SunSoft’s contribution to the recent JavaStation festivities included additional Java application development, compilation and deployment tools in a new version of its JavaWorkshop programming suite, plus Java management tools and Java-to-Corba connectivity. New in a revised Java WorkShop will be the anticipated drag and drop Project Studio development software which can be used to create Java apps from pre-built Java Beans-based components. The technology, which is not Sun’s own but licensed from a company it declined to name, includes a visual assembly tool with charts, graphs, forms-based database access and spreadsheets, plus an HTML authoring and publishing tool. It has got shared white board and chat components too. Ice Tea, the Java-to-C/C++ middleware for connecting Java clients, applets and objects to back-end legacy applications over TCP/IP networks will also be included. The idea is that when users click on HTML links on a Web page, Ice Tea will go off and get Java classes that will open TCP/IP connections back to the server application. Project Studio and Ice Tea are due by mid-1997. The new software will go up on Macintosh as well as Microsoft and Solaris environments. Project Speedway is a set of tools and compilers for tuning Java application performance on Solaris, Win32 and Macintosh. SunSoft’s own Just In Time compilers and a new version of the Java Development Kit javac compiler claimed to compile 1million lines of code per second are due by year-end. Native server-side Java compilers that will turn machine-independent Java byte code into persistent machine code, presumably for Sparc microJava processors, are due second half of 1997. There’ll be additional Java virtual machines with improved garbage collection, synchronization, locking and exception handling. Joe 1.0, Sun’s Java object request broker which ties Java clients to back-end object environments is now also available. Solstice Enterprise Manager is being re-written in Java and will support Java Management Application Programming Interface by summer 1997. Version 2.0 of the IMAP4 Internet Messaging standard-based Solstice Internet Mail Server supporting email clients such as HotJava Views on the JavaStations and other NC devices is $500; due in 60 days.
