Next Visual Studio to boost .Net uptake

Microsoft yesterday released details of the forthcoming Visual Studio .Net Everett, the next release of the company`s integrated development environment expected out in early 2003. Although the company is playing down the new features in the Everett version which include bug fixes, increased performance and development for client-side mobile applications, the release has also been timed to coincide with the release of .Net Server which the company hopes will drive up .Net developer uptake.

Computer Wire says Microsoft hasn`t had the .Net developer uptake it had hoped for and is now desperate to drive more programmers in this direction. Other features included in Visual Studio .Net Everett include integration of the .Net Compact Framework and Smart Device Extensions which allow developers to build client-based applications for Windows CE .Net, PocketPC and Windows cellphone-based devices inside the suite. [More at CBR Online]

Japan`s Defence Agency said today that it has given computer maker Fujitsu the "lowest possible penalty" for disclosure failures linked to a data leak, which precludes the company from getting any contracts from the agency for two weeks.

The punishment for Japan`s biggest computer maker follows an admission earlier this month that data from one of the agency`s computer networks had been obtained by a group of men who then tried to blackmail Fujitsu, which developed the network.

During the investigation, it was discovered that Fujitsu had failed to disclose the names of 23 of 32 subcontractors involved in work for the agency.

As good as OpenOffice is, there are still a few pieces missing, particularly an e-mail client and calendaring options. But hopefully this will change with the announcement that OEone and Mozilla are planning to work together with OpenOffice.org developers to create these missing tools. Called the Groupware project within OpenOffice.org, it aims to ease the transition from earlier StarOffice mail and news tools to the newest OpenOffice suite.

OEone contributed a major portion of the Mozilla calendaring system, along with OpenOffice.org developers. The next logical step, say the organisations, are to integrate the calendar data into OpenOffice.org.

For Cobol developers, TheKompany has just released Kobol, an ANSI Cobol-compliant compiler that includes the full object-oriented extensions recently finalised by the ANSI committee, making it one of the first to do so.

TheKompany says Kobol takes a "unique" approach to compilation and generates true multiplatform executables, so long as developers compile the code on the target platform. Kobol also includes an integrated code and project management environment, syntax highlighting, CVS support and code completion, making for a pretty attractive package.

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