Sun Microsystems Inc. and a group of software vendors are proposing to add another standard to the recipe for building Web services.
The companies have detailed a specification that would allow developers to “choreograph” events and transactions that take place between computers when applications and services are accessed over the Internet. The specification is called the Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI), and it is designed to work with Web services based on the standard data format XML (Extensible Markup Language). Joining Sun in drafting and publishing the specification are software makers SAP AG, BEA Systems Inc. and Intalio Inc.
IDE aimed at Mac OS, Windows
rnSoft has released jsTool version 1.0.1, an integrated development environment for JavaScript on Mac OS, Mac OS X and Windows.
jsTool brings the concept of drag and drop to the JavaScript world by providing a list of objects and a hierarchy based on the elements of the document object model that works across browsers. It also offers drag and drop, autocompletion of commands as you are typing, popup menus of properties, double-click object renaming, integrated help and more. jsTool 1.0.1 is now available for download.
Microsoft to include Java in Windows XP update
Reversing the hard-line stance it has taken since last year, Microsoft Corp. recently disclosed that a forthcoming update to its Windows XP desktop operating system will include the software code necessary to run Java applications.
The first Service Pack for Windows XP, due this summer, will ship with Microsoft’s Java virtual machine (JVM) as part of the default installation, according to a written statement issued by Jim Cullinan, Microsoft’s lead product manager for Windows. But Cullinan said the decision doesn’t change Microsoft’s long-term plan to remove Java support from its Windows operating system. David Smith, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc., said the decision to include Java support in the Windows XP Service Pack won’t have a huge effect on corporate developers, who usually make arrangements to ensure that their users have the JVMs necessary to run their applications. He called the Microsoft decision “largely symbolic.”
