Obsydian for Java - Java Clients Preview

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Synon Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Synon must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Synon, and Synon cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the publication date. This document is for informational purposes only and was last updated February 2nd, 1998.

Obsydian for Java, released in conjunction with Obsydian 3.0 has extended the platform and technology reach of Obsydian developers by allowing applications designed in Obsydian to be deployed as C++ clients accessing Java servers. These Java servers can be distributed over the Internet or intranets, providing running business functionality and database access on any platform with a Java Virtual Machine.

In this preview, you will see examples of how Synon intends to further extend Obsydian's capabilities to produce Java client functionality. The detailed pictures are screen captures only, a full function working demo will be available soon.

With battle for Java supremacy heating up, competing Java standards abound. Particularly volatile are the differing classes available that are used to construct graphical user interface components. AFC (Application Foundation classes) from Microsoft and JFC (Java foundation classes) from Sun are just 2 such standards that are available. With Java GUI standards in their infancy compared with C++ GUI classes such as MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes), Synon released Obsydian for Java in January of 1998 which allowed Obsydian developers to make full use of Java technology on servers while retaining the robust C++ GUI able to support business critical applications.

The technology insulation afforded by Obsydian has allowed Synon to incrementally release Java technology beneficial to our customers. With Java maturing at a steady pace, Synon believes that we are now in a position to offer Java client functionality which will meet the demanding requirements of our customers.

Obsydian's Java client capability will allow deployment of Java clients on any client that contains a Java Virtual Machine (e.g. Mac, OS/2, Sun Solaris Workstation, Network Computer). In addition, it will also be possible to run Obsydian Java clients as applets, hosted in an HTML page running in a web browser.

Obsydian generated Java clients will make use of JFC (Java Foundation Classes) in its initial release.
JFC (as of its current release 0.7 at time of writing) and the JDK (currently at 1.1.5) offers many advantages such as:

You will be able to generate and deploy Obsydian Java clients which will communicate to Obsydian generated Java servers over the network. These Java clients will run on any workstation that has the JVM installed. The Java clients can be downloaded or pre-installed on the workstation.

The same Obsydian Java clients can be configured to run as applets. This means that you can combine creative HTML pages with embedded Obsydian generated applets which provide access and business processing to your critical corporate data.

This preview represents Synon's proposed implementation of Java clients for Obsydian. Because Java technology is evolving at a rapid pace, Synon will endeavor to respond to such shifts so that our customers benefit from the best implementations available to manage their business needs. This information contained in this preview will be updated, please check back for updates.

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