JavaWorld News Briefs (6/1/97)

Slingshot 1.5: Web publishing with intelligent push

Free, online Java intro class from IBM

Amazon Web DB devtool adds JavaBeans

Digital unveils Java tools for Alpha

Sun licenses Taligent graphics technology forJava

NatSemi UK picks IONA devtool for DB inventorydevelopment

Univ. of Washington and Sun work on independent Javaverification services

Update: MerzScope 2.0 Web mapper available in beta

iavadraw 3.0 dev platform for Java and Beans

Roasted news, hot off the fire

Apple joins others on Java Foundation Classes

Microsoft licenses NCware’s Java implementation of LDAP

WebCollab lets you share visual data over the’Net

Get “early access” to the Java IDL API spec

Microsoft slips DirectX into its Java VM

Easy-to-use Java Studio almost here

Integration of e-mail, fax, voicemail, and paging made possible through Java

Despite Java popularity, developers still usingC++

New security “crash” bug found and fixed

Is trouble brewing for Java’s native interface?

Different directions for virtual machines

Update: New versions of Asymetrix tools here

Multiple smart card development packages from IntegrityArts

Version control product to bundle with Visual CafePro

Prices out for Lotus Go Webservers and Dominoservers

Domino servers start field testing

First Tennessee Bank goes online with Java

MarketBuilder DB marketing software

Traffic-Web: A merchandising task-managementsystem

IBM plans VLIW chip that runs Java

Intel’s immediate goal: Supercharge Pentiums forJava

Update: Parts for Java 2.0 IDE will support Beans andCORBA

Change FreeHand documents to HTML code

2 heavyweights license Schlumberger’s Solo JavaCard

Update: Aimtech’s Jamba 2.0 enhanced authoringtool

Version 1.5 of CSK Software’s Slingshot software is “geared towards serving the data publishing needs of the banking and brokering institutions — delivering data where and how it is required, to whomever requires it, either in real or delayed time,” says Niall O’Cleirigh, Slingshot’s chief technical architect. Slingshot is designed to distribute real-time financial market data across the Internet or intranets.

Slingshot’s Data Pump (which operates on NT 3.51, 4.0, and 95) is the core of the push technology. A single Slingshot pump can manage 16 applications simultaneously, delivering data (in real time) to 256 users at the same time. And if more bandwidth is required, the systems administrator can install subsequent pumps.

Slingshot has available as an option several development kits, for developers to build custom applications to deliver real-time data based on Java classes, ActiveX controls, Netscape Navigator plug-ins, and C/C++ apps.

The Slingshot Security Manager controls access to all items of Slingshot data for connecting users. Users are assigned levels of data to which they get access, and they are assigned certain usage of that data. Usage includes the ability to:

• Update — the user can contribute to objects.
• Read — the user can read the items in question.
• Be barred — the user is denied access to the data.

Slingshot is available as a series of different product sets. The “Platform” consists of the Data Pump, Market Data Interfaces, and the Spreadsheet Server. The “Professional” consists of Platform plus Security Manager and a Delayed Data Server. The “Developer” has the Data Pump and Spreadsheet Server, plus server- and client-side Java, ActiveX, and Navigator plug-in dev kits and the Test Bench.

Platform is available in a 50-user starter pack for 9,750; a 25-user increment is ,875. Professional costs 9,750 for 50-user starter pack; 25-user increment is 9,875. Developer is available in a single-user license for ,850.

https://www.slingshot.net/

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IBM is offering a free, online course called “Introduction to Java” to help developers quickly build skills in Java. The one-hour course uses video, audio, graphics, and text to demonstrate how IBM is using Java in its products and services.

Frank Kales, general manager of IBM Global Services, education and training, said the course “also demonstrates that education over the Internet is practical and available today from IBM.” The course was developed by people in IBM Research, along with IBM’s Java Web team and IBM Global Services.

According to an IBM official, this training approach offers the ability to train people when and where you want, as well as the ability to start and stop the course as circumstances dictate. And with this method, there’s no need for a CD-ROM: You just do a quick download of IBM’s Bamba player, audio, and Netscape.

Intro to Java: https://www.ibm.com/java/education/intro

IBM Global Campus: https://www.ibm.com/java/dev_edu.html

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Intelligent Environments has added JavaBeans technology to its Amazon Web development tool. Amazon Web is a development environment that lets Java developers build Web apps that link to legacy database systems, such as Unix and AS/400.

“Our Java strategy will, for the first time, allow Java developers to build applications that have high-performance legacy connectivity to Unix, AS/400, and IBM mainframes,” said Laurence Shafe, CTO at Intelligent Environments. “We want organizations to be able to leverage their existing investments while creating components that can be utilized across an enterprise.”

The Java strategy will occur in two phases. First the company will provide a set of Java class libraries that provide client-side support for connecting to an Amazon application running on a server. The Java class libraries will be available early summer 1997.

The second phase will be full JavaBeans publishing capabilities in the form of AmazonBeans, which will include components based on business rules and access to legacy data. This will give users Java interoperability, including ActiveX, OpenDoc, LiveConnect, Microsoft Transaction Server and CORBA, and simple drag and drop GUI builder tools. AmazonBeans will be available before the end of 1997.

https://www.ieinc.com/

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Digital Equipment Corp. announced two tools: a just-in-time (JIT) Java compiler for Digital Unix and a Java Development Kit (JDK) with support for the POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for Computing Environments) standard.

The POSIX support in the development kit will allow developers to create applications that run on multiple processors, as well as allow use of middleware products. The JIT compiler and JDK with POSIX support are targeted at distributed business applications such as transaction processing, database applications and systems and network management. The two Java tools run on Digital’s 64-bit Alpha systems.

Digital is offering JDK V1.1.1 beta kit and JIT compiler for free at their Web site.

https://www.unix.digital.com/products/internet/java.html

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Sun Microsystems Inc. is licensing graphics technology from Taligent to be included in the Java 2D Application Programming Interface (API).

Among the technologies from Taligent are: the bi-directional line layout for internationalization of text, which allows developers to mix text in different languages, including those that are written both backwards and forwards; and high-level graphics technology for combining and manipulating geometric shapes.

The two technologies are to be included in Sun’s Java 2D API, a set of class libraries that enables developers to build graphics into Java applications. They will also be included in the Java Foundation Classes, due out with the next version of the Java Development Kit (JDK).

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National Semiconductor UK has chosen IONA Technologies’ Orbix object development tool as a means to develop and integrate a range of manufacturing and reporting tools with an existing inventory database infrastructure. Orbix uses the Object Management Group’s Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard, which provides a fast, standards-based approach to the development of distributed object-based applications.

“We have chosen Orbix because it offers an open, standards-based approach to developing complex, multi-platform applications,” said Bob Marshall, technical architecture team leader at National Semiconductor UK. “By taking this approach, we can seamlessly integrate existing systems with our next generation applications and provide a solid framework for the development of reusable software components and services.”

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Sun has started work with the University of Washington’s computer science and engineering team to develop automatic Java verification services. Prior to the Sun involvement, the university group had already begun an independent research effort to develop these Java verification services.

Research by Brian Bershad, associate professor of computer science and engineering, graduate student Emin Gun Sirer, and staff programmer Sean McDirmid led to the discovery of a bug in the Java verifier that could enable a class file to filter through the verifier and possibly crash the Java virtual machine. The UW team briefed Sun on the bug, which it then corrected. It shipped the fix to Java licensees immediately. The fix will also be included with JDK 1.1.2. See “New security “crash” bug found and fixed” for more information on this bug.

For technical details of the UW-Sun collaboration, check the Sun site.

https://java.sun.com/sfaq/UW.html

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MerzCom MerzScope 2.0, the Java mapping and viewing package, is available in beta. “We listened to our customers, and responded with a smaller, faster applet, an improved user interface, and an automatic map updating agent,” said MerzCom VP of technology Philip LeNir. “MerzScope is now ready for use on commercial Web sites and intranets.”

MerzScope 2.0 features an automatic map-updating agent that allows users to keep maps updated even when the Web content changes. This feature is accessible through both GUI and command-line interfaces. Users can now produce scripts that will automatically update their maps to reflect changes in Web content. Also, a new optimized applet makes navigation through large maps faster for low-end machines. The code size of the applet has been reduced by over 30 percent, which decreases the time required for download. The enhanced user interface makes it easier to rapidly produce complex Web maps.

The commercial version 1.0 of MerzScope is scheduled for early summer 1997.

Beta 2.0: https://www.merzcom.com/eng/merzscope/beta2/license.html

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SFS Software has made available iavadraw 3.0, its Java and JavaBeans development platform for Windows 95 and NT. With iavadraw 3.0, programmers and non-programmers can build applets, applications, and JavaBeans components using a simple, visual programming interface.

The major development tools are integrated. Tools like the source code editor, preprocessor functions, project management, and a visual debugger interface all come with a tutorial on Java and JavaBeans. This dev platform supports the Java Development Kit 1.1. Get a fully functioning evaluation version at the company’s site.

https://www.sfs-software.com/

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Roaster Technologies is now offering “Roasted Java News,” an online daily for Java news, culling a collection of headlines from over 50 different publications available on the Internet. Its “Short Takes” department supplies information on new or updated applets, applications, or Java-related sources.

John Magee, director of consulting at Roaster Technologies’ sister company, Natural Intelligence, said “This saves an enormous amount of time, and keeps me and my company’s Java consultants and trainers continuously current. We consider it required reading.”

https://www.roaster.com/news/

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Apple Computer has decided it will collaborate with IBM, Netscape, and Sun on the Java Foundation Classes (JFC) and will make Java its primary development environment in the new Rhapsody operating system. Rhapsody will include a set of APIs called “Yellow Box” to let developers write desktop and Internet applications. According to Avadis Tevanian, Apple’s senior software engineering VP, the company plans to make both the MacOS and Rhapsody “preeminent development and deployment platforms for Java technology.”

Tevanian also remarked that by incorporating Java firmly into the Apple OS, Apple’s best feature (its interface design) would be a big contribution to the Java community.

Developers’ takes on the matter were slightly different. “I think that making Java a premiere development language for the MacOS 8 and Rhapsody is a long-needed move in the right direction for Apple,” said Kevin Ready, Blue Platypus CEO. He did add, “Is it enough, and is it in time?”

“I don’t see that they had much of a choice, since, by all accounts, their credibility with their development community has been spiraling downward at an alarming rate,” said Steve Sloan of Longbow International.

Original story: https://java.developer.com/special/0514_rhapsody.html

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NCware Technologies Corp., which makes directory service development tools, announced Microsoft has licensed JDAP, its Java implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Microsoft plans to include NCware’s JDAP in its Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI), which was released in March.

Currently, ADSI offers only a C++ implementation of LDAP but once JDAP is integrated with ADSI, applications written in Java will be able to access the directory services. This move toward Java is part of Microsoft’s Application Foundation Classes (AFC) initiative, which will provide Java users access to a variety of Microsoft services.

“Right now not very many applications for Windows are written in Java, but that will change over time,” said Greg Gilles, director of business development at NCware, of Bellevue, Washington.

With the ADSI set of APIs, developers can write programs that extract information stored in Microsoft’s Active Directory. This hierarchical directory service is slated for release in 1998 with Windows NT 5.0. AD: SI also provides for links to LDAP-based directories.

Directories store information about users linked to the network as well as data about where applications and other resources such as printers are located and how they can be accessed.

https://www.ncware.com

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IBM is ready to market a Java applet, developed by its alphaWorks division, that allows groups to share visual data such as drawings, slides, and so on during teleconferences. The WebCollab application lets people in different locations make whiteboard presentations while on the phone or Internet phone. Using the Live Pointer, which tracks the motion of a user’s mouse in real time, participants may refer to and make changes to presentations. Users also can define their own set of symbol libraries and options to annotate slides.

WebCollab is pure Java; it runs with any Java-enabled Web browser, reducing the need for proprietary hardware or extensive network bandwidth. The application comes with the WebCollab client applet, the WebCollab server, and an HTTP Web server. And you only need one copy of the application to use it. WebCollab is available for free download at alphaWorks.

https://www4.alphaWorks.ibm.com/formula.nsf/system/search/technologies/312D10B8CC6840CA882564950067605C

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JavaSoft has made the Java IDL API specification available for public review as an Early Access Release. The Java IDL is a part of Sun’s Java Platform for the Enterprise that provides IIOP (Internet Inter-Orb Protocol) support, standards-based interoperability, and connectivity with CORBA.

https://java.sun.com/products/jdk/idl

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Microsoft is preparing to incorporate its DirectX multimedia technology into its Java virtual machine — a move designed to give the company a stronger position in cross-platform multimedia development. This will allow Java developers to write to the DirectX API using Java. Microsoft is performing this task by its recent purchase of Dimension X, a 2D/3D VRML development company with products (Liquid Reality) that are already focused on the Java programming language.

John Rymer, an industry analyst with the Giga Information Group, said Microsoft’s strategy substitutes one programming language for another, with the final result being the same. “They are going to create a Java environment in the image of Windows. Developers have been using C++ to write to the Win API for years, when C++ was the hot language. Here comes another language, and Microsoft is saying, ‘use it’ — Java — to get to all of its existing stuff.”

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Sun is almost ready to release Java Studio, a simpler version of Java. Java Studio can be used on any computer to create animation and graphics for Web sites. The release trumpets Sun’s move into the consumer market. “Sun is not just for propeller heads, it’s for everybody,” said Janpieter Scheerder, president of SunSoft.

The move may have been precipitated by Microsoft’s purchase of Dimension X, as a way to capture some of the consumer market. Sun has been moving in that direction. (Witness the “See Pat” Java development print ad campaign and the cable and network television commercials.)

Java Studio lets consumers point and click to build Java applications for their Web sites. Users can grab a test version for free from Sun’s site. The company plans to sell Java Studio over the ‘Net for about 00, starting in August 1997. And Sun may also sell it in retail stores.

https://www.sun.com/studio/

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Tornado Software Development announced the availability of a beta version of the Tornado Electronic Messaging System (TEMS), a low-cost service that allows users to receive all types of messages, whether e-mail, fax, voicemail, or page — in one format. TEMS also enables users to initiate e-mail messages via the Internet and send them to multiple recipients in any format.

“TEMS centralizes communication for the busy executive, especially mobile users, and gives alternatives to the small office/home office [SOHO] users,” said Kevin Torf, president of Tornado. “TEMS is easy to use and offers incredible convenience to anyone using a fax, phone, pager, or e-mail.”

TEMS is a device-independent way to send messages via any Java-enabled Web browser. TEMS resides on Tornado’s servers, and the Java applets are downloaded to a user’s computer on demand. TEMS can be used on any computer platform at any location around the world. Plus, users without computers can phone in messages that then are automatically converted into e-mail. And they can receive pages, faxes, e-mails, and voicemails via the telephone.

TEMS users designate the form in which they wish to receive messages, regardless of whether they are at their business, their residence, or away on travel. For example, if away on business or vacation, users can have their e-mail messages sent to them in fax form. Moreover, they can select or prioritize the form of message being received dependent upon the source. Users can tailor TEMS such that selected e-mails, faxes, pages, and voicemails are received only at designated times or through chosen means. The user creates a flexible program for receiving communications in any time/device combination.

Users will pay a 0 monthly fee for service and a one-time setup fee of 5. An additional 0/month is charged for a personalized phone number (DID). All users receive 10 megabytes of free storage space for messages. The seamless electronic messaging system can be purchased as an outline Internet service (TEMS), or as the component on an intranet known as TEMS Exchange (available in the first quarter of ’98). TEMS also will be available on NT Exchange and Solaris Exchange.

In the first quarter of ’98, companies will be able to purchase a server for internal communication with local calling rates. The corporate systems will mirror the traditional consumer options.

TEMS is available as a free download from the company’s Web site. The final product will be available on July 4.

https://www.tems.com

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According to industry analysts, C++ is still the tool most developers use to get their work done. IDC estimates that for 1997, 300,000 copies of Java RAD and IDE tools will ship. The company estimates that 1.28 million users will license C++ by the end of the year. And even though C++ sales have flattened (possibly due to the hard sell of Java adherents), IDC also predicts that more than 90 percent of the C++ developers will upgrade to the next version.

In a survey of 750 developers, Market Decisions found that 24 percent said C++ was the tool they used most often for projects developed in the past six months. Five months ago, that number was 26 percent. Six percent reported Java to be the primary development tool, double the number from five months ago.

“Where performance is an issue, C++ is the development language being used,” said IDC analyst Evan Quinn. “The latest performance improvements in Java are real. But C++ will still be used for years to come to develop high-performance code.”

“Java remains slow because there is no compiler, it’s an interpreted language,” said Mitch Kramer, Patricia Seybold Group analyst. There is still the belief that for raw performance, you have to manipulate memory using pointers in C++. Java doesn’t have that ability. And for system-level code, for high-performance code, you have to mess around in memory.”

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Researchers at the University of Washington have found a bug in Java that could allow hackers to crash Java programs.

The JDK 1.1.1 bytecode verifier does not check that the number of arguments passed into a method is less than the amount of space allocated to local variables for that method, in its MAXLOCAL classfile attribute. If a method is given more arguments than it has room for in its local variables space, a stack overflow can occur that will often crash the Java virtual machine (JVM).

The fix (in the native C code that implements the class loader) incorporates two additional safety checks. It checks that the number of arguments is smaller than the number of local variables. And it checks that the number of arguments is fewer than 255, to match the JVM specification.

Sun has created a fix for the bug that will ship to Java licensees immediately, and will also ship with the Java Development Kit 1.1.2, due at the end of May.

https://java.sun.com/sfaq/UW.html

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The native method interface is critical to Java implementation since the interface links platform-neutral Java to the machine-specific modules that deliver native GUI look and feel, provide low-level access to hardware, and maximize the speed of critical algorithms. And Microsoft and Sun are creating tough choices for developers by developing these links to native code in different directions.

From the start, the best way to describe Java’s interface to native code has been “undecided.” Sun’s own Java 1.0 documentation included a warning: “Use these interfaces at your own risk and in full knowledge that they will change in future releases of Java.”

Microsoft is building its own Raw Native Interface (RNI) which maximizes runtime speed on Windows and demands that application developers pay close attention to the interaction between native code and Java’s automatic memory management process, known as garbage collection. RNI will move Java one step closer to Microsoft’s Java strategy — “write once, run anywhere — but run best on Windows.”

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Microsoft has acknowledged it has no plans to support JavaSoft’s next Java virtual machine (JVM), the HotSpot. Instead, the company will continue to rewrite the JVM to its own specifications. Microsoft will incorporate this version into Internet Explorer 4.0 in summer ’97.

Besides advances to the Raw Native Interface, the Microsoft JVM will include the DirectX multimedia API and an improved just-in-time compiler and features to help the JVM deal with repetitive loop actions.

JavaSoft’s HotSpot VM (general release planned for the fourth quarter ’97) achieves faster speeds by enabling the VM to look for loops and dynamically compile the bytecode into machine code. The VM also will look for repetitive method calls that can be dynamically integrated into the application and inlined for faster execution. JavaSoft is introducing its own new garbage collector as part of its Java Native Interface, a counterpart to Microsoft’s RNI.

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Asymetrix offers two new editions of its SuperCede Java development environment: SuperCede Java/ActiveX Edition; and SuperCede Database Edition. Both versions add to the SuperCede Java Edition.

SuperCede Java/ActiveX Edition allows developers to interactively and visually construct Java applications using both Java and ActiveX controls. It comes bundled with translation technology from TV Objects that allows Visual Basic developers to convert existing Visual Basic forms to Java applications with the push of a button.

SuperCede Database Edition is designed for Visual Basic, C++, and Java developers building Java databases applications for intranets. This version incorporates drag-and-drop capabilities, and features two implementations of the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC): Intersolv’s DataDirect and Visigenic’s VisiChannel for JDBC.

Both versions are based on the JDK 1.0.2, with bundled controls and libraries from many vendors. SuperCede Java/ActiveX costs 99 and SuperCede Database Edition costs 99.

https://www.supercede.com/

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Integrity Arts demonstrated a package for developing multiple smart card applications in Java at the CardTech/SecurTech ’97 tradeshow. The development kit (not named at press time) includes an in-card virtual machine capable of running object-oriented Java applications, a set of system class libraries to support secure execution of multiple applications, and a set of software tools to develop and test applications. This package uses PCs to compile and test the applications, getting them ready to download and use with smart cards. The original demo ran several Java apps at the same time with only 256 bytes of RAM.

“Integrity Arts is proud to be the first company to bring the full power of Java to the smart card world,” said Patrice Peyret, Integrity Arts’ president. “Dynamic and secure multi-application smart cards are widely recognized as the key to driving the next wave of card business.”

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In June, StarBase Corp.’s Versions 2.0 version control software (which provides project version control, visual differencing, build and milestone management, audit logs, security, and a project repository for individuals and groups of application and Web site developers) will be bundled with Symantec’s Visual Cafe Pro, a visual development environment that allows developers to create Java database applications.

This agreement is the fourth (of seven proposed) bundling agreements by StarBase. The company has already struck agreements to bundle Versions 2.0 with Oracle, Asymetrix, and Haht Software products.

StarBase is encouraging upgrades of its product by offering Visual Cafe Pro users a 00 certificate (this comes with the bundled version) that can be applied toward an upgrade to StarTeam Workstation Professional 2.1.

https://www.starbase.com/products.htm#Versions2.0

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Lotus expects the Lotus Domino 4.6, Lotus Domino Mail 4.6, and Lotus Go Webserver 5.0 servers to be available in the third quarter ’97. All were introduced in April 1997 as part of the IBM/Lotus Network Computing Framework, and all should be available beginning in July.

The Domino 4.6 applications and messaging server offers an integrated set of services that enables developers to rapidly develop and deploy custom business-critical apps. The single processor version will start at an estimated price of ,495.

The Domino Mail 4.6 messaging server provides Internet messaging, calendaring and scheduling, newsgroups, and real-time chat in a single, scalable infrastructure. Domino Mail supports industry standards. It will be available for an estimated retail price of 95.

The Go Webserver 5.0 Web publishing server allows managers and Web developers to quickly build, launch, manage, and improve their Web sites. The Lotus Go Webserver will cost 95.

Domino: https://www2.lotus.com/domino.nsf

Domino Mail: http://www2.lotus.com/domino/ma il.nsf

Go Webserver: http://www.ics.raleigh.ibm.co m/lotusgo/

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Lotus is offering the Lotus Domino 4.6, the next version of Lotus’ applications and messaging server, and the Lotus Domino Mail 4.6 Internet mail server for field testing to Lotus Business Partners at the end of May.

“With our Internet servers, Lotus delivers to customers the ability to start simple and grow fast as their Web business needs evolve. Our servers provide businesses with cutting-edge solutions that are easy to use and manage,” said Eileen Rudden, senior VP of Lotus’ Communications Products Division. “With Domino 4.6, we’re enhancing our market-leading platform for building dynamic, secure Web applications for electronic business by supporting protocols like IMAP4 and LDAP, providing more Java integration and making it easier to set up and use. Domino Mail provides organizations with an ideal Internet communications platform that supports a broad range of mail clients, is easy to administer, and scales to the enterprise, while Lotus Go Webserver is a top-notch HTTP server that gets any business on the Web fast.”

Pre-release versions of Domino 4.6 and Domino Mail 4.6 will be available to the public on the Web at the end of June.

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HOME Account Network, a financial software developer, is poised to launch its Financial Advisor software online to customers of the First Tennessee Bank in Memphis, TN. Financial Advisor is Java-based software that allows individuals to use advanced analysis and planning tools (previously available only to pension fund administrators, insurance company analysts, and other large investors) to plan a financial future.

Financial Advisor is just the start, though. The HOME Account Network’s Java user interface and application servers also will enable First Tennessee customers to open accounts, view balances, automatically reconcile accounts, pay bills, and transfer funds. First Tennessee expects the Internet bank to be operational in the second half of ’97.

“Our customers will soon be able to take advantage of the dynamic flexibility provided by HOME Account’s Java-based system,” said John Kelly, president of First Tennessee Bank. “Combined with high security and efficiency, this is the most comprehensive system in the marketplace.”

HOME Account products include:

• Financial Advisor (for financial analysis, portfolio planning, asset and liability management software)
• Basic Banking Applications
  • The Balancer
  • The Java Teller Machine
  • Bill Pay
• WebPlex (a solution for WebServer load balancing at financial institutions).

First Tennessee Bank: https://www.ftb.com/

HOME Account Network: https://www.homeaccount.com/products/products.htm

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Gateway Data Sciences Corp. is offering MarketBuilder 2.0, relationship and database marketing software that allows marketeers to incorporate a “gift registry” functionality to customer databases. This should give retailers a dynamic view of their customer relationships, thus illustrating opportunities to sell more to customers or find new markets.

The Java-based MarketBuilder 2.0 has a browser front-end and is platform-independent. It is aggressively priced at ,200 per store/location.

The way it works: Gift recipients select the gifts they would like to receive, at the same time registering such pertinent personal information as mailing address and phone number. This gives the retailer a list of preferences for the customer and a way to deliver targeted advertising to the customer in the future.

Gift givers then browse and select gifts via the company’s Web site or from a self-service, touch-screen kiosk within the store. Scanner software allows items to be quickly added to the database. As customers choose and order products, they give up certain information about themselves: name, address, payment option, and the type of products they would choose. For the retailer, this delivers a new group of potential customers, their preferences, and their addresses.

According to Christine Lowry, product marketing manager for MarketBuilder, “Melding Gift Registry with MarketBuilder enables retailers to extend their reach beyond the physical limitations of their stores to manage all aspects of their customer relationships at less cost, from a single application and a single database.”

MarketBuilder: https://www.gdsx.com/html/products.htm

Gift Registry: https://www.gdsx.com/html/gift1.htm

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At the Retail Systems 97 tradeshow, New Logic demonstrated Traffic-Web 1.6, Java-based software used to manage multi-store projects using the Internet.

Originally designed to manage day-to-day projects in fast-paced advertising agencies, Traffic-Web is a database-driven intranet and secure Internet package that lets users access it from practically any device (desktop PC, notebook, network computer, or JavaStation), and use the Web to connect people with their projects, jobs, and tasks — sort of a giant, detail-oriented, Web-based project scheduler. It works with the majors browsers (HotJava, Navigator, and Internet Explorer).

“We are focused on coordinating the details and complexities of fast-moving businesses, like retail merchandising,” said Dwight Koop, New Logic’s product development director.

Traffic-Web 1.6 is available now. For a minimum configuration, the server costs ,995. Version 1.8 should start shipping in July.

https://168.113.44.5/traffic/faq-t-web.html

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Engineers at IBM Corp.’s TJ Watson Research Center plan to build a prototype very-long-instruction-word (VLIW) chip that can run Java code as a basis for a single-board network computer. The researchers plan to construct an architecture that looks like an instruction-level-parallelism machine with RISC-like primitives.

“Our approach is to design a Java processor based on incrementally compiling Java bytecodes into a simple internal instruction-level-parallelism architecture [in other words, a VLIW]. This results in a simpler design compared to an out-of-order superscalar,” the IBM research team revealed in a paper presented at the International Workshop on Security and Efficiency Aspects of Java.

The team cautions drooling Java lovers: “We are only researchers here. We are not talking about products,” said Kemal Ebcioglu, manager of high-performance VLSI architectures.

In short, the concept in hardware is a VLIW chip with eight functional execution units and a chip interface compatible with the PowerPC 6XX-bus, pin-out specification. From the paper: “We envisage our chip as part of a single-board network computer, consisting of [the chip], an L2 cache, EDO DRAM and boot ROM, and a 6XX-to-PCI bus bridge connection to various peripherals on the board.” (A VLIW chip usually has many execution units, laid out in a neat grid, that run multiple instructions on each clock cycle. VLIW requires smart compiler software to schedule those instructions.)

To leverage existing technology, the team will make the Java chip an extension of a PowerPC-based VLIW implementation that’s already in the works. A major part of the implementation will be a VLIW software translator, code-named “Daisy,” that will convert both Java and PowerPC code into machine code that the VLIW processor can execute.

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Intel is developing just-in-time compilers to speed up Java performance. In fact, to make sure Java runs fastest on Intel, the company is making improvements to both its hardware and software. But don’t fear, Intel users! Pat Gelsinger, VP and general manager of desktop products at Intel, assures users that these improvements won’t create a “special-purpose” chip. “Intel will not do that stupid thing — not while I’m running the desktop products group,” Gelsinger said. “We have no intention, no desire, no interest at all in pursuing special-purpose Java chips.”

And according to the company, already glowing from recent reports that Java runs better on Intel (“Intel claims Java runs best on Intel” and “Java performance on NCs not up to speed,” JavaWorld, May 1997), Intel is not planning to embed Java in its improved Pentiums.

Intel’s white paper, “Java and the Intel Architecture,” has more information about the company’s direction.

“Java and the Intel Architecture”: https://www.intel.com/businesscomputing/DESKTOP/SOFTWARE/javapapr.htm

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ObjectShare delivers Parts for Java 2.0, an upgrade of its integrated development environment for developers of enterprise-class Java applications with enhancements that include support for the JavaBeans object model and the Object Management Group’s CORBA architecture. The new version also includes a project-management feature that supports team development, a graphical debugger, and an improved visual programming environment.

Parts for Java 2.0 lets developers build JavaBeans and either embed them in an application or store them in a repository. It supports both the CORBA Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP) and Java’s Remote Method Invocation (RNI) for distributed computing. The IDL wizard lets developers select the needed CORBA object and drop it into an applet. The wizard generates the Java and IDL source code.

Get Parts for Java 2.0 on ObjectShare’s site for 49.

http://www.objectshare.com/pj2f aq.htm

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You add Trailer Parc Technologies’ Insta.html into FreeHand 7.0’s Xtra folder, and the software will convert your FreeHand file for Web use. Complex layouts are preserved and graphics are automatically converted to GIFs or JPEGs. Insta.html also supports Navigator and Microsoft Font Face attributes, so you can designate substitute fonts to display in compliant browsers if your first choice is unavailable.

Insta.html also recognizes and maintains hyperlinks you set up with FreeHand’s URL Editor. Also, users can make placeholders in the FreeHand document for Java applets or Shockwave animations, and Insta.html will generate the code you need to incorporate them in the resulting Web pages.

Price for Insta.html is 49.

http://www.trailerparc.com/Cake. html

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Schlumberger Electronic Transactions announced semiconductor manufacturers SGS Thomson and Texas Instruments have licensed its Java Card implementation, called Solo. Solo is the Java virtual machine (JVM) used in the company’s Cyberflex smart card, commercially available since May 12.

The license allows these two companies (with Motorola and Hitachi to follow soon) to implement the Solo VM (which adheres to the Java Card API spec) in their smart card chips. Solo is a Java interpreter, a smart card OS, and microprocessor interface.

“Our decision to license our Solo technology to others was based on the industry’s need for a standard, open, and secure operating system and language, the very reasons we adopted Java Card API ourselves,” said Jean-Paul Bize, VP of Schlumberger Electronic Transactions.

“The Solo development by Schlumberger [coupled with] Hitachi’s advanced semiconductor technology represent an extremely powerful combination. We are very excited about the possibilities it presents for our future business,” stated Matthew Trowbridge, general manager of Hitachi Europe.

Mike Inglis of Motorola’s Worldwide Smartcard Semiconductor Operations said, “By offering an open standard OS which utilizes one of the most popular and dynamic programming languages, Java, on our microchips, Motorola would give developers the freedom to create a wealth of new smart card applications. In short, this kind of licensing agreement will do for smart cards what Windows and MacOS have done for the personal computing market.”

For more information, contact the Schlumberger site.

http://www.slb.com/et/cyberf lex_faq.html

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Aimtech released version 2.0 of Jamba, its Java authoring tool. Enhanced or new features that Version 2.0 provides are timeline animation, data collection/data publishing capabilities, Jamba wizards, and improved performance and user interface.

The new timeline and path-based animation lets Web content creators and animators visually lay out a sequence of graphic movements and actions with effects such as fade, rotate, hide, and zoom. Jamba 2.0 lets developers do this quickly, resulting in smaller files than you get from products such as Shockwave or Director, according to company officials.

There are three new ways of capturing and managing data within Jamba 2.0: e-mail, FTP, and CGI.

• The Email Object allows e-mail to be composed and sent within the confines of a Jamba applet.
• The FTP Object is commonly used to create survey forms to store multiple records in one place.
• The CGI Object is used for communicating between a Jamba applet and a Web server running a database.

New Jamba wizards are organized into five categories to quickly allow users to create common components such as banner ads, tickertape text, and data-collection forms. The wizards automatically create all of the objects and To Do Lists to make the applet work. They also act as a tutorial, explaining what the objects do and how to modify them in a step-by-step fashion.

A new Page Inspector gives authors a visual decision-tree view of each object and event on the Jamba page. A new Notes Tab on the To Do List gives developers a way to add notes to individual objects inside of Jamba.

As for performance, the Jamba Java classes have been made even smaller (40 to 130KB). And the Java code for the 2.0 classes has been streamlined and optimized for playback performance.

Jamba supports Windows 95 and NT, and it will run on Windows 95, NT, Unix, and Macintosh machines. Jamba 2.0’s list price is 49. Version 2.0 will be available at PC EXPO on June 17, and will include a Bonus Bundle of clip media and the ImageLab graphics utility. Current Jambateers can upgrade to Version 2.0 for 9. Get a 30-day free trial at https://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder/.

https://www.jamba.com:80/