The PowerOpen Association has begun clarifying the issues surrounding interoperability between the Macintosh and Motif graphical user interfaces on PowerPC-based systems. The group says it is not mandatory for developers to support Apple Computer Inc’s Macintosh Application Services extensions to Motif and X Window, which will provide Macintosh applications with their distinctive look-and-feel. If they do, users will be able to work simultaneously on Motif, Mac, and character-based applications and be able to cut and paste data between them. Each Mac application will appear as a window in Motif. Users will also be able to run Microsoft Corp MS-DOS and Windows, and OS/2 applications using third party vendors’ software emulators, and an application catalogue listing products from certified vendors will appear next year. Systems management will initially consist of install and update functions for applications. The PowerOpen application binary interface is due at the end of April. Interface documentation will be made publicly available, detailing the base PowerOpen Environment, which comprises the PowerPC architecture, the binary interfaces and the application programming interfaces; a conversion and migration guide, which is due in the summer; information on Macintosh Application Services; and a PowerPC 601 user manual. The Association also has a System Information Library, which lists technical reference information to help vendors create PowerOpen-compliant operating systems, although they will be able to add their own extensions too. Both IBM Corp and Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, for example, will market their operating systems as AIX/6000, while Thomson-CSF SA will sell its implementation as UNI/XT. The Association will follow the ABI release with a developers conference in Boston from May 2 to 4, and expects some 200 members to attend. It also intends to provide vendors with conversion services, a bulletin board listing development updates, and a branding programme, and will develop the specification through technical work groups and suggestions from members. In the near term, the organisation says that it will review such technologies as object-oriented frameworks and multimedia application programming interfaces. PowerOpen Europe will be formally announced at CeBit this week, and Bull’s laboratory in Grenoble, which is about to be accredited as a Posix testing centre, is considered a good candidate for PowerOpen conformance testing in Europe as well.
