Taking the concept of Swiss neutrality, Borland will publicize Janeva (not Geneva) for development and integration across competing platforms. Janeva updates Java and Corba objects for .NET clients and then communicates with servers using Internet Inter-Orb Protocol (IIOP).

Borland said Janeva eliminates the need for connection of Java and Corba with .NET using either XML-based interfaces or specialized bridges, and also avoids the need to update server-side J2EE or Corba applications. Development is performed on the desktop, while building a new C Sharp application.

Janeva will be presented as Borland details, for the first time, features of its C Sharp Builder, which includes a model-based development paradigm, pricing and packaging. C Sharp Builder is planned for release this summer.

C Sharp Builder is Borland’s long-awaited .NET tool suite. The product will launch roughly a year and half after Microsoft launched its first .NET integrated development environment (IDE) – Visual Studio.NET. Microsoft released a second version of Visual Studio.NET last month.

Borland defends its decision to hold off an earlier delivery of C Sharp Builder, saying customers are only now seriously looking at .NET solutions and designing the next generation of applications. Such applications, Borland says, will need to connect to Java.

In a battle for .NET market share, Borland will play-up its cross-platform expertise and ability to innovate. Innovation is required as vendors seek to increase the value proposition of their IDEs through the promise of application lifecycle management.

Borland last month announced a roadmap for C Sharp Builder that included modeling, testing and performance capabilities. These features will be provided by Borland’s CaliberRM, StarTeam, Together Control, Optimizeit Profiler and InterBase offerings.

Janeva offers cross-platform capabilities and innovation. Janeva allows developers building C Sharp applications to expose server-side J2EE and Corba objects as .NET objects, which are compiled as executables. Communication between the client and server is via IIOP.

The integration tool is available with C Sharp Builder or separately with Visual Studio.NET. Microsoft Corp’s source code management and project planning is also supported in C Sharp Builder.

C Sharp Builder also introduces Borland’s Enterprise Core Objects (ECO) Framework, allowing programmers to model .NET applications using the Object Management Group’s (OMG’s) Unified Modeling Language (UML). The ECO Framework, an implementation of the OMG’s Model Driven Architecture (MDA), consumes a model that is implemented in .NET to provide capabilities such as object versioning and persistence.

Database connectivity is provided, too, for Oracle, DB2, SQL Server and Borland’s InterBase.

Borland is also expected to today unveil C Sharp pricing and packaging. C Sharp Builder will come in four editions, attracting developers through differing levels of features.

Personal Edition is for first-time C Sharp and .NET developers and priced $69; Professional Edition, $999, is for individual professional developers and features rich debugging and database connectivity capabilities, code visualization and the Borland data provider; Enterprise Edition, $1,799, is for teams of developers and features data providers for DB2 and SQL Server, and the ability to connect to different source code management; and Architect, $2,499, features the ECO Framework and connection to different Together Control Center and Rational Rose modeling environments.

Source: Computerwire