational cost control
Extensity Purchase Reqs — provides purchasers with current information for contract negotiations
Extensity Expense Reports — automates the expense report generation, approval, and payment process

Additional modules to the suite will include automatic time-card tracking and purchase request forms for office supplies.

On the server side, the suite supports Windows NT Server 4.0, Solaris 2.5.1, HP-UX 10.20, and AIX 4.0. On clients, it support Windows 95 and NT 4.0, MacOS 7.6, Solaris 2.5.1, Communicator 4.0.3, and IE 4.0. And as for relational database management systems, the suite supports Oracle 7.3, SQL Server 6.5, Sybase 11, and Informix 7.2.4. Contact Extensity for pricing and availability.

In a related announcement, Extensity CEO/founder Sharam Sasson made it known that the company has received an additional million in financing from its investors, which include such venture capital firms as Hummer Winblad, and Weiss, Peck & Greer. The company has raised million so far in capital.

https://www.extensity.com/products.htm

Early-release Activator available

As you probably already know, on January 22, Sun’s JavaSoft division released an early-access version release 2 (EA2) of its Java Activator, the product that allows enterprise clients to specify Sun’s implementation of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) when running Internet Explorer 3.02 and up, and Navigator 3.0 and up — instead of using the browsers’ default virtual machines.

This second early-access release, which is free of charge, offers added support for Solaris 2.4 and other desktops. Other features include:

Full Java Compatibility Kit test-suite compliance
An Activator HTML Converter
Navigator 3.0 (and up) support
JDK 1.1.5 support
A Java debugging console

JavaSoft officials caution that this release may contain bugs.

JavaSoft will be offering a third early-access release at the end of February 1998, and it expects to issue the final release of Activator by the end of March.

Minimum system requirements for Activator:

Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Solaris 2.4 and later
Pentium 90 MHz or better, SPARC
10 megabytes hard disk space
24 megabytes RAM (Windows), 32 megabytes (Solaris)
IE 3.02 or later, or Navigator 3.0 or later

http://java.sun.com/products/ activator/

RSA security products get enhanced Java performance

RSA Data Security announced it is preparing a new series of its security toolkits that offer improved Java performance, to be ready during the first and second quarters of 1998.

The new version of RSA’s Java security kit, JSafe 1.1, will offer enhanced Java performance. It will give users the ability to link to the native C code in the BSafe toolkit, letting security transactions (at least part of the Java transaction) run in C, making it faster than in Java. RSA also has improved on Java 1.1’s memory-caching performance. The new JSafe is expected to be available by the end of January 1998.

RSA also plans to release the SPay 2.0 toolkit, designed to implement the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) credit card spec (version 1.0) by the end of the first quarter of this year. And a set of security component JavaBeans should follow by the end of the second quarter. Although the company hasn’t yet determined the final composition of the security set, it will include authentication functions and secure MIME support.

BSafe 4.0 is available now and has been optimized for better performance on various processors, including Intel’s Pentium, Digital’s Alpha, and Sun’s SPARC processors.

JSafe 1.1, JSafe 2.0: https://www.rsa.com/rsa/products/jsafe/
BSafe 4.0: https://www.rsa.com/rsa/products/bsafe/
SPay 2.0: https://www.rsa.com/rsa/products/spay/

Rogue Wave goes for Stingray Software

Rogue Wave Software announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the privately held Stingray Software, a company that designs object-oriented development tools for Windows platforms. If all goes well, the acquisition should be final by the end of February.

With the merger, Rogue Wave adds Stingray’s add-on Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) extension libraries, as well as several ActiveX and Java class libraries, to its own object-oriented C++ and Java class libraries and construction products.

“The expansion of our product line to include additional support for the Microsoft Windows developer will allow us to provide a more complete solution to customers who use the Windows operating systems exclusively. This merger makes it possible for us to offer significant time savings and functionality to these customers, particularly in the area of GUI programming,” said Rogue Wave CEO and president Tom Keffer.

Rogue Wave: https://www.rwav.com/
Stingray Software: https://www.stingray.com/

Black and White releases new OrbixBuilder for Java version

Black and White Software has debuted OrbixBuilder 3.0, a product for Symantec’s Visual Café that offers CORBA development enhancement for Java developers.

OrbixBuilder 3.0 includes:

Symantec Visual Café for professional Java developers
OrbixWeb 3.0, Iona Technologies’ latest Java ORB that provides full client- and server-side functionality in Java, supporting the CORBA-standard Java-IDL mapping
The company’s integrated graphical utilities, including
- IDL Editor — a visual compiler front-end
- Interface Repository Browser — an automatic code generator
- Server Manager — an administration and deployment module
Full CORBA class integration with Visual Café, which includes support for automatic code generation from Visual Café for IIOP clients and servers, integrated CORBA and GUI event loops, and correct stub and marshaling classes
Visual tutorials

With OrbixBuilder, server interfaces are specified with the integrated IDL editor, which provides an easy-to-use interface for compiling IDL and quickly locating errors. Java clients can then be created using the builder capabilities of Visual Caf&eacute.

OrbixBuilder 3.0 is available for Windows NT for ,795 per user. The license includes a full copy of Visual Café, OrbixWeb, and Black and White’s graphical and code generation capabilities.

https://www.blackwhite.com/products/orbbuild.html

InnoVal supports Java Lobby

InnoVal Systems Solutions, developer of OS/2 software (and an all-Java e-mail client called J Street Mailer), has launched an advertising campaign to encourage OS/2 users and developers to join the Java Lobby, an 11,000-member advocacy group that represents Java developers and users. (For more on J Street Mailer, see “InnoVal debuts J Street Mailer e-mail client” in this section.)

In the campaign, InnoVal is asking its customers and all OS/2 users to join the Java Lobby. As InnoVal president Dan Porter put it (at a recent meeting of the New York City OS/2 Users Group): “The future of OS/2 and many other operating systems is tied to the success of ‘write once, run anywhere’ [WORA] Java. Microsoft, however, is using its clout in the market to try to redefine Java in platform-specific ways that favor Windows, and only Windows. If that happens it will weaken competing operating systems, slow down Java’s evolution, and ultimately stifle new software innovations. It is important that we recognize that and do something about it. Even if we don’t plan to use Java now, we should support true WORA Java in order to protect our existing platform choices and software investments. One way to do that is to join the Java Lobby.”

InnoVal is purchasing Web banner ads and print advertising to get OS/2 users to support the Java Lobby (for example, https://www.warpcast.com/). And as an incentive, InnoVal is also giving away free software to all members of the Java Lobby.

InnoVal debuts J Street Mailer e-mail client

InnoVal is introducing J Street Mailer, its full-scale, 100 percent pure Java e-mail application. The software is currently in beta.

J Street Mailer supports such normal e-mail functionality such as multiple accounts, multiple personas, nested storage folders, and the creation of virtual on-the-fly folders. With the application, you also get:

Filters, such as Regular String Matching, List Matching, and Java filters (write your own from Java classes)
Mail mapping support
Draft options (start composing e-mail, save it as a draft, come back and finish it later)
Full template customization abilities
Post It notes and color-coding for marking e-mail

J Street Mailer (a) receives mail from POP3 servers and (b) sends to SMTP servers and POP3 servers which support the XTND XMIT command.

It also has a feature called the Personal Post Office that allows users to send and receive SMTP-style mail files to and from a directory as if that directory were a server.

As for attachments, the software supports RFC 1521 MIME for Base64-encoded or plain-text attachments, both inbound and outbound. It can also uuencode one file per outbound message and many files per incoming message.

InnoVal is set to release the first beta test version of J Street Mailer on January 30, 1998. After a two- to three-month period, InnoVal will market J Street Mailer as a full-function e-mail client and a module that can be integrated into other Java applications.

https://www.innoval.com/porter/features.htm

USENIX calendar of events

Following is the upcoming schedule for USENIX conferences and workshops:

4th Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems (COOTS)

Programmers and developers working in OO technologies and software systems, a showcase of advanced R&D work.

April 27-30, 1998

Santa Fe, NM

https://www.usenix.org/events/coots98/

23rd Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

UNIX users, administrators and developers, the focus is on the latest technology and techniques applicable immediately.

June 15-19, 1998

New Orleans

https://www.usenix.org/events/no98/

2nd Windows NT Symposium

Researchers engaged in product development as well as industrial and academic research using Windows NT.

August 3-5, 1998

Seattle

https://www.usenix.org/events/usenix-nt98/

2nd Large Installation Systems Administration of Windows NT (Lisa NT) Conference

Systems administrators share solutions with peers and experts to the challenge of managing large scale Windows NT environments, integrating NT hosts and scaling NT.

August 5-7, 1998

Seattle

https://www.usenix.org/events/lisa-nt98/

2nd Workshop on Electronic Commerce

Researchers, experimenters, and practitioners examine urgent questions. Special sessions on Public Key Infrastructures included.

August 31-September 3, 1998

Boston

https://www.usenix.org/events/ec98/

6th Annual Tcl/Tk Conference

Users, developers, and extenders of Tcl and Tk.

September 14-18, 1998

San Diego

https://www.usenix.org/events/tcl98/

12th Systems Administration (Lisa 98) Conference and Exhibition

Exclusively for systems administrators.

December 6-11, 1998

Boston

https://www.usenix.org/events/lisa98/

3rd Symposium on Operating System Design and Implementation (OSDI 99)

Researchers and developers from industry and academia focus on practical issues in the design and implementation of operating systems for modern computing platforms.

Feb 22-25, 1999

New Orleans

https://www.usenix.org/events/osdi99/

Toshiba chooses Novita Java product for appliances

Toshiba has chosen Novita Communications’ Novita LiveLetter, Java-based digital messaging software, to be included in its Confolio300 mobile Internet device and its Confolio700 desktop. The companies expect to include custom versions of LiveLetter with future Toshiba Net appliances.

Novita LiveLetter combines a JavaOS, browsers, and HTML multimedia e-mail client to allow users to create and send customized messages in HTML format. The messages can include any HTML features, including background images, fonts, animations, linked URLs, and audio streams.

The Toshiba Confolio series provides information-sharing for corporate intranet environment and mainframe terminal users. Novita LiveLetter will allow Confolio users on a corporate network to easily send messages with video clips, photos, links, and so on. The combo is expected to ship in the second quarter of 1998.

https://www.novita.com/

ArborText introduces Java-based XML Styler

ArborText, a provider of content creation and management software for Enterprise XML applications, announced the availability of XML Styler, a stylesheet editor for the Extensible Markup Language (XML). ArborText also announced that it is partnering with Microsoft Corp. in adding Extensible Style Language (XSL) support in Internet Explorer 4.0.

XSL is the style specification language being developed in conjunction with the XML initiative. In September, a proposal for the XSL specification was submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) by ArborText, Inso, and Microsoft.

Written entirely in Java, ArborText’s XML Styler is a tool for creating and modifying XSL stylesheets; it offers a graphical user interface that enables Web content providers to work with XSL stylesheets — without having to understand the many syntactic and structural details of XSL.

XSL allows for the seamless Web presentation of documents based on XML and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), telling a Web browser how to present media-independent information through a separation of form and content.

XML Styler runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT and is immediately available for free download from the ArborText Web site.

https://www.arbortext.com/xmlstyler/

San Diego kicks off Super Bowl with Java

The City of San Diego (along with American Digital Network, Apunix Computer Services, and Sun) deployed 24 Java-based, touchscreen information kiosks (called Access San Diego) just in time for Super Bowl XXXII visitors. The kiosks are designed to provide Super Bowl and San Diego information to visiting fans.

Among the available information:

Super Bowl-related events
City events
Recreation facilities
City maps
Constantly updated local weather and traffic conditions
City agencies
City businesses

Users will be able to customize a calendar of events for themselves.

Sun provided the hardware and Java consulting; Apunix supplied the Java-based application software, which integrated the NFL information into the system; American Digital Network designed the citywide network infrastructure; Bay Networks provided some networking equipment; Elo TouchSystems provided the touchscreen technology; Oracle supplied database software. The city worked with the outside companies through its wholly-owned, non-profit San Diego Data Processing Corp.

Kiosks will be located in major public areas (shopping centers, the convention center, administration buildings, and major hotels).

https://www.sddpc.org/kiosks

Update to Visual Edge Software’s UIM/X GUI builder

Visual Edge Software announced UIM/X 3.0 Platinum Toolsuite Edition (PTE), an update to its GUI-building software. This version provides features to ease migration of existing Motif interfaces to pure Java or NT versions.

Besides being able to create cross-platform GUIs from a single set of code, PTE allows users to refine GUIs created with the previous version of the software. PTE has a Migration Assistant, a feature that contains Motif Form Components and Form Constraints rules, and that can use these to automatically convert GUIs to the new target output platform. These converters are extensible, so developers can add third-party GUI components if they wish.

UIM/X 3.0 Platinum Toolsuite Edition is available for ,500.

https://www.visualedge.com/prods/uimx.html

Building aircraft engines with Java

Aviation gas-turbine engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney has turned to Java technology in order to fulfill a recent contract — to develop two prototype engines for the new Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

To perform this task, Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies company, purchased Trakker, a project scheduling/control software, which, according to computer specialist Bob Landgraff, will act as the tool to integrate cost- and schedule-management data and make it easier to communicate this information across disparate systems. Landgraff said, “This new application was fairly well suited to what we were doing, but there were a couple of things it didn’t provide, [including] the ability to show information to the functional departments in the company, engineering design, structural analysis, and manufacturing.”

Landgraff added, “We needed a specialized reporting function for each area and we needed one fast,” for the mix of Sun and NT workstations and Windows 95 PCs to be able to access info from an Oracle database running on a Sun 3000 server. (Before, the company relied on a mainframe application written in COBOL and a DB2 database to oversee project schedules and updates, limiting the data availability to those with dedicated terminals.)

So, programmers from P&W and programmers from I-Kinetics got together to craft a Java front-end for the system, using I-Kinetics’ DataBroker as the connection to the database and Iona Technologies’ Orbix for C++ and OrbixWeb for Java as the object request broker. According to Landgraff, “We have had enough experience here with C++ to appreciate all of the things you don’t have to do when you program in Java. Java is a lot easier to use and there is a vast reservoir of effective toolkits.”

The company’s legacy mainframe then evolved into a three-tier system of SPARC workstations using Solaris and PCs running NT and 95, all tied together by Java through Netscape, in a matter of six weeks (implementation time). And, according to Landgraff, it runs so smoothly that Pratt & Whitney is developing new Java applications.

Plenium’s NetDesk: Take your interface with you wherever you go

On February 15, 1998, look for Plenium’s NetDesk, a Java-based GUI environment that preserves the state of Java applications’ work across various Java-compatible machines.

NetDesk will work on top of a machine’s native desktop, through a session file that the user must transfer between machines by floppy, server, or file transfer. Users can choose which desktop look they want to implement from three styles — a Windows 95 look called Plenium 95; a Unix Common Desktop Environment look; or a desktop that runs from within a window. Users can switch desktops without restarting their systems. And the session file reinstitutes the exact spot on the new machine where the user left off on the old machine.

NetDesk will include its own Java applications, such as word processors, spreadsheet programs, presentation graphics, and e-mail software. And with Object Browser, users can use NetDesk to search the ‘Net for Java components (spellcheckers, special report algorithms, and so on), then download them for automatic integration into your Java apps.

All native applications can be run through NetDesk. And, the included Java applications can read and write Microsoft Office 97 file types.

For e-mail notification of the readiness of NetDesk, write to: notify@plenium.com.

https://www.plenium.com/netdesk/netdesk.html

Java WorkPlace behind schedule

The WorkPlace section of Lotus’s Java-based office suite, eSuite, is behind schedule. WorkPlace is a customizable interface for network computers that also includes Java applets, such as scheduling applets.

Lotus CEO and president Jeff Papows said “We’re going to be about a week late” for the promised delivery at the Lotusphere conference that occurred January 25-29.

The first version of WorkPlace, designed for the IBM Network Station, should show up sometime around the first week of February, followed by an Oracle NCI version two weeks later. And as for the Sun version, Papows said, “We just don’t have a platform to ship in on yet. We’re working to go hard this summer.”

The DevPack server-side part of the suite that contains RAD technology and tools also will be in manufacturing the same time as the Network Station version.

Versant’s ACE links up Java development tools

Versant Object Technology officials say that VersantACE (which stands for application configuration environment) will integrate company software with that from three partners to make it easier to craft Java apps to access object databases and legacy systems.

VersantACE uses a four-tier model for development:

Data storage
Design and modelling
Application server support
Communications and messaging

The first component for VersantACE is a data-storage module, the Versant ODBMS. The design/modeling piece will come from Rational Software as Versant integrates the Rational Rose interface. For application server support, NetDynamics is adding Versant’s database to the NetDynamics Studio development platform. And for communications/messaging, Versant will join TIBCO Software’s TIB/Rendezvous push software with the Versant database.

VersantACE, which should be available by the end of the first quarter of 1998, should cost 5,000 (for a 10-user license).

https://www.versant.com/

CrossWorlds finds Japanese distributors for processware

CrossWorlds Software has enlisted Omron Corp. and Kanematsu Corp. to distribute its processware, CORBA-supporting application-linking software written in Java.

Using CrossWorlds’s processware on a server (with packaged software) allows dissimilar applications to run compatibly, so developers don’t have to rewrite dissimilar software in Java or CORBA, or alter the system.

Omron also is developing a Japanese-language version of the processware, due for summer 1998. Both companies (including Compaq) have 5 million invested in CrossWorlds.

Snowbound’s RasterMaster imaging software now for Java

Snowbound Software announced RasterMaster/JAVA 1.0, a high-performance imaging class library for Java, which was designed to help developers craft Java apps that require imaging for any raster image format, such as TIFF (tagged image file format) or BMP (bitmap).

This 100 percent pure Java library is good news for developers working on such things as Java catalog applications, or any app that needs to incorporate lots of scanned images. It includes such functions as:

Image decompress
Display
Rotate
Pan
Scroll
Zoom
Anti-aliased display

The less-than-100-kilobyte library supports BMP and such TIFF subformats as Group 4, Group 3, Fax, Huffman, compressed, and uncompressed.

Available now, RasterMaster/JAVA 1.0 costs 95 for a developer’s toolkit.

https://www.snowbnd.com/products.htm

Sneak preview of Net-It Central at Internet Showcase 98

Net-It Software recently demo’d its Java-enabled Net-It Central 2.0 document-management software and allowed a sneak preview of an upcoming release at the Upside-sponsored Internet Showcase 98 on January 27-30.

Net-It Software CEO and president Dennis Ryan said that the event provided “an ideal forum for showing the community where we are going with Net-It Central. We want everyone to realize the tremendous advantages that our jDoc and Docucast technologies offer for sharing document-based knowledge within and between organizations.”

Net-It Central 2.0 allows individual departments to automatically collect, organize, and share hyperlinked collections of office documents over existing intranets. The integrated jDoc technology lets anyone search and grab documents using a Web browser without installing plug-ins or converting the documents to the HTML format. Users can also customize the Docucast channels so they get notification of certain types of documents and have those types delivered to them automatically.

Planned enhancements to Net-It Central (due in the next release) include the ability to tune this automatic-delivery capability to a finer level. Company officials also claim that support for more document types will be available in the next release.

Chaeron offers Java-based WebAccess for fighting spam

Chaeron Consulting Corp. is debuting the Java-based WebAccess Filter, a filter to cull out e-mail and newsgroup spammers.

Using the WebAccess Filter, Webmasters can deny spammers access to their Web site. In fact, with WebAccess Filter you have the opportunity to filter out entire domains (you list IP addresses from which the spam originates). The WebAccess Filter also allows you to remain selectively accessible, i.e., to non-spammers who are affiliated with “bad” domains, by simply providing individual user ID and passwords.

The Webmaster can automatically be notified as to filter actions by e-mail.

WebAccess consists of the standalone WebAccess Filter, Java applet, and WebAccessAdmin, a Java application used to locally administer the WebAccess Filter configuration data. Installation requires no change to your site.

The WebAccess Filter applet, available at no charge from the company’s site, is compatible with Java 1.0.2 and up. It supports all Java-enabled client browsers. Source code is available for a fee.

https://www.chaeron.com/software_download.html

Saab licenses CST Jacada for retail information management

Client/Server Technology (CST) announced that Saab Cars U.S.A. has licensed CST Jacada to provide a Java-based graphical client for Saab’s Intranet Retail Information System (IRIS).

Due in April 1998 (along with the new Saab line), the IRIS system will be installed at 225 dealerships and 20 service points in North America. The Jacada upgrade (integrated with Lotus’s Domino server system) will add graphical access to parts and repair orders and financial information on the company’s existing mainframe and midrange systems (AS/400s), making access to individual databases appear seamless.

Saab Information Systems director Jerry Rode said, “Today, the current information system [at Saab] requires many Saab retailers to resort to telephone calls to find necessary information. IRIS and its graphical interface capabilities will be a key factor in meeting our customer satisfaction goals. The use of CST Jacada to develop our Intranet Retail Information System will help speed retailer access to vital customer and vehicle information.”

https://www.jacada.com

Iona licenses Microsoft COM technology

Iona Technologies has chosen to license Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) technology, to ensure that its Orbix CORBA technology works well with COM.

The new COM-CORBA solution should be available in beta by February 1998. Initially, it will support Windows NT and Solaris platforms.

Iona CTO Annrai O’Toole said, “COM is a very important technology in the marketplace and we need to make sure that everything we do with Orbix works well with COM. COM is just as important to Iona as CORBA. In addition we plan to support Microsoft’s services, such as MTS.”

Iona OrbixCOMet Desktop helps port Windows apps to other platforms

Iona Technologies announced OrbixCOMet Desktop (the first product in the new OrbixCOMet line), a development environment that lets Windows developers write applications that can work on non-Windows platforms. (See “Iona licenses Microsoft COM technology” in this section.)

Using development tools, such as Delphi, Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, and others, developers can create Windows applications that seamlessly access and interact with applications residing on other platforms, including Unix, Java, MVS, and OS/2. Iona officials see tremendous market potential (150 million COM-enabled desktops) to make building and deploying powerful distributed Windows applications as easy as it is for Java and C++ developers.

In essence, OrbixCOMet Desktop allows Windows developers to access the distributed capabilities of Java and C++ without having to learn to program in those languages.

OrbixCOMet Desktop conforms with the Object Management Group’s standard for interaction between CORBA and COM objects (“COM/CORBA interworking Part B”), so it can use either the IIOP protocol or DCOM. The environment supports COM-CORBA mapping and Automated-CORBA mapping. It also requires no C++ code generation, so users don’t need compilers. And the provided client-side bridge lets applications developed with the product talk directly to CORBA servers with callback support.

OrbixCOMet Desktop should be available in beta by the end of February 1998, and generally available in the second quarter of 1998 with a cost of 95 per developer seat. It works with Windows 95 and NT 4.0 and up.

https://www.iona.com/

NEC builds a portable Java device

NEC is developing WebPanel, a portable touchscreen, Java-based Internet device designed for home and on-the-road use.

WebPanel will feature a very thin 12.1-inch active-matrix color screen with no keyboard or mouse. It should be able to send/receive e-mail, surf the Web using Sun’s HotJava browser (the one in joint development with Spyglass), and execute Java applets. Mobile communication will take place at 32 kilobytes per second.

And, according to officials, the unit will recognize finger-drawn alphanumeric characters as input.

The first prototype of the 133MHz MIPS-powered unit is expected by the end of March 1998. It will come with 32 megabytes of main memory and 8 megabytes of flash memory (retaining content after the unit is switched off). Future versions may be powered by upcoming Java chips from Sun.

Motorola and Sun jointly develop embedded Java products

Motorola and Sun Microsystems announced that Motorola has inked an agreement for the use and distribution of Sun’s Java platform technologies. Also, Motorola will work with Sun to incorporate Java across the bulk of its product families, including silicon systems, smart cards, automotive components, wireless devices, and advanced electronics systems and computers.

Motorola CEO Chris Galvin said, “Java has been widely accepted by various industries, our software development partners, but most importantly our customers, as an open software solution. When you couple Java’s ‘write once, run anywhere’ attribute with its potential to be used in the widest range of complex, to the simplest of embedded silicon solutions and telecom applications, Java is a sought-after alternative for us and our customer partners.”

Sun CEO and president Scott McNealy added, “This agreement marks the largest technology license agreement in the history of the Java platform. Motorola ships many tens of millions of embedded silicon solutions and radio products a year worldwide as the market leader in various industries.”

Synon Obsydian 3.0 and Java generator for crafting applications

Synon Corp. announced Obsydian 3.0, the newest enhancement to its client/server application development environment. The company also announced Obsydian for Java, software that provides automatic generation of portable Java-based server applications.

Obsydian 3.0 is a model-based application development environment; enhancements include:

Upgrade to a 32-bit architecture
Code generators for the AS/400, Windows NT, and Java supported platforms
Improved user interface
Improved diagrammers
Simplified model and tool configuration

Obsydian 3.0 also has added enhanced support for component standards, TCP/IP support for AS/400, and automatic ODBC database import facilities.

Obsydian for Java allows developers to deploy automatically generated server application code for any Java platform from existing Obsydian design models (which includes AS/400 or Windows NT systems). Without learning Java code, developers can take already-created enterprise applications and quickly re-engineer them for newly added platforms.

Obsydian 3.0: https://www.synon.com/products/obsydian/Obsydian3_Overview.htm

Obsydian for Java: https://www.synon.com/products/obsydian/objava.htm

Sanga International starts government division

At the recent Java Day at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Sanga International, creator of the Sanga Enterprise Java-based vertical-market component, announced it is creating a government division and opening an office in Washington, D.C.

Sanga officials justified the creation of the new division by pointing to tighter government budgets, leading to the need to streamline operations. Component-based computing saves money and time by allowing reuse of various modules. The open nature of component-based computing also saves money by making it easier to cross disparate systems and integrate emerging technologies.

According to Jim Truher, Sanga executive vice president and head of the new division, “Sanga has responded to this market need through the creation of packaged enterprise applications, built in 100 percent pure Java, specifically designed for the government market.”

https://www.sangacorp.com/

IntraNet launches Intra.doc! 3.0 document-management system

IntraNet Solutions announced the Intra.doc! 3.0 document-management system, a Java server-based document- and knowledge-management system that uses customized Web sites as the enterprise repository.

Intra.doc! lets organizations manage document lifecycles, and allows users to find, grab, and share corporate knowledge by converting corporate data into Web-accessible content. That means users can conduct on-the-fly searches, capture the results, and build new Web pages from the data. Then, the Web pages can be made available to anyone requesting the information.

The linked pages stay linked, even when the original pages are moved or revised. And the software delivers the status and history of the assembled documents to the creator.

A scenario: Customer calls, wants to build a database query system of your products. You search for products, whitepapers, methods, Q&As, and techniques on servers in your organization. You grab the results and automatically construct a Web page containing the information, links, and ordering information. Turn back to the phone and have the customer surf to your new Web site. (“Call back if you think of any other questions.”)

Every object in Intra.doc! has its own Universal Business Address or HTTP address. It employs a three-tier server security that allows administrators to control the system by profiling users by name, group, or role.

Other features of Intra.doc! 3.0 include:

A new Java architecture that allows centralized management of Web sites and includes support for JDBC standards and Java applets
Workflow pages for tracking the routing of a document before its posted to the Intra.doc! repository
A runtime version of Microsoft Access
Additional SQL database support

Intra.doc! 3.0 is available for Windows NT (supporting a SQL Server database) or for Solaris (supporting Oracle databases). In the NT environment, for a 5-contributor/unlimited consumer license, the cost is 7,995. For an unlimited contributor/consumer license on Windows NT or Unix environments the cost is 9,995.

https://www.intranetsol.com/products/prodindx.html

Compaq snatches up Digital Equipment

Compaq Computer will be purchasing Digital Equipment for a combination of cash and stock worth .6 billion — if Digital shareholders agree to the sale. The PC manufacturer will be issuing 150 million shares of common stock and will pay .8 billion in cash.

For each share of Digital common stock, shareholders will receive 0 cash and approximately 0.945 shares of Compaq common stock.

Compaq CEO and president Eckhard Pfeiffer said that Compaq is excited to acquire Digital’s worldwide service organization, as well as its expertise in 64-bit microprocessor architectures and Unix and NT systems. The deal should be finalized in the second quarter of 1998.

Sun and RealNetworks sign agreement

Sun Microsystems has agreed to an alliance with RealNetworks Inc., a small software company that focuses on Internet sound and video with its RealVideo and RealAudio technologies.

The technology and marketing agreement will ensure that RealNetworks’ software (which allows users and producers of Internet content to send and receive audio, video, and other multimedia services across the Web) will work best with Sun’s Solaris servers.

Also under the deal, Sun and RealNetworks will market a combination of the two companies’ technologies to other companies that want to deploy Web-effective multimedia applications. And, the companies will jointly develop versions of RealVideo and RealAudio built on Java.

Intel invests in Java startups and its future

Intel recently has been insuring its future, whether Java takes over or not, by investing in Java startup companies. The Intel insurance — the resulting server-side applications must run as well on Intel platforms as they will on SPARC. This strategy is similar to Sun’s; an investment in server application companies means an investment in the future sales of hardware to run them on.

Intel’s latest deals include Java application vendor WebLogic, tools vendor SuperCede, and virtual-machine vendor Tower Technology. Earlier, Intel struck deals with Java application server vendors and tool vendors, including NetDynamics and SilverStream.

Software Development