News and New Product Briefs (8/3/98)

Netscape to add offerings for Linux

Netscape officials said that the company will be delivering its server products for the Linux operating system sometime in Spring 1999. First out the door: versions of the Netscape Messaging and Directory Servers. (The current Communicator 4.5 client beta is available for Linux.)

Linux, a free Unix OS, is enjoying a recent explosion in adopters, especially among ISPs and enterprise-class businesses.

Netscape is joining other vendors that have already announced Linux ports of their software, probably as an alternative to Windows NT. Computer Associates, Informix, Software AG, and most recently Oracle, have announced ports to Linux.

More on Linux: https://www.linux.org/

NEC licenses JavaCard

NEC announced that it has licensed the JavaCard specification in its effort to make its 8-bit integrated-circuit smart cards compatible with Java systems. Other smart card giants include Gemplus, Groupe Bull, Schlumberger, and Visa.

Along with the licensing agreement, NEC also joined the JavaCard Forum vendor group, in case the company needs assistance in integrating the specs with its hardware. The company has not yet decided whether it will develop its own JavaCard applications.

https://www.nec.co.jp/

TCL guy to start new tool company

Sun employee John Ousterhout, the inventor of the Tool Command Language (TCL), has left Sun to start a new TCL app-development tool company called Scriptics. (TCL shares common attributes with other such scripting languages as JavaScript, Perl, and Visual Basic.)

The first product will be TCL Pro, an integrated development environment for TCL that includes a debugger, a code checker, and a packaging/distribution tool for about ,000 per seat. The company expects to ship in September of this year.

TCL is currently used as connecting glue for server-side components, such as JavaBeans or CORBA objects. VB and JavaScript tend to be used to connect client-side and GUI components.

Ousterhout is betting that Netscape’s neglect of JavaScript will make it easier for Scriptics to add more developers to the existing 500,000 TCL users.

Scriptics info: https://www.scriptics.com/ Original article: /cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980716.wcscriptics.htm

Transvirtual Technologies releases new JVM

Transvirtual Technologies released Kaffe OpenVM, a new Java virtual machine, as an alternative to Sun’s Java implementation.

Transvirtual’s Kaffe OpenVM consists of a Java compiler and a set of Java class libraries, an alternative to the JDK, but one that is compatible with the Sun JDK 1.2 specification, according to Transvirtual CEO Tim Wilkinson. “But,” he added, “it is hard to tell without the Sun testing suites for Java.”

Sun only releases the testing suites to Java licensees, so Transvirtual would have to take the costly step of licensing Java (which it doesn’t need) to test compliance of its VM.

Transvirtual’s planned revenue will come from customized version of the Kaffe OpenVM. Wilkinson said, “We customize it to run on some of the devices as small as smart cards and point-of-sales equipment.” The company has recently licensed its technology to Schlumberger.

https://www.transvirtual.com/kaffe.html

Jini specs hit the street

Sun Microsystems has posted the Jini specifications, a design for a set of Java-based software components that will allow devices to register themselves on a network, as well as be available to other devices connected over the network.

The 25-KB Jini code will be built into devices that can connect to networks — including hard drives, processors, displays, printers, and cameras — and will attempt to unite several other key Java technologies to enable networks, and perhaps even the entire Internet, to become giant virtual machines with a multiplicity of devices working together.

The difference between current network-peripheral management systems and Jini seems to be that the connection-management protocols and control are not centralized at the CPU — they are components, and can reside anywhere on the network, since physical location is not important.

Sun officials plan to offer the Jini source code as a free download in about two months.

Jini info: https://www.java.sun.com/products/jini/index.html Original article: /cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980715.wnjini.htm

Sun dual-chip Javelin server

Sun Microsystems’s new Enterprise 250 two-processor server, code-named Javelin, makes use of the Java-based Remote System Control tool to manage distributed systems from afar.

The Remote System Control tool is a Java-based GUI or command-line interface that lets sysadmins control a distributed system remotely. The tool will notify sysadmins of server problems through e-mail or paging. A new system service processor controls the tool.

The dual-processor Enterprise 250 workgroup server comes in rack and tower versions with 250-MHz or 300-MHz ultraSPARC II 64-bit RISC chips. The 250-MHz chip can carry as much as 100 GB of internal storage through six hot-swappable SCSI disks. Four PCI slots, one 66-MHz EPCI slot, and three 33-MHz slots provide the input and output for the unit. Pricing starts at ,995.

Through October 14, 1998, you can enter a contest to win an Enterprise 250 server.

https://www.sun.com/servers/enterprise/250/

JPython lets Python and Java integrate

The Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CRNI) announced JPython 1.0, a free implementation of Python that integrates seamlessly with Java and is certified 100% Pure Java.

JPython code can access existing Java libraries and JavaBeans, and its JVM allows JPython to statically compile Python source code to Java bytecodes. Through Java’s dynamic class loading capabilities, JPython can dynamically compile Python code, delivering interactive use and compiler performance.

According to CNRI officials, JPython is well suited for embedded scripting, interactive experimentation, prototyping applications, and building systems in which programmer productivity is a primary concern. With JPython, programmers can easily mix JPython and Java code, leveraging the advantages both.

JPython implements Python in Java, available in source and binary form. To implement Python’s Per15-compatible regular expressions, JPython includes the Original Reusable Objects OROMatcher regular expression engine.

JPython 1.0: https://www.python.org/jpython OROMatcher: https://www.oroinc.com/

Blue Lobster and Synkronix offer several Java legacy solutions

Blue Lobster Software has signed a partnership agreement with Synkronix. The object is to provide legacy system developers with various re-engineering cross-platform and development systems.

The Mako Server and the Stingray SDK are two of Blue Lobster’s recent entries into this market. Mako delivers Java clients that let users transparently communicate with any ECI-enabled CICS application using a CORBA interface. With Mako and the Stingray SDK, users can choose to connect to the mainframe via the preceding method or by 3270 terminal emulation. The SDK lets developers craft Java applets and/or applications that can communicate with the mainframe through 3270 emulation.

The partnership with Synkronix will bring its PerCOBOL COBOL-to-Java development environment to the mix. The ANSI-compliant PerCOBOL supports the evolution of existing legacy applications with an editor, compiler, and debugger which, together, generate Java source code that can then be compiled using a JDK 1.1 compiler.

Mako: https://www.bluelobster.com/html/mako%20server.htm Stingray SDK: https://www.bluelobster.com/html/stingray.htm PerCOBOL: https://www.synkronix.com/products.html

Servlet’s interACT gets Java certification

Servlet Inc. announced that interACT, its dynamic forms processor, has been certified a 100% Pure Java servlet. (Servlets are small applets that can replace CGI scripts on Web servers.)

The interACT forms processor lets users build and maintain interactive HTML forms without having to program server-side scripts to handle the processing. interACT comes in three parts — an Admin tool to handle users, a User tool to maintain forms, and a forms parser.

To use interACT, all you need is a servlet-capable Web server. interACT is available for a free 30-day trial at the company’s site. The registered version starts at 95 per server.

https://www.servlet.com/srvpages/srviA.html

TGS debuts Java 3D-MasterSuite

TGS announced a Java-based version of its 3D-MasterSuite 3.5, a developer’s object-oriented toolkit that offers high-level classes for developers that plan to add interactive 3D, VRML, model visualization, and vector capabilities to Unix and Windows applications.

3D-MasterSuite lets Java developers build cross-platform interactive 3D graphics applications that support enterprise-level visualization and graphics. The apps are then distributed within Communicator or Internet Explorer. Generated apps also support the VRML 1.0 and 2.0 standards.

Components in the package include:

• Open Inventor, a general-purpose, object-oriented toolkit for developing interactive 3D graphics apps

• LMV-Master, which extends Open Inventor to support large model visualization (3D models of more than one million polygons in realtime or near-realtime)

• 3D-DataMaster, which extends Open Inventor and VRML by allowing the development of interactive 3D visualizations of contours, ISO surfaces, and meshes

• VRMLMaster, which implements the VRML 2.0 specification as an extension to Open Inventor

• PlotMaster, which extends Open Inventor and VRML to support vector hard copy devices such as CGM and HP-GL

• GraphMaster, a 2D/3D graphing extension to Open Inventor that gives applications the ability to create VRML-compliant charts and graphs for use on the Web

The 3D-MasterSuite 3.5 SDK for Java starts at ,500 for Solaris, and Windows 95/98/NT. Look for AIX, Digital Unix, HP-UX, and IRIX versions soon. A 30-day evaluation version is available.

https://www.tgs.com/Products/3dms.html

ABN AMRO picks ObjectWave to build Java management app

ObjectWave Corp. has recently completed a Java development tool for the leasing/financial services division of the world’s fourteenth largest bank, Netherlands-based ABN AMRO. The business unit will use the application to make it easier to review and approve new leases.

The new Java application replaces an existing Smalltalk system. ObjectWave used its proprietary Java framework, JavaGrinder, to integrate Java business apps and legacy data. JavaGrinder sped up development by automatically generating transaction support and object mapping to a relational database.

The application will also deliver additional business functionality, enhanced security, and transactional support. The ABN AMRO unit has plans allow some of its portfolio clients use the application.

According to ABN AMRO VP Scott Abernathy, “We chose Java technology to minimize cost constraints, reduce long-term risks to the success of the application, and ensure wide support of development resources and tools. As the Java market is still fairly young, we were impressed with ObjectWave’s ability to minimize current challenges in application development with its experience in object technology and development frameworks.”

JGrinder white paper: https://www.objectwave.com/ProdTool/JavaGrinderWhitePaper.htm

Version 1.1 of PersonalJava available

Sun announced that version 1.1 of PersonalJava is shipping to licensees.

The number one change to version 1.1 is new memory usage techniques that reduce code size, offering (according to Sun) a 28-percent reduction in the memory footprint as compared with version 1.0. The new memory requirements are now 1.59 MB for ROM and 3.2 KB for RAM.

The PersonalJava 1.1 API gets better with internationalization, signed applets for additional security, and optional support for JDBC and Remote Method Invocation.

There’s also a new tool, the PersonalJava emulation environment, designed to help developers write downloadable content by giving developers a low-cost way to create and test new applications for consumer devices on desktop computers. Before the target device is chosen (heck, before it’s conceived), developers can start creating P-Java API content.

Solaris and Win32 implementations are available.

The PersonalJava specification: https://java.sun.com/products/personaljava

Version 2.0 of VisualAge for Java here

IBM announced the next major upgrade to VisualAge for Java, version 2.0, which includes support for Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

Version 2.0 comes with a new IDE and includes IBM’s native Java compilers for AIX, NT, OS/2, OS/390, and OS/400. It sports Enterprise Access Builders so developers can add persistence support and connections to IBM’s own CICS and TXSeries transaction middleware and also to SAP’s R/3 enterprise application servers.

It also includes:

• JavaBeans for adding links to JDBC-compatible databases
• Improved version control
• Support for JDK 1.1.6
• Support for other tools’ GUIs
• Support for Lotus Domino
• Support for CORBA Interface Definition Language
• Support for IIOP
• A remote testing tool
• A debugging tool

Version 2.0 is in beta testing; the upgrade should ship for OS/2 and Windows later in the third quarter of ’98; a fourth-quarter ship date is planned for the AIX and OS/390 versions.

VAJ 2.0: https://www.software.ibm.com/vadd

Original article: /cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980721.wijava.htm

Interleaf BladeRunner tool lets Word do XML

Interleaf announced BladeRunner, a content-management system that lets Word users enter data into a Word template, after which the Word data becomes valid XML data.

BladeRunner lets Word validate a Word-based template against a document-type definition (DTD) — users enter data into fields on a Word template document, then a wizard validates the data against a DTD. It also ensures that all required fields are completed.

BladeRunner comes in three parts. One component handles getting the structured content into a repository, one manages the repository data, and one handles data publishing (complete with eXtensible Stylesheet Language templates).

Once data is entered, BladeRunner creates reusable units of information. It also performs version control, and linking and content management through its own repository. (Interleaf plans to add Oracle and SQL Server for repositories in later releases.)

For 32-bit Windows platforms, BladeRunner is expected to ship by the end of 1998.

https://www.interleaf.com/news/newxml.html

Patching Java security flaws in Communicator 4.5

Recently, researchers at Princeton’s Secure Internet Programming (SIP) group discovered a Java security bug that could be used against Communicator 4.x versions. This time, however, the cavalry came over the hill before the massacre.

The Princeton group informed Netscape of the class loader problem (which controls dynamic linking in Java) before version 4.5 was posted as beta. Netscape engineers fixed the flaw before the version was posted (verified by the Princeton researchers).

Although not easy to do (according to Netscape officials), the class loader hole can be exploited if the hacker can find a secondary flaw into the owner’s system. Once inside, the hacker could insert an applet to transfer or delete files on the owner’s system.

The Princeton group added that they didn’t think the bug could be used to attack Java or the Microsoft version of it.

SIP report: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/sip/History.html JavaWorld article: http://www.javaworld.com/jw-08-1998/jw-08-12bug.html

Be Here’s PanViewer, PanPreviewer are Java certified

Be Here Corp. announced that its PanPreviewer and PanViewer virtual reality viewer applets have been certified 100% Pure Java. Both applets are designed to help capture, process, and view 360-degree images, whether over the Internet, or from CD-ROMs or DVDs.

Be Here Marketing VP Mark Hilton said, “PanPreviewer and PanViewer make immersive images more useful for real-world business applications. From virtual reality room-to-room house tours for the real estate industry to on the spot VR photojournalism for news Web sites…Java-based technology helps Web developers present immersive images faster and easier than proprietary VR immersive image viewers.”

PanPreviewer weighs in at 2 KB, and PanViewer comes in at a whopping 6 KB. No browser plug-ins necessary. (PanPreviewer is the “lite” version of the full-featured PanViewer.)

https://www.behere.com/

Rational ClearCase will support VisualAge for Java 2.0

Rational Software announced that ClearCase, its configuration-management software, will be accessible from IBM’s VisualAge for Java 2.0.

So VisualAge developers can create Java applications and store them in ClearCase, accessible through IBM’s source code control integration.

According to Rational product manager Claudia Dent, “ClearCase will help VisualAge for Java users manage, maintain, and synchronize their team-based development efforts, even if the teams are geographically distributed around the world.”

ClearCase (with VisualAge for Java 2.0) will be available the third or fourth quarter of ’98, when the versions of VisualAge ship.

ClearCase: https://www.rational.com/products/ccmbu/clearcase/ VAJ 2.0: https://www.software.ibm.com/vadd

KL Group JClass beans to integrate with new VisualAge for Java

KL Group announced that its coming release of the JClass Java components will seamlessly integrate with the VisualAge for Java 2.0 upgrade.

The JClass JavaBeans, which will be accessible from within VisualAge, are a set of beans that let developers build grid/charting capabilities into applications. The JClass JavaBean components include:

• JClass LiveTable, a grid/table component

• JClass BWT, a GUI toolkit that enhances and extends AWT to improve the look and quality of Java applications

• JClass Chart, a component for quickly embedding graphs and charts into applications

• JClass Field, a component that provides data input and validation for a range of datatypes (works both for Java and JavaScript)

• JClass HiGrid, a RAD outline-grid with hierarchical JClass DataSource for managing, displaying, and updating master-detail relation data

For more info: https://www.klg.com/jclass/visualage

Inprise offers VisiBroker transaction middleware

Inprise is shipping VisiBroker Integrated Transaction Service (ITS), its transactional middleware that supports both Java and C++ clients and servers.

VisiBroker ITS supports Sun Microsystems’s new EJB-based Java Transaction Service. It works with the VisiBroker Object Request Broker to manage transactions for the applications.

And, according to Inprise group product manager Steve Yellenberg, “Inprise’s mission is to radically simplify the development, deployment, and maintenance of enterprise applications. We built ITS from the ground up to provide a graphical tool to make it easier to install, easier to deploy.”

It will support OMG’s CORBA 2.0 specification, including the transaction service 1.1 specification. And along with the JTS spec, it also complies with the X/Open DTP standard, and its XA interfaces to database and other resource managers.

It’s expected to start at ,995, which includes ITS VisiBroker for Java, VisiBroker for C++, a naming service, and an event service. More details can be gleaned from an ITS whitepaper.

https://www.inprise.com/visibroker/its/

Jikes compiler available for Linux

The IBM alphaWorks team is offering a downloadable Linux version of the Jikes compiler.

Jikes is a Java compiler that translates Java source files into bytecode instruction set and binary format. Jikes strictly adheres to Java specs, not accepting variants of Java. This has the effect of making Jikes one of the fastest Java compilers.

Jikes can be run in an incremental mode, as well as all-out mode. After the initial compilation, Jikes will wait until prompted, determine which files have been changed, and then bring the class files into a complete and consistent state until the q command halts the compilation.

In a separate announcement, the alphaWorks team announced Skij, an interactive scripting language from the IBM alphaWorks team that allows rapid prototyping in the Java environment.

Skij is a small Scheme interpreter written in Java, with extensions that let developers interactively create, inspect, and manipulate arbitrary Java objects. Skij can be grafted onto existing Java programs to act as a debugger for application objects.

Scheme is a small dialect of Lisp that includes higher-order functions, first-class continuations, and macros.

Jikes: https://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/formula/ Skij: https://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/formula/

L&H spawns Java audio clip installer for FrontPage sites

L&H (Lernout and Hauspie) announced that Audio Café, its Java-based streaming audio product, now allows developers and site-masters to easily add streaming audio to FrontPage-built sites.

Audio Café is a Java applet that uses a specialized L&H compression technique (for faster audio). It also lets you add streaming audio without plug-ins. The audio is delivered via HTTP.

You can try out Audio Café Light for free. At press time, the “Features and Specifications” page on the company’s site was blank.

https://www.lhs.com/speechtech/audiocafe/

ACM/IBM Java app winners announced

The ACM/IBM “Quest for Java” contest is over, and the results are in. The envelope please.

The grand prize winner was University of Alaska senior Orion Sky Lawlor with SliceViewer, an app that displays a 2D slice through a 3D block of data, useful for analyzing MRI/CAT data.

https://viz1.cs.uaf.edu/~lawlor/Java/acm/docs/intro.htm

Five first prizes were awarded for the following apps:

• JETS, the Java Enabled Telecollaboration System for realtime sharing of Java applets, by Jauvane de Oliviera (University of Ottawa). https://www.mcrlab.uottawa.ca/jets/

• Grocery Administrator, an applet administration package to set up and maintain online grocery stores, by Matt Tucker (University of Iowa). https://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~matucker/grocery/

• RAM, the Remote Access Map Queries and Viewing, an Java applet that lets users view and query U.S. Geological Survey data maps over a network, by Chris Zychowski (University of California at Davis). https://www.concentric.net/~ruprick/acm

Other prize-winners include:

• Zlatko Cajic (University of Maribor, Slovenia), FTD (Fourier Transform Demonstration) for interactive visual presentation of the Fourier transform. https://mario.uni-mb.si/~zlatko/ftd/

• Pete Sheill (Wayne State University), Jquiz student quiz software. https://indigo.chem.wayne.edu/jquiz/preview

• Brent Paschall (University of South Florida), BBTC (Brain Bowl Training Center) to train academic bowl contestants. https://www.csee.usf.edu/~paschall/BrainBowl

• Tom Conlin (University of Oregon), Sushi, an interactive 3D-volume visualization tool. https://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~tomc/jquest

• Jason Patterson (Florida State University), JPhysics, a 2D rigid body-dynamics simulator. https://www.conduits.com/qfj/

• Areef Reza (University of Waterloo), Automatic Detection of Software Failures in a PBX Call Processing Software. https://www.swen.uwaterloo.ca/~areza/Supervisor/

• Nathan Buggia (Wheaton College/Dartmouth College), NetTools 1.2, a suite of TCP/IP network and information gathering utilities. https://cs.wheatonma.edu/nbuggia/NetTools/

• Paul Carlisle, David Li (State University of New York at Stony Brook), The Sherlock Holmes School of Logic chat simulator. http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/davli/HolmesAppletHome.html

• Tianjian Yan (Wayne State University), Internet Exam Administration System, a standalone system for Internet-based exams. https://jewel.eng.wayne.edu/~tye

• Jim Morey (University of Western Ontario), DNA example, a cartoon representation of DNA. https://www.csd.uwo.ca/~morey/dnatalk/java/dna.html

• Benjamin Burton, Xiaoxin Chen (Utah State University), FreeTalk a network meeting application. https://sys3.cs.usu.edu/~sl1t2/jquest/

• Hikmat Farhat, Anne Kwong (McGill University), Mike Mondragon (Washington State University), UserCounter generates pie-chart displays of Web page hit information. https://www.wsu.edu/~dragon/java/UserCounter.html

• Daniel Bui, Russell Schwager (Cornell University), Grapher, a graphically enabled calculator. https://www.ugrad.cs.jhu.edu/~russell/classes/grapher/

• Shingo Takagi, Jose Segura, Marcin Sawicki, Luciano Fagundes (Federal University of Sao Carlos), Simulator of digital logic circuits showing basic logic doors and their features. https://www.dc.ufscar.br/~luciano

• Daniel Braga de Faria (Federal University of Minas Gerais), JmaxFlow, used to find the Maximal Flow in a Network. https://www.dcc.ufmg.br/~dbfaria/jquest98

• Rebecca Hopper, Vladimir Jojic (University of Belgrade), Graph Editor graph editing software. https://members.tripod.com/~vjojic/intro/intro.html

• Raoul Jarvis (University of Toronto), SearchManager organizes results from popular search engines and lets you browse these sites.

• Ashley Howes (University of East Anglia), Snow Simulator for constructing snow scenes. https://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/~ah/javaquest98/default.html

• Wendy Edwards (University of Illinois), Web Builder, a client/server app that allows the user to select a background, enter information into a wizard-like Java applet, and then view the completed Web page. https://csc.uis.edu/~edwards/SpilledCoke/prototype/protoview.html

Team prize winners:

• Leemon Baird (Carnegie Mellon), Mance Harmon (University of Massachusetts), Scott Weaver (AFRL), WebSim, a general simulator for neural networks. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~leemon/websim

• Patrick Rayes, Sean Checketts (University of California at Santa Barbara), Timothy Collins, CoolCode 98, a programming environment for the conversion of one programmer’s code style to another’s. https://www.webcomservices.com/coolcode

• Ramon Rodriguez Jr., Daniel Perez, Martin Bailon (New Jersey Institute of Technology), Hamster 1.0, an applet that models the trajectory of a projectile on an x,y plane. https://www.erols.com/redshift77

More information: https://www.acm.org/jquest/98winners.htm

Datek’s Madura preps for Jini

As Sun’s first Enterprise Systems partner, Datek is preparing its Java-based ERP and supply chain management (SCM) program, Madura, for the Jini network-device connection specifications.

Jini is Sun’s network-device connection system that spreads the control components of networking around the entire system, giving individual devices more control.

Datek plans to release the new Jini-enabled Madura in progressive steps, starting August 1998 with general ledger and systems administration modules. In third-quarter ’98, the company plans to roll out project and job costing, inventory tracking, bill of materials, sales-order entry, accounts receivables and payables, and purchasing modules.

KAI launches Assure debug upgrade

Kuck & Associates (KAI) announced Assure 1.1, an upgrade to its Java debugging tool that provides preemptive deadlock detection.

The Assure upgrade now pinpoints deadlocks and timing-related problems for application developers before the problems pop up in a test run. Assure uses the Java 1.1.6 virtual machine to dynamically monitor memory references, object creation, and lock acquisition, then it analyzes a program’s execution and reports errors pinpointed to the source line in the program. The results are displayed in an interactive browser.

Assure is available for x86 platforms (Solaris and Windows 95/NT) and SPARC systems (Solaris) for 95.

https://www.kai.com/assurej/

Montreal uses ModelServer to give public area map access

The Montreal Urban Community (MUC) has announced a deal with Bentley Systems to use its ModelServer Discovery software deliver public access to geoengineering maps over the Web.

MUC will first run ModelServer Discovery, a server that distributes feature and attribute data and allows querying from standard browsers, over the MUC intranet. The project will soon serve up maps over an extranet to the 29 municipalities of greater Montreal. Eventually, more than 2,000 users will have access to ownership and land utilization data through the system.

MUC GIS consultant Jean Lauzier said, “In the past, our data and maps have been trapped in our department. Now, ModelServer Discovery gives us a way to provide our personnel, and eventually the public, easy access to the data and land information they need on a daily basis. This will increase efficiency in government by offering self-service for government workers and all citizens.”

MUC already runs ModelServer Publisher, a server that converts and publishes tax maps to Web browsers, in its assessment department.

The upcoming version of ModelServer Discovery will let users develop Java applets to dynamically publish and interact with geoengineering data, making the server extendible to small devices. This version also includes a Java Viewer for applet development.

https://www.bentley.com/products/discovery/

ImaginOn showcases WorldCities 2000 at Java show in Tokyo

ImaginOn debuted WorldCities 2000, its Java-based interactive travelogue, at the recent Java Computing Expo ’98 in Tokyo.

WorldCities 2000 is a series of interactive travelogues that present major cities from the driver’s point of view, through the windshield of a car. As the user drives around the city (perceiving the locale in TV-quality video), local Web sites show up in a menu bar below the picture. The driver can go online at any time and be instantly connected to the Web site of the hotel, restaurant, or attraction they can see through the windshield.

The first volume of WorldCities 2000 travels to San Francisco. New York, London, and Paris should be available later in 1998. It will initially be delivered to users on CD-ROM and DVD for 0.

https://www.cities2k.com/

Sun offers JDK 1.2 Beta 4 and Blend 1.0

Sun released the Java Development Kit 1.2 Beta 4, along with announcing Java Blend 1.0 database-access technology.

The JDK 1.2 will include Java 2D API and support for Japanese text, as well as fine-tuned JDK class libraries for enhanced performance.

Java Blend should make its easier for developers to integrate Java programs with data stored in relational databases. It also includes the JDBC API. Blend runs ,995 per user.

JDK 1.2 Beta 4: https://java.sun.com/products/jdk Java Blend 1.0: https://java.sun.com/products/javablend

Chordiant adds beans support to its call-center software

Chordiant Software announced coming support for JavaBeans in its Customer Communications Solution (CCS), giving agents more control of screen customizations and giving administrators faster, easier deployment.

Chordiant CCS is designed to build personalized call-center systems. With JavaBeans support, expected by August 1998, CCS will now be able to run on any thin device — from network computer desktops to PDAs. Chordiant Product Marketing Director Tony Thompson noted that the proliferation of JavaBeans “makes it easy for IT shops to customize a customer representative’s screen.”

https://www.chordiant.com/tech/overview.html

IBI delivers Java app server

Information Builders Inc. announced the EDA Enterprise Component Broker 2.0, a Java application server that uses the Enterprise JavaBeans specification as a standard for component interoperability.

ECB 2.0 can act as middleware so IT departments can integrate databases, enterprise resource-planning (ERP) applications, and legacy/Web applications.

ECB comes with Symantec Visual Café for Java, a Java-based HTTP server, an RSA encryption engine, and a graphical console to develop and configure apps. ECB also provides database connectivity to more than 70 enterprise databases (through JDBC) and CORBA-IIOP services.

The server, which starts at 4,000, complies with JDNI for centralized directories, app, and user-control management.

https://www.ibi.com/products/eda/ecb.html

HipBONE lets you Co-navigate the Web

HipBONE Software announced Co-navigator 1.0, a Java-based interactive Web communication software that lets two or more users connect over browsers and visually interact and navigate the Web together. And if that weren’t enough, they can be talking on the phone at the same time.

HipBONE runs the server that lets you use the software, and it doesn’t require any downloads or plug-ins. First, set up an account with HipBONE. Next, call your partner in crime on the phone and give them a URL with which to connect. Then one of you can take control of the browsing.

Co-navigator uses any Java-capable browser and a 28.8-plus modem.

You can try the software for free at the company’s site.

https://www.hipbone.com/

alphaWorks crafts multimedia MediaBeans

IBM alphaWorks announced the addition of MediaBeans, its Java multimedia components, to its multimedia tools.

MediaBeans lets users assemble custom creations from multimedia components, designed for adding replay, network media streaming, and video/audio conferencing to applications. Developers and Web designers just have to embed MediaBean applet configuration information into an HTML page to enable the multimedia capabilities.

The MediaBeans framework supports the Java Media Framework API, the programming interface for capture, process, and playback control of digital A/V media across Java platforms. MediaBeans are organized as tasks — processes to be performed. The following tasks are available:

For pure Java

• File Reader
• File Writer
• Net Reader
• G.711 codec (Mu-Law and A-law)
• GSM Decoder
• HRL Speech Decoder
• Audio Player
• Audio Speed Change
• H.263 Decoder
• Video Player

For native APIs, using JNI

• Audio Player/Recorder with SpeakerPhone
• GSM Encoder
• HRL Speech Encoder

alphaWorks: https://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/formula/mediabeans IBM Haifa Research Lab’s MediaBeans page: https://www.software.ibm.com/net.media/solutions/mediabeans/index.html

Novell NetTop Java interface in prototype

Novell announced that it has a prototype ready of NetTop, its location-, device-, and platform-independent Java-based user interface. Whether it will hit the commercial trail has yet to be confirmed.

The goal of NetTop development is to deliver universal access to personal or corporate data (through a directory service), regardless of where it’s stored, to users of varied devices that use different contextual display schemes.

NetTop users would each have their own customized interface to access directory-based personal and configuration data. NetTop would also integrate existing apps, protocols, and desktop systems with the Java system (apps, beans, services, etc.).

Novell officials have tested the interface with pagers, cellular phones, laptops, PCs, NCs, and set-top boxes. The NetTop interface:

• Allows users to access data/e-mail

• Stores public/private keys

• Creates and manages users, groups, and companies

• Controls who gets access to a user’s personal information

And, Novell officials note that NetTop is designed to be complementary to Sun’s new Jini initiative. (Novell engineers worked with Sun engineers on Jini.) There’s even rumor that NetTop may end up being the final user interface for Jini.

Original article: /cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980727.ehinterface.htm

Seven companies offer 12-city EJB edu-tour

Java Reports, Marimba, Persistence, Phoenix Technologies, Rational, Sun, and Symantec have teamed up to deliver 12, full-day Enterprise JavaBeans technical seminars throughout North America this summer.

Although more than half the tour has finished (San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Washington, Minneapolis, Toronto, and Dallas have all been hit), interested parties may still be able to get in on the rest of the tour:

• New York (August 4)
• Chicago (August 6)
• Long Beach (August 12)

The seminars are targeted at IT managers and application-development managers and developers. The sessions will focus on EJB as a server-based component model for the enterprise Java platform; how EJB components work with existing and new software; how to develop, deploy, manage, and maintain EJB apps; EJB and high-volume transaction systems; and EJB implementation strategies. Plus, there’ll be a session where a live EJB application will be dissected, giving attendees a peek at the source code samples.

A Fall 1998 program is planned for North America with venues also in the U.K., Germany, and Italy. Dates and locations were not set at press time.

The one-day session costs 49 per person if you register more than two weeks before event, 99 if you register five days before event, or 49 if you wait to register on-site. A group fee of 9 per person (for three or more people from one company) is available if you register two weeks before the event.

https://www.ejbseminars.com/