Newsbits

By John Kawakami, MacTech Magazine Editorial Assistant

Yet Another Platform for CodeWarrior: Java

Metrowerks, the leading provider of Macintosh development tools, today announced that it will provide a suite of Java™ development tools, code-named Wired, for the Macintosh platform. In addition, Metrowerks announced it intends to ship the first developer release of the Java tool suite in May, 1996.

The combination of Java, CodeWarrior and the Apple Macintosh makes for a powerful Internet development solution. Sun’s Java allows Internet sites to fully incorporate motion and sound, real-time information updates, and user customization and feedback. Apple’s Macintosh family of personal computers is heralded as the multimedia development platform of choice, with Dataquest estimating 63% of multimedia content is developed on the Macintosh. Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior product line is the market-leading development environment for Macintosh, and is widely credited as a key factor in enabling hundreds of Macintosh developers to make a quick and easy transition to the RISC-based Power Macintosh line.

Using Java, which is syntactically similar to C++, developers can write custom mini-applications called applets. When integrated into Internet web pages, applets can enable expert graphics rendering and real-time interaction with users, live information updating, and instant interaction with servers on the Internet. Applets are downloadable from any server and run safely on any platform.

Metrowerks will provide full Java support in its Macintosh hosted CodeWarrior products. The company anticipates that the first developer release of Java for the Macintosh will be ready for CodeWarrior 9, which is expected to be available at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, California in May 1996.

Metrowerks:

mailto://info@metrowerks.com

http://www.metrowerks.com

Sun:

http://java.sun.com

Apple’s Now Has Creator Code Registration
on the World Wide Web

If you haven’t been registering your type and creator codes with Apple because their Hypercard based registration system is out of date and inconveneint, well, you now have no more excuses. Apple has put type and creator registration forms on the web, and registration is faster and more convenient than ever. Fill out the form and submit it to Apple, and you receive a confirmation or denial of your request around 48 hours later.

Also at this website, Apple has also implemented a searchable database so potential registrants may verify that their choice is unique. Developers can search up to sixteen codes at a time to see if they have been assigned. Owner information related to the codes, such as company, contact, address, phone, etc., is confidential. Also available on their web is general information about registration and other creator code related information.

A form to register your file type and creator codes:

http://dev.info.apple.com/cftype/main.html

A form to search the database:

http://dev.info.apple.com/cftype/find.html

Apple Delivers OpenDoc for Mac OS, on Schedule

Delivering on its promise to complete the development of OpenDoc component software technology in 1995, Apple Computer, Inc. today announced the availability of the OpenDoc for Mac OS Software Development Kit (SDK), which contains the completed OpenDoc software as well as sample code and tools for development of OpenDoc-based solutions. Demonstrating their support, 300 software developers who have been working with early versions of the SDK, made commitments to deliver OpenDoc-based components to their customers in 1996. These commitments mark the beginning of the evolution toward component-based software aimed at making computing easier for all users.

“By shipping OpenDoc, we’ve taken he first big step toward the next generation of personal computer software,” said David Nagel, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide research and development. “As Apple and others make OpenDoc-based solutions available in 1996, computers will become more easily customized for the needs of specific users, and we’ll see small innovative software developers returning to the software business. And because OpenDoc is created by an open alliance, computer customers will get more freedom of choice and won’t be tied to the arbitrary decisions of a single company.”

Apple plans to deliver the OpenDoc technology to its customers as part of the Mac OS, through hardware bundling and in component-based products throughout 1996. Apple also is actively incorporating OpenDoc technology into its system software.

The OpenDoc for Mac OS SDK includes OpenDoc system software for Power Macintosh and 680x0-based systems, sample code, full documentation, and a set of development tools. Apple also plans to deliver versions of OpenDoc in 16 additional languages in early 1996. Developers can download the entire SDK beginning on November 10, 1995 through the World Wide Web at http://www.opendoc.apple.com or send email to opendoc@apple.com to receive a free developer CD by mail. [There will be a copy of the OpenDoc 1.0 CD in the February issue of MacTech - watch for it! Pub. nst] Developers can also download additional development tools from Apple, Metrowerks and Symantec, including a pre-release version of Apple’s OpenDoc Development Framework (ODF) for Mac OS.

Component Validaion Services

CI Labs, the vendor-neutral industry association for distributed component technologies, last week announced its plans to roll out component validation services in the first half of 1996. These services along with an accompanying logo program will deliver on the promise of interoperability that CI Labs has pledged to provide.

The Promise of Cross-Platform Component Software

The availability of the OpenDoc for Mac OS marks the first of four platform implementations planned to ship over the next year. In addition to Apple’s plan to deliver OpenDoc for the Mac OS, IBM Corporation has announced plans to deliver OpenDoc for AIX, OS/2, Windows NT and Windows ’95.

OpenDoc Support Grows

More than 300 developers have stated their support for OpenDoc for Mac OS and their intention to deliver products to the market in 1996. This list grows daily as an increasing number of ISVs see the opportunities to use component software to deliver innovative products to their customers.

Interspersed among the 300 well known and unknown companies planning to support OpenDoc are a handful of unlikely OpenDoc developers including the following: Kinko’s is a US based chain of photocopy shops; Pac Bell Directory publishes yellow pages phone books; Viacom is the media giant that owns the cable network, MTV; and Virtual World Entertainment runs a chain of “virtual reality” entertainment centers where you go into a fake “cockpit”, complete with switches and lights and a big computer monitor, and wage a simulated Robotech/Battlemech war on your friends. OpenDocVR?

The complete list of committed companies is at:

http://www.opendoc.apple.com/committed.html

The very attractive OpenDoc homepage, where you may download OpenDoc and the ODF, is at:

http://www.opendoc.apple.com

ICONIX Debuts Object Oriented Methodology
Training on CD-ROM

Longtime object oriented programming tools developer and training consultants, ICONIX, noted that programmers were requiring more education and training about OO methodologies. As president, Doug Rosenberg, commented, “ICONIX has been fighting CASE tool feature wars for the last eleven years. A few years ago we realized that adding more features to our CASE tools wasn’t increasing the success rate of our clients on their projects, and that we needed to deliver methodology training directly to the desktop.

“Our first CD-ROM training course ‘An Object Methodoloy Overview’ provides a good start in that it helps to understand the big picture of OO methods in an incredibly short time, but our customers have been very clear in expressing their need for ‘on-line methodology help’ with the same level of detailed instruction we provide in our on-site training.”

Anticipating the trend that has brought Booch, Rumbaugh, and Jacobson together in an effort to unify their methods, the CD-ROM titled “A Unified Object Modeling Approach” offers extensive tutorials on the strengths of each method: Jacobson for user-driven requirements and traceability across the lifecycle, Rumbaugh for domain analysis and reuse across multiple projects, and Booch for detailed C++ design. In addition, prototyping is stressed as a requirements definition technique, with extensive explanations on how to derive Use Case and Domain Object Models from prototypes.

ICONIX Software Engineering, Inc (ph. (310) 458-0092):

http://www.biap.com/iconix/

MacHack Winner, CyberFinder, Goes Commercial

Aladdin Systems began shipping CyberFinder 2.0, a utility which gives Macintosh users an easier way to navigate the Internet. Based on a entry to the hack contest at MacHack, CyberFinder is a control panel which allows users to create new types of Finder icons, called “bookmarks,” that point to sites on the Internet. Double click on a bookmark, and the proper application launches and resolves the URL.

CyberFinder 2.0 sports a nifty notable feature, “HotKeys”, which will allow users to go to Internet sites from within any application they happen to be using. The user simply selects the URL, presses the HotKey, and voilà, instant gratification. Now you don’t have to wait for your favorite email client to add Internet Config support! There’s also another handy HotKey which will “grab” a selected URL and produce a bookmark in a designated folder.

If you need CyberFinder, you already know it. The price is US$30. There’s the original version at the MacHack site below, and a fifteen day demo at the following:

http://www.aladdinsys.com

ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com

The original MacHack entry was also called CyberFinder and is available at:

ftp://ftp.machack.com/Hacks95/CyberFinder.sit.bin