Faced with a rapidly maturing X Window and Motif market, graphical user interface development house Integrated Computer Solutions Inc – recently beaten to a lucrative SunSoft Inc bundling deal by rival Imperial Software Technology Ltd – is changing its skin. It is counting on a piece of Silicon Graphics Inc software that it plans to sell on an exclusive basis to provide up to half of its revenues within a short period of time, cementing, it hopes, a transition to becoming a more general corporate development house from its strictly interface development roots. Integrated Computer describes ViewKit ObjectPak as a C++ foundation for Motif application development that also eases the overall transition from C to C++ environments. It puts wrappers around collections of OSF/Motif utilities and widgets and other non-interface components written in C, for use as C++ class libraries. It doesn’t wrap each individual Motif widget up as a C++ class, claiming that this procedure would defeat the purpose of having C++ for higher-level design. The software was developed by Doug Young at Silicon Graphics in 1991 and has been used internally for the Silicon Graphics Magic desktop and development environments as RapidApp. Integrated Computer, which foresees little further growth in the X and Motif market, is effectively taking one foot out of the development market and heading for C++ pastures. Its need for new products and new outlets has been compounded by the fact that there are no plans for a C++ version of OSF/Motif on which to build.Moreover, the X Consortium has recently dropped plans for a Fresco object-oriented interface to X Window because of the lack of interest in learning a new windowing system that wouldn’t have supported the Digital Equipment Corp tool kit. Although some recent reports have begun to question whether the rise and rise of C++ will continue, Integrated Computer backs its plan with numbers from Milpitas, California market researcher Strategic Focus, which expects that 50.6% of all Unix development sites will be using C++ by the end of next year, up from 32.1% at the end of 1994. C-based sites on the other hand will shrink to 36.4% from 40.6% over the same period; Smalltalk is expected to rise to 5% from 2.5% and Objective C to 2.7% from 1.3%.
By William Fellows
To drive its point, Integrated Computer points to Market Perspective Inc’s survey of 500 ObjectWorld ’94 attendees, which showed 65% plan to purchase C++, almost 60% indicating they will buy class libraries and up to 40% buying frameworks. ViewKit ObjectPak includes a VkApp generic application class, described as the starting point for new development, with support for common tasks such as menu management, input blocking, cursor management and window manager support. VkComponent is used to build new components from Motif widgets and/or non-user interface components. Other supporting classes include ToolTalk components and graphs and dialogue boxes. Integrated Computer is shipping ViewKit ObjectPak now at from $2,000 under Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Pack ard Co, IBM Corp, Santa Cruz Operation Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc Unix. It requires C++ and Motif 1.2x development libraries and supports native compilers on those systems. There are no run-time fees and Integrated Computer is seeking OEM customers. The company will integrate its Builder Xcessory with ViewKit ObjectPak by mid-summer, enabling users to output C++ classes for use with the ViewKit. Integrated Computer’s Database Pak won’t work with ViewKit ObjectPak, at least immediately. Silicon Graphics carries Builder Xcessory for use in RapidApp. Integrated Computer’s other OEM customer is DEC. The Cambridge, Massachusetts company had a 59% share of the $25.5m Motif tool kit market last year, shipping 18,365 kits. Integrated Computer will add support for the Common Desktop Environment once the vendors begin to ship it. With SunSoft Inc becoming the first vendor to bundle a full-blown interface development system, the Imperial Software Technology X Designer graphical user interf
ace builder, Sun Express will no longer carry Integrated Computer Solutions’s Builder Xcessory. Integrated Computer claims it was in the running for the deal but refused to go as low as the $60 a copy it claims Imperial’s pre-paid royalty deal works out at. It expects unit ships on Suns to decline and revenue to remain flat as a result, although it claims overall Builder Xcessory revenue is still rising.
