MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (March 4, 1996) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today announced that it will highlight many of the industry's latest Java- and JavaScript-based technologies and tools from a variety of companies at its Netscape Internet Developers Conference, beginning tomorrow in San Francisco. The sold-out event -- the industry's first and largest Java and JavaScript conference with more than 3,000 attendees -- will showcase the Netscape Internet applications platform and complementary tools and technologies that developers can use for creating and managing live applications and content.
To accelerate the development of Java and JavaScript applications, Netscape also announced today the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Netcode Corporation, a creator of a Java-based visual interface builder and object toolkit for rapidly developing Java applications. The acquisition is part of Netscape's continued focus on providing its developer community with a broad platform on which they can build and deploy applications and content quickly based on the Java and JavaScript programming languages, which have received broad industry acceptance as Internet standards.
"Netcode technology will enable Netscape to fuel the hypergrowth of Java and JavaScript applications development, expanding what our development partners can create with these powerful languages," said Marc Andreessen, Netscape's vice president of technology. "Netcode's visual interface builder and object library make it easy for developers to create Java-based applications with rich user interfaces for both intranet environments and the Internet."
Netscape intends to purchase 100 percent of privately held Netcode Corporation in a stock transaction, to be accounted for as a pooling of interests. Based in Menlo Park, California, and currently employing seven people, Netcode was founded in 1995 by Jayson Adams and Scott Love to design, build and market powerful integrated object libraries and development tools for Java programmers. Netcode Components is a collection of reusable, extensible user interface objects, written in Java and supporting open application programming interfaces (APIs). Netcode Constructor is a visual interface construction tool for building Java-based component and applet user interfaces. Its open API and JavaScript support enable developers to build on and customize the Netcode environment.
"Netcode Components and Netcode Constructor, through their rich feature sets and open APIs, create an incredibly powerful platform for Java component and application development," said Jayson Adams, Netcode's president and chief technology officer.
"The Java software revolution is truly poised to kick into warp drive," said Scott Love, chief executive officer of Netcode. "The Netscape Internet application platform, turbocharged with our development tools and objects, will enable Java programmers to build and deploy network-loaded, platform-independent applications in record time and numbers."
The Netscape Internet Developers Conference, being held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 5 through 7, will also feature new Java and JavaScript tools from such companies as Borland, Cotton Software Inc., Dimension X, Natural Intelligence, Inc., ParcPlace-Digitalk, Inc., Platinum Technology, Rogue Wave Software, SunSoft, Symantec and JavaSoft. Taken together, these tools will help to accelerate the development and deployment of Java and JavaScript applications in internal corporate networks -- or intranets -- and on the Internet. In addition, Netscape will announce several new products of interest to developers and outline its Internet applications platform. The Netscape Internet Developers Conference will also include a variety of sessions aimed at helping enterprise developers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, content creators and other members of the Netscape development community to create and manage live content and applications on the Netscape framework, which includes Java and JavaScript.
Netscape and Netcode will debut Netcode's technology at the conference. Netscape and Netcode plan to continue to evolve and integrate the Netcode object libraries and visual interface builder into the Netscape product family and offer them to developers later in the year.
Developed by Sun Microsystems, Java is an industry-leading object-oriented, cross-platform programming language. JavaScript is an open, cross-platform object scripting language based on Java for the creation and customization of applications on intranets and the Internet. Twenty-eight industry-leading companies, in addition to Netscape and Sun, have endorsed JavaScript as an open standard object scripting language. Java and JavaScript are available as part of Netscape Navigator 2.0 client software, which is available for downloading from Netscape's Internet site.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development tools, and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.
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