After three years of developing an object repository specification with Microsoft Corp, Texas Instruments will at last unveil its implementation of the spec to ISVs in October. Final versions of the repository will begin to appear in TI software products in the first quarter of 1997. This fall, TI will announce an 18-month product road map detailing where the repository will fit in. TI won’t say which products will be integrated with it, although our sister publication, Client Server News, predicts TI will meld the repository into its Arranger workgroup applications development program. TI director of product technology, Johnny Long, said that TI will publish the specifications to a few hundred ISVs and invite feedback. TI is keeping two developers in Redmond to continue to flesh out the design of the infrastructure of the repository and to work through the issues resulting from the ISV feedback, Long added. Microsoft is developing its own repository based on the specification. TI still hasn’t put a name to its repository and won’t say which platforms it will support, only that we can’t say it will be restricted to any platform – it will span from mid-range to mainframe. Long says the repository will be compatible with TI’s Performer workgroup application development environment. TI says it was able to create the repository because it’s used re-useable elements in its products since 1987 and was able to tap Microsoft’s desktop expertise. Long says he’s pleased TI has succeeded where IBM Corp notoriously failed: With IBM, the concept was correct, but they screwed up in the execution.
