Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire-based AI International is now shipping VisualWorks, the object-oriented, graphical, client-server application development environment based the Objectworks/Smalltalk language from ParcPlace Systems Inc of Mountain View, California: VisualWorks combines Smalltalk with a point-and-click graphical user interface builder, access to Oracle and Sybase databases and the EDA-SQL database gateway; AI reckons Visualworks’ easier-to-use version of Smalltalk will broaden the language’s appeal to the technical – but not expert – end user, as well as experienced programmers; it features ‘ChameleonView’, enabling users to preview and transfer the interface across Windows, Motif, OS/2, Macintosh and Open Look front ends; provides an External Database Interface enabling users to map data to objects and gain access to information regardless of database type; can tie interfaces and applications together into a frameworks that can then be partially or entirely re-used; and enables applications to be run across different systems without recompiling; VisualWorks is compatible with OS/2 Presentation Manager, Macintosh and Open Look or Motif Unix systems; Unix versions are UKP6,600, personal computer versions UKP3,950; Smalltalk upgrades are also offered by AI.
