Darryl K. Taft

Microsoft has released a new Community Technology Preview of its Visual Basic 9.0 development environment. The CTP of Visual Basic 9.0 features support for Microsofts LINQ (Language Integrated Query) extensions to the .Net framework and XML integration atop the XLinq API. The new release expands the XML integration in both the language and the IDE […]

Microsoft Tuesday released new previews of its upcoming tools for designers. Microsoft Interactive Designer is a product for building Avalon (“Windows Presentation Foundation” or WPF) user interfaces. These tools have been dubbed a Flash killer by some industry watchers, as it is expected to compete head-to-head with the Macromedia Flash product that was acquired by […]

BEA Systems and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have announced that the Sony unit has standardized on BEAs application server. Sony officials said that the company, which markets the PlayStation family of products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, is using BEAs WebLogic Server as part of its mission to deliver new PlayStation services […]

The World Wide Web Consortium has created the position of CEO and named Steven Bratt to the post effective January 20. Bratt had held the position of chief operating officer at W3C. As CEO, Bratt will continue to oversee worldwide operations and outreach, including overall management of member relations, the W3C Process, the staff, strategic […]

The Eclipse Foundation is expected to announce Jan. 23 the release of the second version of its open-source Business Intelligence Reporting Tools project. Release 2.0 of BIRT comes amid broader adoption of the BIRT platform, said Michael Thoma, a member of the BIRT marketing committee at Eclipse, and vice president of product marketing at Actuate. […]

Microsoft Corp. is working toward the release of the Team Foundation Server component of its lifecycle tools suite and is expected to release it later this quarter as part of the renamed Visual Studio Team System 2006, sources said. Meanwhile, with the release of the new version of the lifecycle tools suite, Microsoft and some […]

IBM has proposed a new open-source project to the Eclipse Foundation that uses the AJAX style of development. IBM Thursday proposed a new project, the ATF (AJAX Toolkit Framework) Project. The AJAX Toolkit Framework will provide extensible frameworks and exemplary tools for building IDEs (integrated development environments) for the many different AJAX runtime offerings, such […]

Progress Software Corp. announced Thursday an agreement to acquire Actional Corp. for approximately $32 million in cash and shares of Progress common stock. In Actional, Bedford, Mass.-based Progress adds a provider of WSM (Web services management) software for visibility and run-time governance of distributed IT systems in an SOA (service-oriented architecture). This move follows closely […]

Microsoft Corp. has begun to take a serious look at how its software-as-a-service strategy can be applied to its developer business. Last week Microsoft moved one of its emerging developer tools strategy thinkers, John Montgomery, from a marketing role, and assigned him to the job of helping to figure out just how the software giant […]

Canoo Engineering AG has announced a new version of its tool for building RIAs (rich Internet applications) for mobile devices and thin-client terminals. Basel, Switzerland-based Canoo this week announced that it has adapted its ULC (UltraLightClient) technology to run on J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) clients, enabling the development of rich Internet applications for mobile […]

Andover, Mass.-based Lattix Inc. on Monday announced the release of its software architecture management solution for Eclipse projects. Lattix LDM for Eclipse is part of the companys new 2.5 version of Lattix LDM (Lightweight Dependency Model), said Neeraj Sangal, president and founder of Lattix. The Lattix plug-in enables developers to visualize and maintain the architecture […]

Mercury Interactive last week announced plans to acquire Systinet in a deal valued at $105 million. Mercury said the deal will enable it to move into the SOA (service-oriented architecture) governance and life-cycle management software and services space by combining Systinet SOA governance software with Mercurys BTO (Business Technology Optimization) Enterprise solutions. Systinets products include […]