InfoWorld News: Java In, OpenDoc Out
Apple Drops OpenDoc, IBM Shifts Emphasis to Java Beans
SAN MATEO, Calif., March 14 /PRNewswire/ --
IBM and Sun Microsystems have decided to standardize on Java
Beans rather than OpenDoc as their enterprise-wide object model,
according A Page One story written by InfoWorld Editors at Large Ed
Scannell and Tom Quinlan reports that the move to Java Beans
was a natural outgrowth of IBM's increasing focus on network-centric
computing at the enterprise level. According to Scott Hebner,
manager of application development and marketing for IBM's software
group, IBM will announce the strategy on April 2 at the opening
of Sun's JavaOne trade show in San Francisco.
"OpenDoc was optimized for being an OS-specific type
environment," Hebner said. "In line with our focus on network
computing, our component architecture is going to be Java Beans,
and that is where we are heading will all this."
OpenDoc's future, at least at IBM, will be as a source for
adding object-container technology to a number of products, such
as VisualAge for C++ and other tools, Hebner said.
According to sources familiar with the talks between the
two companies, that could include incorporating some components
from OpenDoc into the Java Beans architecture. However, Sun and
from OpenDoc into the Java Beans architecture. However, Sun and
IBM have not come to any agreement on how to do that.
Meanwhile, as Apple Computer formally unveiled its widely
expected survival strategy today, it revealed that it too will
place more emphasis on Java technologies. OpenDoc, though considered
a core technology at Apple just a few months ago, will no longer
be upgraded.
Both Apple and IBM executives had been talking with Sun
about merging the two technologies into a tightly integrated
solution offering, referred to variously as OpenBeans or JavaDoc,
sources said. However, Sun officials balked at the idea of using
a container technology that would have to be developed for specific
OSes and Although the OMG has not yet been approached, the head of
the standards body indicated that it wouldn't be a problem to
replace OpenDoc with Beans.
Full text of the article will be available on InfoWorld
Electric (www.infoworld.com) at midnight Sunday.
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, InfoWorld, The Voice
of Client/Server in the Enterprise, focuses on editorial coverage
of products used in enterprise networks. Its news organization
has earned a reputation for the timeliness and accuracy of its
news coverage.
SOURCE InfoWorld
/CONTACT: Steve Stamates of InfoWorld, 415-312-0678, or
email, steve_stamates@infoworld.com/
could not support network computers relying on only
rudimentary OSes at the client level.
So far, only Oracle and Netscape have committed to support
a common object architecture alongside Sun and IBM, but the four
companies will propose Java Beans as the object container model
to the Object Management Group (OMG), sources said. |
