NeXT Computer, Inc.--Questions and Answers
Object World, August 1995

WebObjects--The Power of Objects for the WWW
What is WebObjects?

WebObjects is an environment for interfacing objects to the Internet via
the World Wide Web. The technology is based on NeXT's object model using
Enterprise Objects Framework for database access and PDO for object
interoperability in heterogeneous environments.

Customers now have a truly cross-platform user interface to their existing
corporate data infrastructure. WebObjects is database independent and can
access information in relational databases such as Oracle and Sybase. In
addition, WebObjects can interoperate with OLE/COM and CORBA-compliant
applications.

How is this different from existing web technology?

Existing web tools create static HTML pages and the forms-based interfaces
are extremely difficult to interface with existing corporate data. Using
WebObjects developers can leverage NeXT's existing object technology which
enables you to rapidly build applications that interoperate with CORBA and
OLE/COM object models and can access existing legacy data. WebObjects are
not tied to only a web interface and can therefore be deployed in a
heterogeneous environment of OpenStep-compliant systems.

WebObjects will interface with existing HTTP web servers through the CGI
(Common Gateway Interface). To boost performance and flexibility, NeXT
plans on offering an object-oriented web server which will be deployable
on any PDO platform including Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX, Digital UNIX,
Microsoft NT, and NEXTSTEP.

How does WebObjects fit into NeXT's corporate strategy from a technology
standpoint?

WebObjects is an extension of NeXT's object-oriented technology. By using
the World Wide Web as a common user interface, organizations can utilize
existing systems infrastructure to build and deploy applications.

What about security?

NeXT is committed to supporting the standards required to keep data
private. In the short term, NeXT plans on implementing SSL (Secure Socket
Layer) from Netscape as the secure transport mechanism. As new standards
arise, NeXT will license and implement those as available.

OpenStep--The Volume Object Standard
What is OpenStep and how does it relate to NEXTSTEP?

OpenStep is the evolution of the API's found in NEXTSTEP today. OpenStep
allows organizations to build, deploy, and maintain object-oriented,
three-tier client/server applications for a variety of environments:
NeXT's Mach OS, Sun's Solaris, Digital's UNIX, and Microsoft's Windows NT
and Windows 95. OpenStep-compliant objects and applications communicate
transparently with each other, regardless of the underlying operating
system. OpenStep will be even more distributable, more localizable, more
portable, and even more powerful than NEXTSTEP.

What are the migration paths to OpenStep and when will they be available?

OpenStep is an extension of the AppKit and Foundation of NEXTSTEP. OpenStep
Release 4.0 for MachOS will include tools for converting applications
written in NEXTSTEP to OpenStep. Developers can develop applications now,
using NEXTSTEP, that they can deploy on OpenStep implementations in the
future.

NeXT's professional services organization will provide OpenStep migration
mentorship when OpenStep 4.0 ships.

How is OpenStep different from PDO?

OpenStep includes a framework for building object-oriented applications and
a user interface which is somewhat consistent across implementations. PDO
is the OpenStep object model and is UI independent.

OpenStep for Windows--The Power of Objects for Windows
What is OpenStep for Windows?

OpenStep for Windows allows for the development and deployment of flexible
and highly scalable multi-tier client/server applications--both
mission-critical and enterprise wide -- under Windows 95 and Windows NT to
adapt to the changing and growing needs of the enterprise. It consists of
an object framework that brings a dynamic and distributed object
architecture to Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Product name: OpenStep for Windows Release 4.0

Does it support Windows 95 and NT? Did you develop this in conjunction with
Microsoft?

OpenStep for Windows will run on Windows 95 and Windows NT for the Intel
architecture. Applications running on OpenStep for Windows will look and
feel like any Win32 application. NeXT has been working with Microsoft on a
technical level to ensure that the OpenStep for Windows is compatible with
Windows 95 and Windows NT.

How does it work with Windows development tools? Which ones?

OpenStep for Windows is designed to run applications developed with
OpenStep Developer for Windows or for Unix. OpenStep Developer for Windows
is a second generation client/server development environment which allows
developers to build, modify, maintain and reuse multi-tier applications
built from the object framework. It takes full advantage of the dynamic
object nature of the OpenStep framework. In addition, applications
developed with OpenStep Developer for Windows are portable across other
operating system platforms.

PDO--The heart of OpenStep
What is PDO?

Portable Distributed Objects (PDO) is the underlying object model of
OpenStep, the industry standard environment for developing cross-platform
object-oriented applications. PDO provides a heterogeneous client/server
framework based on objects that can be used today to create multi-tier
business applications which are scalable to the entire enterprise. PDO
shields the programmer from low-level network protocol details by
providing a transparent, dynamic runtime system. PDO also provides a set
of object libraries that support object persistence, garbage collection,
memory management, and string, array, and dictionary handling.

Today, PDO runs on a variety of popular platforms including NEXTSTEP,
SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, and Digital UNIX.

Distributed OLE for Windows--Distributed OLE Today
What is Distributed OLE (D'OLE) for Windows?

Distributed OLE for Windows enables developers to build scalable,
multi-tier object-oriented applications using standard Windows-based
development tools such as Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C++. By
integrating PDO objects with OLE/COM objects, Distributed OLE for Windows
allows Windows client applications to utilize a heterogeneous,
enterprise-wide distributed object infrastructure.

Distributed OLE for Windows includes an Object Request Broker (ORB) which
supports the OLE Automation protocol, providing transparent integration
between PDO and OLE objects. OLE objects simply connect to and message PDO
objects just as if they were OLE objects. Similarly, PDO objects can
transparently message OLE Automation objects in their native language and
syntax.

With this integration, popular GUI design tools such as Visual Basic and
PowerBuilder can take advantage of NeXT's advanced object technology
without modification.

How does Distributed OLE for Windows relate to OpenStep for Windows?

While OpenStep for Windows provides a complete object-oriented application
environment, Distributed OLE for Windows only provides the non-graphical
distributed object layer, to be integrated with front-end (user interface)
applications created with Windows-based tools such as Visual Basic. It
also provides for OLE/COM distribution--hence the name Distributed OLE for
Windows. With OpenStep for Windows, the entire application, including the
user interface portion is portable across all OpenStep implementations.

NeXT's Professional Services--Delivering Real World Solutions
What is the goal of the OE program?

The goal of the Object Expert program is to: "Ensure that our customers are
successfully adopting our technology to solve their business problems." As
it turns out to achieve this goal we must provide guidance in
Architecture, design, analysis, and development. We also try to mentor our
customers such that they can do the same for themselves (technology
transfer).

What are the statistics on getting to prototype? deployment?

This is highly dependent on the scope of the application. For the average
system, you can expect 3 months to prototype/pilot and about 9 months of
development. But all of this is variable and depends on the complexity of
the application, the methodology taken by the customer, and the existing
skillset of the development organization.

What was the progress made in the first year of the OE program ?

First year of the OE program:

 Staffed from zero to 21 high quality NS engineers.
 Grew from zero to 15 customers.

NeXT Computer, Inc.

NeXT develops and markets OpenStep and WebObjects for building mission
critical object-oriented custom applications for deployment across popular
operating systems and the World Wide Web. OpenStep is the first volume
object standard for developing and deploying cross-platform three-tier
client/server applications. And WebObjects is NeXT's revolutionary
database independent development environment for quickly building
interactive Web-based applications. NeXT is headquartered in Redwood City,
California, and has offices in North America, London, Paris, Munich, and
Tokyo. For more information please visit NeXT's web site at
http://www.next.com.
 
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