Philippe Kahn was in Chicago on March 1st and gave a keynote address at the recent Software World. He feels that applications are getting extremely large with too many features, causing the documentation to weigh more than the actual computer system running the software. He pleaded for developers to produce "Slimware" (leaner and faster software) through the use of high quality algorithms and better development tools.

The proliferation of mobile computing in the corporate environment means applications will be partitioned and objects need to be distributed across the enterprise. Software applications must also deal with computers (clients) that are not always connected to the network server. This will cause the size of desktop and laptop applications to decrease and server applications will become much larger.

Delphi (from Borland) is a visually oriented application development tool that can help. It features a reusable component architecture) a high performance optimizing compiler and integrated database access. This allows for RAD (rapid application development) and scalability to support external database servers. This package includes Multimedia and .VBX controls and supports 2 way source code creation by allowing real time switching between written source code and the visual screen.

Applications developed with Delphi will be Windows 95 ready after being recompiled with the Windows 95 version. This version of Delphi should be available 30-60 days after Windows 95 is released -- probably during the second half of this year. After all, if Microsoft fails to hit the 1995 timeframe, Bill Gates will simply redefine the calendar year.

The product has been tested by over 3000 beta sites and application developers.

New DOS
In the battle of operating systems, IBM has just released version 7.00! It provides many features such as Stacker compression, easier PCMCIA support, AntiVirus protection, more memory and dynamic device configuration.

Copyright © 1995 Rick Smith All rights reserved.