Announced at Borland's seventh annual Developers Conference held at the Anaheim Convention Center here, Borland also demonstrated a working version of its BAJA Property/Method/Event (PME) programming component model fully integrated into Latte™. Latte is the code name for Borland's visual RAD development tool for Java currently in development.

Java Beans will enable developers to write Java applets and applications from reusable components that can interact with other Java applets and applications as well as with other component models. Java Beans speeds application development by allowing developers to re­use existing Java applets and applications to compose new ones.

"Borland has developed a very powerful and flexible event model for Java Beans," said Graham Hamilton, Java Beans project architect at JavaSoft. "All of the partners participating in the Java Beans initiative are reviewing it as part of our working draft. We're very excited to have such enthusiastic cooperation and valuable contributions to the Java Beans API, from Borland as well as all of our other partners. We'll have a very robust collaboratively built specification to publish in September."

JavaBeans as exposed by Borland's Latte provide the primary­level building blocks of functionality for Java developers. Like Borland's acclaimed Delphi visual RAD tool for Windows, Latte with Java Beans provides an "integrated circuit" approach to building software with the added benefits of platform independence. For example, Java Beans, written entirely in Java, will allow components to be inserted in any other component architecture, including Microsoft's ActiveX, OpenDoc and Netscape's LiveConnect.

"Borland's demonstration of the foundations of the Java Beans draft API within a development tool is a dramatic step forward taking Java Bean component technology from the conceptual lab to the commercial marketplace", said Jon Kannegaard, vice president of products, JavaSoft. "Progress on Java Beans is moving faster than any of us expected."

"Java Beans are primed to provide developers a foundation for creating platform­independent components that are simple and lightweight enough to run not only on PCs, but on network computers as well," said Paul Gross, senior vice president of research and development for Borland. "Not only does Java Beans take developers beyond having to choose one software platform, but it also opens up a whole new hardware category."

Java Beans are compact and simple for developers to use. Because Java is platform neutral, developers can pull from a great variety of applets that already exist.

Borland: Making Development Easier
Borland International Inc. (NASDAQ:BORL) is a leading provider of products and services targeted to software developers. Borland is distinguished for its high-quality software development tools, which include Delphi, Delphi Client/Server, Borland C++, Visual dBASE, Paradox and InterBase. Borland's award-winning products are supported through comprehensive programs for small- and large-sized software developers, corporate developers, value added resellers and systems integrators. Founded in 1983, Borland is headquartered in Scotts Valley, California.

JavaSoft, headquartered in Cupertino, CA, is an operating company of Sun Microsystems Inc. The company's mission is to develop, market and support the Java technology and products based on it. Java supports networked applications and enables developers to write applications once that will run on any machine. JavaSoft develops applications, tools and systems platforms to further enhance Java as the programming standard for complex networks such as the Internet and corporate intranets.