IBM Corp vice-president of object technology marketing John Slitz admits the current vogue for Java is sweeping interest in the OpenDoc object glue technology out to sea. IBM has now downgraded its OpenDoc unit to just 30 developers, compared to more than 1,000 staff it has beavering away on Java, adding in Java hooks to everything from IBM’s CICS transaction processing monitor to its OS/390, formerly MVS, mainframe operating system. Slitz, formerly IBM’s spokesperson for OpenDoc, describes the technology as a container architecture built to do things on the desktop before the Web and Java came along. Even before its Web woes, OpenDoc, which originated, of course, at troubled Apple Computer Inc, was hampered from widespread uptake as IBM took too long to bring out a Windows version of the software – it didn’t appear until last August (CI No 2,974). Slitz believes OpenDoc hasn’t been a complete waste of time. The company will implement what it has learnt about cross-system containers, as a bridge to Java for C++ developers.
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