Novell Demonstrates AppWare/OpenDoc Interoperability At Apple World Wide Developer Conference

Novell (Nasdaq-NNM: NOVL) demonstrated AppWare and OpenDoc interoperability for Macintosh environments at Apple Computer's World Wide Developer Conference today. In a keynote address to 5000 Apple developers, Joe Firmage, vice president of strategic planning for NetWare at Novell, discussed the creation and deployment of OpenDoc components in AppWare, the company's 5GL visual development tool. Because component-software development can be done by most users, applications will be designed to meet specific business needs in horizontal and vertical markets. AppWare is the first high-level, cross-platform development tool available for OpenDoc. The technologies will be demonstrated in the Novell AppWare booth at the conference throughout the week.

Creation of OpenDoc components in AppWare marks the first in a series of steps that will integrate OpenDoc functionality into AppWare over the next 36 months. Formerly, OpenDoc developers were limited to lower-level development tools such as C and C++. AppWare's visual development environment will make it simpler to create and link OpenDoc Components, resulting in more components and more rapid development of business-specific applications.

The ability to dynamically link software components makes it possible for users and developers to combine standard, reusable, cross-platform software components with specialized components, to build activity-specific network applications. The availability of a 5GL tool like AppWare will make component-software development with OpenDoc easier for developers, users, and IS managers. The initiative also presents opportunities for systems integrators and VARs who will be able to more easily deliver specialized applications and services to their customers.

AppWare with OpenDoc support will be available for Macintosh in late 1995, with Windows support to follow in 1996. AppWare v1.2 is available from Novell today. OpenDoc is scheduled to ship by the end of 1995.