Netscape says some of its new Communicator components have been built in Java – though it didn’t say which ones – and that its plan is to a deliver a 100% Java version of the product as soon as it is able. It says the new products full support for Microsoft OLE and COM objects and some support for ActiveX, but only where it’s required for compatibility with existing BackOffice technologies. Plans for additional ActiveX support will follow, though Netscape’s senior vice president of Marc Andreesson admitted he expects both ActiveX and the current Netscape plug-in models to go the way of the dinosaur – presumably in the face of the so-called SetScope extension of the Java sandbox that Netscape’s supposedly working on to extend Java’s scope. The new products also include integrated versions of the Visigenic Inc Java object request broker for accessing objects using the Object Management Group’s Corba IIOP standard. Communicator and SuiteSpot components should drop in alongside whatever BackOffice and Notes technologies a company may already be using, the company claims.
