Novell To Ship New OpenDoc(TM) Developer Release

ComponentGlue(tm) Provides Full Interoperability with OLE, OCX Controls

Orem, Utah - February 6, 1995 - Novell, Inc. announced last week that it will ship its OpenDoc for Windows Developer Release 1 (DR1) to over 3,000 developers at its Brainshare conference in March. This DR1, which incorporates Novell's ComponentGlue(tm) technology and IBM's System Object Model (SOM), will provide 32-bit Windows developers with the benefits of software componentization: lower development costs, faster time-to-market and increased opportunity for innovation across the enterprise. Contributing its ComponentGlue technology to the OpenDoc standard, Novell is providing bi-directional interoperability with Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding 2.0 (OLE) and securing the future of mix and match software components.

The ComponentGlue technology in the DR1 provides developers with the ease of developing to one standard while achieving bi- directional interoperability between OpenDoc and OLE. Developers will be able to create OpenDoc components which will act exactly like OLE objects or OLE custom controls (OCX) when they are embedded or edited in a document or OCX container. Similarly, OpenDoc components developed for Windows will be able to contain OLE 1, OLE 2 or OCX objects. This interoperability also includes "drag and drop," clipboard and data linking of OLE objects and OpenDoc components within and between documents.

"It's no secret that support for OLE objects is crucial for marketing products on the Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms," said Glen Mella, vice-president of marketing for business applications, Novell, Inc. "Novell is taking that support one step further and is providing developers with full OLE interoperability, for free. We believe that providing software interoperability through OpenDoc is crucial not only from an ease-of-development perspective, but for the future of enterprise computing."

Additional Features

Interoperability with existing automation and scripting services is also included in the OpenDoc for Windows DR1. Developers will be able to control OpenDoc components with any OLE automation controller such as Microsoft Visual Basic. OSA interfaces will allow language vendors to create cross-platform scripting components. The next release of OpenDoc for Windows 95 and NT -- Developer Release 2 (DR2) -- will include additional scripting capabilities and is scheduled for release in May. The OpenDoc for Windows 3.1 Developer Release will also be available in early Q2 1995.

The OpenDoc for Windows DR1 and on-line technical documentation can be requested by sending email with your name, company address and telephone number to opendoc@wordperfect.com or by posting a request on Compuserve in the OpenDoc Forum. Interested parties can also download the OpenDoc for Windows software developer kit releases via Novell's FTP server, ftp.wordperfect.com.

OpenDoc: Making Software Work Together