Reading, UK software company Imperial Software Technology Ltd has added a promised Java code generator to its X-Designer graphical interface builder which now enables developers to use the same interface tools to generate code for Motif, Windows and Java applications from Unix. X-Designer: Java Edition – actually Sun Microsystems Inc’s name, Imperial Software had wanted to call the thing XD Java – enables developers to convert existing Motif code for Java and convert Java interfaces built with X-Designer back to Motif. X-Designer’s XD/Capture component can capture Motif-based interface designs from running applications, designs which can then be re-engineered as Java interfaces, as well as remaining in Motif. Imperial Software sees X-Designer: Java Edition as ideal for companies that wish to create Web-enabled versions of existing applications, especially when it can be used in conjunction with JavaSoft’s not-as-yet released Ice Tea middleware, which will connect Java clients, applets and objects to back-end legacy applications over TCP/IP networks. The idea is that users will click on HyperText Mark-up Language links on a Web page, Ice Tea will go off and get Java classes and these will open TCP/IP connections back to the server application. Of the Motif graphical user interface builder competition, Imperial Software reckons only Integrated Computer Solutions Inc and Rogue Wave Software Inc can offer a credible competing Java option for developers like X-Designer Java Edition, but even they can’t migrate Motif interfaces to Java and Windows.
Java add-on
There’s a Java add-on for Visual Edge Software Inc’s market-leading UIM/X interface developer, while Thomson Software Products SA’s (Alsys) Teleuse is supposedly reaching the end of its life. Imperial Software says SunSoft Inc will pick up the X-Designer:Java Edition in a future release of its Visual Workshop tool set which already includes the Imperial Software technology. SunSoft is currently integrating X-Designer 4.5 into its forthcoming BART release of Visual Workshop – yes, that is BART, as in the Bay Area Rapid Transit system – SunSoft is using train systems as its pre-production naming scheme, but we hope that the resulting products perform better than the early trains on BART, which famously used to shoot through stations at 60 miles per hour with their doors wide open. Westinghouse Electric Corp took much of the flak over that one: no wonder it eventually decided running a television network and radio stations would be much more fun. X-Designer:Java Edition – it’s the 4.6 release – costs $3,500 – existing support contract holders are due free upgrades. It’s being sold under Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX and Irix now – AIX and Digital Unix versions will follow. Really Java Edition is only the prelude to a full-blown Java application development environment which Imperial Software now says it will deliver in the first quarter of next year and target at Unix developers writing Java applications that will be downloaded to thin clients and Network Computers. Imperial Software will be competing with the likes of Borland International Inc, Symantec Corp, Oracle Corp and Powersoft Corp, except that those Java application builders are Windows-based and Imperial Software’s will be up under Unix and Windows. Imperial Software wants to call the thing Java Designer and says it will carry on calling it that until, if or when, SunSoft asks it to change it to something else. Imperial Software, like the other Java development shops, is waiting on JavaSoft to deliver the Java Beans components. It says it will ship a compatible technology with an initial Java designer release if it has to until Java Beans arrives. Meantime, Imperial Software has put its planned Windows version of X-Designer – Win-Designer – back on the shelf until it decides how the Java work will go.
