November 1996 Archive

You no doubt have been hearing much about Comdex in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. And no wonder. Many new and exciting products were displayed there. Many products that boasted more than they offered were also present. And all of it was decorated with hype and glamour. So, what were the real winners among the throngs of people, salesmen, and corporate leaders? This: Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Office 97, Microsoft Windows CE, and the HPCs that Windows CE runs on. Why? Because they are not merely upgrades or even new products – they’re changes in how we use computers, and, in the case of Windows CE, additions to the computer family. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will finally have real competition again with Netscape’s new package, Communicator. Communicator may become a Microsoft Office of Internet and intranet communication tools, with the revamped and highly customizable Netscape Navigator, the WYSIWYG HTML editor Composer which is a step above the limited Navigator Gold editor, the new groupware e-mail program Messenger, and more. All the components are integrated with each other, share a similar user interface, and host a variety of different tools that can be used in different modules. Sound familiar (i. e., MS Office’s goal)? Speaking of Office, Office 97 has jumped a whole new level also, with more integration and interaction than ever before, both with itself, and, of course, with the Internet and the Web! Office 95 had a lot of good ideas that weren’t fully implemented which are now complete and quite useful in Office 97, such as the Office Binder, now more stable than before; and the Office Assistant, which is a descendant of the TipWizard and Answer Wizard. Like the new toolbar look in IE 3.0? Office 97 looks like that, but is even more customizable – so customizable, in fact, that you can actually drag the menu bar off the top of the window! Buttons and menu items can intermingle in the same toolbar, because the menu bar itself is a toolbar! Office 97 is being manufactured right now, and won’t be out until early next year, but to get a taste of what Office 97 will look like, go to Office’s Web site. The other thing I mentioned is Windows CE, the new operating system for HPCs (Hand-held Personal Computers). Looks like Windows 95, acts like Windows 95, takes up much less space and computing power than Windows 95! And a good thing too, because the average HPC only has 4MB of storage, which includes storage for the operating system! Luckily, the pocket applications that come with Win CE (Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Internet Explorer, Pocket Inbox, Pocket Calendar, and a few others) generate VERY tiny files, so you probably won’t run out of room for quite a while. And if you do, you can move some of your files over to your main PC just by hooking up a direct serial cable from your HPC to your regular PC (the HPC Explorer takes care of the conversion from the Pocket apps format to the regular PC equivalent format). What a lot of innovation for 1997!

Prepare yourself, for Internet War IV is on its way! MS Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape Navigator 4.0 are in the works right now, and only time will tell who the ultimate loser will be. Again, Netscape has chosen to keep support for ActiveX out of Navigator 4.0, and with Microsoft furiously trying to create ActiveX SDKs for all major operating systems (Windows 3.1, 95, and NT; Macintosh; and UNIX), they may come out ahead with Internet Explorer 4.0 and its ActiveX support for all platforms. On the other hand, Netscape is really focusing on intranets with their new software package, Netscape Communicator, which includes Navigator 4.0, Composer (the new HTML authoring module that replaces the editing mode in Navigator Gold), Messenger (the new mail program that replaces the Navigator Mail module), Collabra (new group discussion software), and Conference (Netscape’s answer to Microsoft’s NetMeeting, which allows you to collaborate with fellow workers real-time over the Net). Also, Navigator 4.0 will include full support for Cascading Style Sheets, which will really put Navigator 4.0 in the same class and IE 4.0, HTML-wise. Alas, both products are still in the development stage, so there isn’t much information available from Microsoft or Netscape. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens!

Well, we’re sorry for the long delay, but we hope it was worth it. Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition beta (from Microsoft) has now been released! Until now, ActiveX control creation required not only a good understanding of Visual C++ – but also a good understanding of the Component Object Model (COM), OLE, and more. Not so any more – Visual Basic 5.0 eliminates that with an easy-to-use interface, the immensely popular VBA programming language, and numerous tools and pop-up help windows. You specify properties as easily as writing a subroutine or a function, and creating custom events is even easier! To get your hands on the future of ActiveX control creation, point your browser to Visual Basic’s Home Page for a free download!