Cupertino, California-based Taligent Inc, the joint venture formed by Apple Computer Inc and IBM Corp to develop to market Apple’s Pink object-oriented operating environment project, may be under something of a cloud these days as IBM and Apple look for ways to cut costs, but the company is ploughing on with its programme and late last week announced its Partners Early Experience Kit, excruciatingly tagging it with the acronym PEEK. Some 100 favoured software developers will be getting Taligent code, documentation and training under the programme. Taligent says it has also shipped an early reference release of its Taligent Application Environment application system to its investors Apple, IBM, and recent addition Hewlett-Packard Co. Originally intending to create a full object-oriented operating system, Taligent has had its mission scaled back, although the company still hopes to go on to evolve it into a full operating system if its owners allow it to do so. Under the programme, developers will receive a pre-beta release of the Taligent Application Environment open, portable application system, described as an operating system-independent environment that acts as a foundation for application functionality and interoperability. The company says the Application Environment TalAE – is built from a comprehensive set of object-oriented frameworks designed to deliver dramatic gains in developer productivity, new application innovation and a rich new user experience based on a Task-Centered Computing model. The Partners Kit programme includes delivery of the first TalAE code and header files; six one-week training classes offering hands-on training for developers to begin designing and developing Taligent applications; documentation and access to technical support; and a two-day communication session focusing on Taligent’s market vision, product strategies and investor deployment plans for Taligent products. The Kit provides about 80 of the frameworks planned for TalAE version 1, and runs under IBM’s AIX Unix. Frameworks cover applications – compound document frameworks, user interface frameworks, domain frameworks – international text, two- and three-dimensional graphics; and support – application services and distributed computing frameworks. The Kit also includes an early version of the Taligent People, Places and Things user interface metaphor.
