As expected, the newly-created ParcPlace-Digitalk Inc, based in Sunnyvale, California, has created a VisualWave object-oriented development system for building World Wide Web-based applications atop its VisualWorks 2.5 Smalltalk environment. Previewed at its August user conference as Wadsworth, the Internet-enabled version of VisualWorks includes automatic HyperText Mark-up Language generation and a Common Gateway Interface programming interface. VisualWave Database Connect provides access to Sybase, Oracle and DB2 databases. ParcPlace says it could have released VisualWave as a new version of VisualWorks but decided to treat the World Wide Web as another system from which it will create a family of products accordingly. Existing VisualWorks 2.5 users can add the Wadsworth option to their environments, and ParcPlace claims that existing VisualWorks-based applications can also be Web-enabled with no additional coding. VisualWave applications can be run as a client and as a Web application server. The company promises Object Linking & Embedding and Corba communications further down the road, the Object Linking & Embedding functionality will be its own work, Corba Object Request Broker communications will likely come from its VisualWorks partner Hewlett-Packard Co which resells VisualWorks as Distributed Smalltalk with additional technologies, including Corba 2 Internet Inter-Object Request Broker Protocol. ParcPlace didn’t wish to elaborate on how its partnership with Hewlett-Packard might evolve such that future HP Distributed Smalltalk technologies could be resold in VisualWorks products.
Out for review
Support for Sun Microsystems Inc’s Java Web applications development language and environment is also expected. A VisualWave development environment is due this month for Windows and NT with other systems due in the first quarter of next year from $5,000. VisualWave server ships in versions for Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX and Windows NT next quarter, priced at from $10,000. It supports most Common Gateway Interface 1.1-compliant World Wide Web servers. St Paul, Minnesota-based Object/FX says it will create a new component for its SpatialWorks geographic information system using VisualWave, claiming it will enable users to view and analyse Web information geographically. ParcPlace says its promised road map for integrating VisualWorks with the VSE Smalltalk environment it inherited with the acquisition of DigiTalk Inc earlier this year, is currently out for review in the form of a white paper that it plans to make public before the end of the year. The promised 3.1 release of VSE will be syntax-compatible with VisualWorks, and the company also promises a future product (a ParcPlace technology formerly code-named Van Gogh) with 95% class-compatibility. As well as a merged offering, first release of which is expected within a year, the company claims it will continue to provide distinct VisualWorks and VSE product families – it has new releases inked in for the coming year – and says it won’t force users to move over to a merged offeringt anytime soon. A promised server-centric version of VisualWorks release called ServerWorks is still in the pipeline, and the suggestion is it will be the vehicle for Corba, ORB (including System Object Model/Distributed System Object Model) and other additional connections. The company denies listening-post scuttlebutt suggesting that integration of VisualWorks and VSE is being rolled further back in time than originally planned. However ParcPlace does admit that the licensing strategy IBM Corp has pitched squarely at its vulnerable Digitalk VSE installed base – the Armonker is offering its VisualAge Smalltalk environment, plus service and support, at no cost for ParcPlace-Digitalk users willing to make the switch – will make gains at its expense, though only at OS/2 sites. IBM is still OS/2-centric and VisualAge is OS/2-centric, ParcPlace maintains. VisualWorks incorporates the most popular client system [Windows], but offers an open server choice. We lose very little b
usiness to IBM. ParcPlace quotes International Data Corp numbers that give it more than 50% of the Smalltalk market, with IBM claiming the largest other single share.
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