San Francisco - Much of the biggest news from the JavaOne developers' conference is
expected to be delivered by Sun Microsystems Inc., but a crowd of other vendors bumped elbows for
the spotlight here today as Java hounds poured in for day one of the week-long show.
Among the announcements expected from Sun is a specification for its Enterprise Java Beans, which will allow
developers to build server-side applications from re-useable software components. Sun is also likely to
announce the formation of a support association, known as the Java Component 100, designed to offer a
one-stop source of information for Java developers.
The news will likely be delivered by Alan Baratz, president of Sun's JavaSoft division, in his keynote address
tomorrow morning, Sun officials said. Baratz's address will be immediately followed by a keynote from James
Gosling, one of the creators of the Java language, who is expected to talk about the current state of the Java
platform.
Among the product announcements made today by other Java supporters were the following:
3Com Corp. announced a Java-based conduit development kit (CDK), a set of software tools that Java
developers can use to create conduits for the Palm Computing platform, the basis for 3Com's Palm III personal
digital assistant. Conduits are programs that provide data synchronization between Palm Computing products
and a PC, network, or the Internet. The Conduit Development Kit Java Edition is expected to be available in
mid-April for an estimated street price of $169. The CDK is currently available in English only.
Borland International Inc. announced JBuilder 2, an updated family of visual development tools for building
Java-based business applications. The high-end product in the family, JBuilder 2 Client/Server Suite, includes
support for multiple Java Development Kits, application deployment, Enterprise JavaBeans, Java servlets,
JFC/Swing components, CORBA and high-productivity coding Wizards, officials said. The family of three
products is scheduled to be available this spring. JBuilder 2 Client/Server Suite has an estimated street price
of $2,495. A professional edition is priced at $799.95 and a standard edition is priced at $99.95.
Borland also announced VisiBroker 3.2, its CORBA-compliant ORB (object request broker) for building,
deploying and managing distributed Java and C++ applications. Pricing for Visibroker was not immediately
available.
Schlumberger Electronic Transactions announced a beta version of its Cyberflex Multi 8K Simulator. The
Cyberflex Simulator checks Java application code after it has been compiled and linked, and detects possible
functional errors before loading the application onto a smart card. After simulation, the application code is
saved as a portable class file that can be downloaded onto the smart card. The tool can be downloaded for no
charge from the company's Web site.
Rogue Wave Software Inc. of Boulder, Colorado, announced three products: Grid.J 2.0, an update to the Grid/J object-oriented applications development tool from its Stingray Software Division; Blend.J 2.0, which integrates Rogue Wave's JWidgets and Stingray's Blend products into a collection of more than 25 controls for Java developers; and Studio.J, a new suite of Java components. Pricing was not available. .
BulletProof Corp. of Los Gatos, California, announced support for Sun's Enterprise Java Beans API in version 2.5 of its JDesignerPro. Components built to the forthcoming Enterprise Java Beans specification can be imported into the JDesignerPro Application Builder and used to develop server-side applications for Intranet solutions, officials said. A free trial version of JDesignerPro 2.5 is available now.
