Dopo che Mr White ci ha inviato una mail con le news su Symantec abbiamo pensato di interrogarlo sulle prossime mosse della casa in giallo. Ecco cosa ci ha detto in una breve intervista virtuale via mail....

Which are the characteristics of Visual Cafe'?

A Visual Cafe is the first fully WYSIWYG, Rapid Application Development envioronment for Java which allows the development of Java applications and applets just by dragging & droppping.

Does Visual Cafe' have new development tools for programmers?

Visual Cafe adds a whole new way of developing for programmers. It's uniqe object-oriented approach means you can just drag components from the library of 100 supplied with the product or use your own components. Then use the Interaction tool to provide interactions between objects using Wizards. The Form & Menu editor runs a Java Virtual Machine for true WYSIWYG development with Layout support. It's has unique 3-way editing tools allow you to change object properties, Java source code or form objects to boost productivty. It also has enhancements some of the fetures that were in the best selling Cafe product such as the Class Browser/Editor, Hierachey Editor and Graphical Debugger.

Did Symantec make a new compiler, and, in this case, are there new technological strategies that Symantec introduced?

There is a new native java code compiler as well as a new JIT compiler which is so fast it has been licenced by Netscape for their future browsers. We also have an open object library so as well as Java objects you will be able to use Java Beans, Netscape IFC or ActiveX components. It's important to ensure that Java developers are able to use whatever technology is available and to create applets and applications that adhere to standards.

Did Symantec introduce libraries to manage databases?

This will be part of Visual Cafe Pro, due to ship shortly after Visual Cafe. It will combine the rapid GUI development environment of Visual Cafe with database aware components and Wizards to eease database connectivity and therefore make web-based database development much easier.

Which will be the differencies between Visual Cafe' and Visual Cafe' Pro?

Visual Café Pro also incorporates dbANYWHERE Workgroup Server, our new middleware database technology that allows Java programs to access corporate databases over the Intranet/Internet using a set of APIs that includes JavaSoft's JDBC API. The addition of dbANYWHERE Workgroup Server allows Visual Café Pro customers to develop true multi-platform, multi-tier, multi-database Internet applications which access corporate as well as private databases. It is 100% JDBC compatible with native drivers for Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, MS Access and Intersolve ODBC. It allows developers to create applications which access many databases and introduces a true 3-tier client/server architecture without any additional software on the client - just a Java-enbled browser. Visual Café Pro is expected to include: - A local relational database engine so users can quickly get started with writing database connected Java applications; - Direct connectivity to the Visual Café Pro local database, MS Access, Oracle, MS SQL Server, and Sybase, plus support for 3rd party JDBC/ODBC bridge software providing connectivity to an array of additional ODBC databases. - 100% JDBC compatible API with full support of open standards; - Java extension API which supports complex database logic such as previous row and master/detail transaction processing for additional functionality to make database application development easier and faster, while reducing the complexities inherent in SQL development; - A three-tier architecture, providing light client configurations while offloading network and database traffic. - Wizards for easy creation of applets/applications which bind to database tables, including master/detail joins; - Visual development of database forms from existing database cataloging information; and, - Fully open database connectivity. Visual Café Pro generates the working code which can then be tailored to handle more complex scenarios such as stored procedures.

Dis Symantec make or is going to make commercial or technical partnership with Sun, Netscape or others?

We have licenced Java from Sun and all our products are tested so they carry the Java compatible label. Last month we jointly announced with Netscape that they have endorsed Visual Cafe as a the premier Visual Java development environment for the Netscape ONE platform (Netscape ONE is their platform for Client/Server development) and they also licenced our Just in Time compiler for use in future versions of their browsers for Win95/NT and Macintosh. 7- When will Visual Cafe' available on the market in italy? It is due to commece shipping from our website at http://cafe.symantec.com in November and will be available in stores on CD in December.

Is Symantec going to distribute freeware demo-versions of Visual Cafe' on Internet?

We already have free Preview versions of Visual Cafe, dbANYWHERE and Visual Page (our new WYSIWYG HTML editor for the Mac) which are all available from the website at http://cafe.symantec.com where you'll also find Reviewers Guides and other supporting doccumentation.