IBM Corp has released two utilities to its alphaWorks developer test site. It claims that VisualTestCoverage, which lets SmallTalk developers unit-test their work, will hopefully help them produce software faster. At the moment, bugs tend to go undiscovered until the end of the development process. VisualTestCoverage should enable incremental testing of each piece as it is completed. IBM says it’s the first such unit- testing application to be written specifically for the SmallTalk and Generator languages. A Java version is coming soon.
Also up on the site is a portable, phonetic spellchecker, called Werdz. Werdz can be dropped into existing applications or used to build new programs. As always with its alphaWorks releases, IBM is distributing the programs free, hoping to gauge developer interest and raise a bug report or two.
Big Blue is also reported to be experimenting with internet video technology in partnership with Ameritech, Cisco Systems and Northwestern University (see separate story). Rumor has it the aim is to accelerate net video by a factor of 1,000. The company is also said to be working on software to let geographically distributed workers collaborate on projects or share training costs.
