Borland Software has licensed a key piece of Microsoft's .Net software and will a build a new line of programming tools for .Net later this year, the companies announced on Monday.
Borland expects to be the first company to license Microsoft's .Net Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) and incorporate it into a product. The .Net Framework SDK is a set of tools designed to make it quicker for programmers to write and run .Net applications on Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Microsoft uses the .Net name as a catchall marketing phrase to describe its products for building and using Web services software. Web services applications adhere to a set of standards for exchanging data between otherwise incompatible systems.
The product that Borland intends to develop with the .Net Framework SDK will address so-called "application development lifecycle" capabilities, company representatives said. Lifecycle tools typically refer to applications that manage the life of a software application--from planning through modeling, design, testing, installation and maintenance.
The goal of licensing and embedding Microsoft .Net software tools is to make Borland's lifecycle products more attractive to .Net developers, according to the company.
In October last year, Borland acquired TogetherSoft, which makes application modeling and design tools. The forthcoming Borland product that incorporates the .Net Framework SDK will be an enhancement to TogetherSoft's current .Net product, said Simon Thornhill, vice president and general manager of Borland's rapid application development business unit. The revamped TogetherSoft tools are scheduled to come out later this year.
News source: c|net
