Objects are a crafted art form, not a science, said Steve Mills, IBM Corp’s general manager of software solutions, as he opened ObjectWorld in Boston last month. The evangelising continued as Mills developed the theme of componentware or new age application development, where developers pick and mix technologies and users and plug and play applications. Objects may well be the software future for IBM and other companies as Mills said, but despite the rah rah there is precious little indication of whether that future might be next year or next millennium. Despite the hype, they are still gallery and boutique technologies. Even Mills admitted it was sometimes difficult to paint a picture of this object world for his 5,000 software engineers. But then are not many still re-writing IBM’s legacy for current technologies rather than working on the future? In his presentation, Mills outlined how IBM would push its objects forward this year, with OpenDoc development kits, other application develop ment tools, including VisualAge for C++, and educational and training services. OpenDoc will be the backplane framework for integrating and manipulating applications and services across IBM environments. Distancing the compound document architecture from Microsoft Corp’s Object Linking & Embedding, Mills said OpenDoc is not designed as an application linker. It is a different technology [from Object Linking & Embedding] and delivers a different set of services. We do not see it displacing OLE. Indeed, Object Linking & Embedding functionality is supported under OpenDoc. Mills describes Object Linking & Embedding as an extension of Dynamic Data Exchange, with fixed parameters, no container structure and no object-orientation. OpenDoc, in comparison, has a code container structure, wrapping application components up to create re-usable objects, plus a scripting language. Object Linking & Embedding lacks component registering and load and store facilities for re-use and maintenance.
Summer release
OpenDoc developer kits ship this month for OS/2, Macintosh and Windows clients. A summer release, called Developer Kit 2, will provide full OpenDoc integration with OS/2 Workplace. An AIX version follows later in the year – HP-UX and Solaris implementations are envisaged. For use with OpenDoc, IBM will ship its Workgroup add-on suite of electronic mail, facsimile, diary, directory and imaging applciations in the summer. Workgroup will become integrated OpenDoc components over time. OpenDoc is viewed as a 1995 developer, 1996 end-user technology. The new version of IBM’s VisualAge for C++ graphical programming tool comes with a Direct-to-System Object Model compiler for creating System Object Model components from C++; a data access builder that maps DB2 relational data to objects; and a visualisation application construction tool with object templates that generate application code. VisualAge C++ is available for MVS and Solaris, and there is a beta version for OS/400. Object Chart, a new application design and analysis environment that uses the Rumbaugh object methodology and templates to generate object code, will follow later. Bento, the Apple Computer Inc object container and scripting language, from which OpenDoc was created, is likely to form the basis of the component architecture into which the Object Management Group’s business object special interest group is looking. There is no technology proposal yet.
