EDM/2 - The News

The News

IBM goes Java

If you did not already know it, IBM is putting a serious effort into Java. They have for example created a mortgage loan calculator for Belgian CERA Bank. Another application is Host On-Demand, a Java solution to let users have limited access to mainframes from a web page or from any Java enabled computer. More information about Host On-Demand can be found at http://www.networking.ibm.com/hex/hexprod_en.html. IBM has also started a 24-hours a day developing project with programmers in China, India, Belarus and Latvia, all coordinated from Seattle, US. This way there is always some development going on. The result will be available as VisualAge PartPaks and has a homepage at http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/vajavabeans/.
For the developer, JDK 1.1 is planned for the second quarter and JDK 1.02 should be available from http://www.software.ibm.com/. The 1.02 version is said to increase performance of some applications with more than 60 percent, measured with the CaffeineMark 2.5 benchmark.
Get educated

The REXX-class at ZDNet University mentioned in the March column has been postponed becuase there wasn't enough students signing up for the class. IBM on the other hand has got classes in many subjects, although they are maybe more aimed at professionals. More information at IBM Education and Training on the Internet.
REXX tools
SofTouch Systems has released the 2.0 version of their REXX SuperSet/2 REXX library. The biggest news is that it now supports ObjectREXX and has a number of object classes such as Named Pipes and TCP/IP sockets. There is no longer any need to license runtime DLLs, after requests from customers. REXX SuperSet/2 comes in two editions, the Professional that includes everything and the Personal that lacks the networking DLLs and object classes.
Maybe as a reply to REXX SuperSet/2, Logisoft AR announced that they are reducing the price on their RexxBOS REXX library by 25 percent. The library now costs $44.
RXDbase is a database written in NetREXX currently in beta. Included is also MaxBase, a front-end to the database also written in NetREXX. As NetREXX compiles into Java it means that these programs are platform independant. MaxBase also has support for writing plugins to present the data in a favorable way. More information at http://www.GeoCities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4218/.
Editor news

The only (?) editor to be updated this month is the Enhanced E and Enhanced EE editors from PillarSoft. New features in version 0.14 are among others: built-in HTML stripper and bubble help in the Enhanced EE. They are available at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3512/psoft.html.
If you want some colours when coding HTML and you are using EPM you can pick up a HTML keyword highlighter at http://www.panix.com/~marco/.
OS/2 programming the way it was meant to be...

Finally I would like to hint about Animated Mouse Pointer for OS/2, a replacement for the mouse pointer object. The nice thing about this is not what it does (well, that is kind of nice too), but the way it does it. Replacing WPS objects is one of the best features in the OS/2 GUI and really shows how powerful the WPS idea is. That the package is currently translating into at least twelve languages does not make it any worse. It should be available at Hobbes somewhere in their new structure (try the search engine :).
As always, send development related news to oscar@edm2.com.