There is a somewhat mysterious IBM Corp team working on a dynamic component assembly tool written in Java, reports our sister publication OnLine Reporter, which, although a free-standing Java application, could end up as part of the VisualAge tool set. The tool, code-named Tazza, is a part of IBM’s Arabica component prototype, launched in support of the Java Component Initiative at JavaOne a few weeks back. A demonstration was supposedly shown around PC Expo last month. Tazza enables developers to construct programs by dragging and dropping Java applets, and connecting them. It looks on the system for Java class hierarchies, or packages, discovers them, opens the class files, looks at what the objects and methods are, and makes them available to the programmer for visual program design. The latest beta release is claimed to be able to display the innards of finished Java programs too. But some confusion may be caused by similar facilities already a part of VisualAge. Last week IBM said VisualAge for Java, including editor, debugger, browser and a Java class library, would begin beta testing early in the current half, with general availability by year-end. One of its features will be a Data Access Builder, for visually constructing data access through Java DataBase Connectivity. The builder interrogates the table and automatically generates classes. Version 4 of VisualAge C++ for Win32, OS/2 and Unix, due to go into beta test before year-end, will also include the Data Access Builder, and will provide the option of generating Java, as well as C++ and the Interface Definition Language.
