SAN MATEO (11-18-95) - Faced with the growing popularity of Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programming language, Microsoft Corp. plans to bolster efforts to establish Visual Basic (VB) and Visual C++ as development environments for the Internet.
On Dec. 7, Microsoft will hold an Internet strategy briefing that will include an "Internet vision" speech by Chairman Bill Gates. A credible competitive Internet strategy has become imperative for Microsoft, which this week saw its stock fall after being caught off guard by the growing interest in the World Wide Web and Java.
Microsoft's strategy hinges on establishing OLE custom controls (OCXes) and OLE Automation objects created by third parties using VB 4.0 and Visual C++, as alternatives to Java applets. Both execute Internet client functions such as incorporating real-time updates or performing calculations in networked applications.
"Microsoft sees the Internet as a platform for distributed OLE components," said Jerry Michalski, managing editor of Release 1.0, based in New York. "I'm not sure they can do that. They have all of this legacy garbage they have to haul with them wherever they go."
Microsoft plans to set itself up as a certifying authority for OCXes, which it says will guarantee the security of OCX-based applications without limiting their functionality. Microsoft will also encourage third parties to be certifying authorities.
Sun has implemented a "sandbox" security scheme in Java, which prevents applets from making calls to an operating system, such as writing data to disk. But Microsoft claims this will limit Java's functionality and Java applets are inherently insecure.
Microsoft is also planning to promote VB as an Internet development environment by incorporating Visual Basic for Applications language support directly into its Microsoft Network Blackbird development tool and by adding Internet-enabling features in Visual Basic, such as prebuilt network connections. But an Internet version of Blackbird will not ship until the second half of 1996, by which time Java may be well established as an Internet development environment.
Microsoft may also run into difficulties as it tries to leverage its dominance at the desktop to control the development of Internet applications. The company plans to ship future versions of Windows 95 with the Blackbird viewer, the software necessary to interpret Internet-based OCXes, the company said.
Microsoft maintains that applications created with Blackbird will be cross-platform, pointing to OLE support on the Macintosh and partnerships with third parties such as Bristol Technology Inc. and Software AG to port OLE to Unix. The company also said it may license Blackbird to vendors such as Netscape Communications Corp.
But a developer said he will be wary of any effort to make the Internet proprietary.
"If Microsoft [Internet products] tied us into the Microsoft Network and its desktop products, I wouldn't want to work with it," said Stefan Fielding-Isaacs, principal at Art and Science W3 Development Ltd., in San Francisco." The question is, will the Microsoft browser accept the Internet and Java or forge its own path? Because there are a lot of people running Java."
Some observers said Microsoft may even be forced to license Java.
"Microsoft is being walked into a corner," said Kathey Hale, senior analyst at Dataquest Inc.'s On-line Strategies Group, in San Jose, Calif. "If Microsoft doesn't license Java, they create space for the competition. But if they do [license Java], they cannibalize themselves because they lose some control over the direction of the desktop."
IBM demonstrated at Comdex last week a toolkit that lets developers create Internet applets in a variety of programming languages, including C++, OpenDoc, and Java.
The company is also close to signing a licensing agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc. that would let IBM link OpenDoc to class libraries written in Java, according to sources close to IBM.
The prototype software, called CyberParts, is being developed as a companion product to IBM's WebExplorer browser and Netscape Communications Corp.'s Navigator.
Although Navigator 2.0 already features support for Java, it does not support applets written in other languages. With CyberParts, IBM hopes C++ and other developers will transfer code to World Wide Web pages.
CyberParts is expected to ship in the first quarter, according to Gennaro A. Cuomo, senior manager of the communications and applications research division at IBM. Pricing is not set.
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