Following the December 7 meeting of its board, the Open Software Foundation eventually launched two more of its Pre-Structured Technology processes, this time for Complex Text Layout and X/Open Federated Naming. It is also adopting a single log-in mechanism for use with Common Desktop Environment/Motif. SunSoft Inc chief scientist Rob Gingell says all three are based on Sun-derived technologies. The Foundation says Complex Text Layout will enable the next version of Motif to support complex languages that use composed characters, context-sensitive characters or have bi-directionally intermixed characters. Digital Equipment Corp, Silicon Graphics Inc, and SunSoft are the Pre-Structured Technology process’s backers. It will use an implementation of the X/Open Portable Layout Services Specification. In plain English it means the creation of a standard way supporting foreign language applications under Motif. Complex Text Layout will support composite characters – defined as a group of character elements that are rendered together as a single composed shape. Languages include Korean Hangul, Lao, Thai and Vietnamese; context-sensitive characters – the shapes of the characters can change depending on the neighbouring characters and/or placement within a word. Languages include Arabic, Korean Hangul, Thai and Urdu; Bi-directional writing – languages that are written with intermixed left-to-right and right-to-left directions. Languages include Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Urdu and Yiddish. SunSoft claims to be the originator of the technology.

Into the pot

It will be at least eight months before reference technology is turned over to Pre-Structured Technology process sponsors and then offered to the Software Foundation members. The Foundation has finally agreed on how to build the long-promised unified (federated) network naming service which will supposedly enable any client machine to use a unified directory to dial up NetWare, NIS+, Distributed Computing Environment Internet domain name and X.5000 network services. It’s an implementation of the Sun-derived X/Open Federated Naming specification. Given that when we spoke to Gingell Novell Inc still hadn’t thrown NetWare Directory Services into the pot – Novell, it was thought would integrate Directory Services as an freelance effort – its progress should be interesting. The six-month project – in which SunSoft is the primary contractor – is smaller than the Complex Text Layout Pre-Structured Technology process, but the first in which all primary the Software Foundation sponsors – AT&T, DEC, Fujitsu Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Co, Hitachi Ltd, IBM, Novell and SunSoft – are participating. There will apparently be no requirement to extend the X/Open Co Ltd XFN specification as a result. The Foundation says the Pre-Structured Technology process will integrate naming services, file systems and application databases as a single system. Specifically it will implement a single application programming interface for all directory services – including Distributed Computing Environment’s Cell Directory Service, ONC+ NIS+, NetWare NDS, X.500 and Internet DNS; unite multiple directory services into a composite global namespace enabling information access across heterogeneous enterprises; define and implement an Internet directory protocol providing access to global directory services; bring enterprise directory services to Windows desktops; help organise information through XFN policies about users, hosts, files and services across the enterprise to simplify finding and accessing network objects; enable new services and applications to be integrated into the federation; and conform to the X/Open naming specification. The next step includes the signing of the Technology Licensing Development Agreements between all sponsoring companies. The Foundation is also incorporating SunSoft’s integrated log-in system called PAM – Pluggable Authentication Module – into Common Desktop Environment/Motif.

By William Fellows

Pluggable Authentication Module – not a Pre-Structured Technology process – will supposedly enable users to deploy different authentication technologies on different machines without requiring modified log-in and other commands. Pluggable Authentication Module integrates low-level authentication mechanisms by plugging them into applications at run-time via a high-level applications programming interface. The authentication mechanisms which can be either stand-alone operating system or network mechanisms, are encapsulated as dynamically loadable shared software modules. The modules can be installed by system administrators independently of applications, and executed by applications depending on the system configuration, the Software Foundation says. The Pluggable Authentication Module technology handles authentication, account, session and password management. Other character and graphics-based applications using local and remote log-in, file transfer, remote execution and password-changing programs can all use Pluggable Authentication Module as their system access applications programming interface. The Foundation describes Pluggable Authentication Module as complementary to the GSS-API Generic Security Services application programming interface technology which supports application-level, peer-to-peer or client-server authentication, but not system access authentication. Once users are authenticated using Pluggable Authentication Module, they can communicate securely using GSS-API together with a transport service of their choice, the Foundation says. Pluggable Authentication Module also supports security-integrated communications technologies such as Remote Procedure Call. Pluggable Authentication Module also provides single sign-on, where users type their password only once, even when using multiple security services. A preliminary version of Pluggable Authentication Module will be available to in the Common Desktop 1.0 maintenance release due by the end of last month. The final version will be available in the 1996 CDE/Motif release being developed by the X Consortium.

Smart Card

Pluggable Authentication Modules will support ONC+, Kerberos, and Distributed Computing Environment network authentication mechanisms on Unix. Smart Card support is under consideration for a future release. Alongside the introduction of DCE Web, the Software Foundation’s Research Institute also fleshed out some of its other World Wide Web projects. WebWare 1.0 is a set of software technologies claimed to extend Web capabilities as accessed through standard browsers. It includes tools that can reveal changes in documents independent of browsing activity and alert interested users; a tool that exposes the tree of links below a Web documents and enables navigation of the tree; maintains an index of HyperText Mark-up Language documents searched; a document correlation service which finds Web documents or electronic mail similar to that being viewed; a navigable, graphical history of browsing activity; a group Web-creation system enabling remote users to co-develop and maintain Web pages; and tools for developing application-specific transducers for HTTP streams between Web clients and servers. WebWare 1.0 is free for research and development purposes for this month. Under the Institute’s existing Java Advanced Technology Offering, it has put the Alpha3 version of SunSoft Inc Java up under HP-UX 9 and 10 on Precision Architecture and UnixWare 2.0 on iAPX-86. Java and HotJava are available from Sun on Sparc/Solaris 2.3 or above and iAPX-86/Windows NT. The Foundation will have beta implementations of Java/HotJava available for AT&T Corp Globalyst S40 with System V, HP 700 workstations with 10.0x, and iAPX-86/UnixWare this quarter; CP Labs’ OSF/1, Digital Unix and Sony Corp’s News stations next quarter.