Palo Alto, CA, May 11, 1992 -- Under its Early User Program, Micro Focus is
shipping the Object Oriented (OO) Option to its Micro Focus COBOL
Workbench. The OO Option is aimed at providing Workbench customers an
opportunity to experiment with object oriented languages and development
environments. It is designed to provide users with great flexibility in
how they choose to approach the object oriented method of programming. The
OO Option provides a rich set of tools for the COBOL programmer, including
two object oriented development environments, a Run Time Environment (RTE)
and a Reusable Code Manager (RCM), which offer the capability of
developing OO applications in COBOL.

Micro Focus Early User Programs are designed to bring new technology to
Micro Focus customers who are willing to experiment and provide feedback
on products. Feedback provided by participants in the Early User Programs
helps refine interfaces and other underlying features prior to full
release.

"Micro Focus has had a long-standing interest in Object Oriented
technology," said John Beggs, president of Micro Focus Packaged Products
Division. "We have been working to provide our customers with a way to use
OO methodology in developing standard COBOL applications, from a number of
different fronts. First, we are a member of the standards committee to
develop a standard for OO COBOL. Second, we are beginning to introduce
products that will pave the way for OO, such as recursion, which will be a
part of our ultimate OO solution. And third, we are developing
relationships with third-party vendors such as Digitalk, for whom we have
become a reseller. These activities, in conjunction with the input we
receive from our customers, are helping us to define and develop a true OO
COBOL solution."

"The OO Option offered in the Early User Program incorporates the feedback
Micro Focus has received from customers who participated in the Controlled
Release of the product issued last May," said Dan Clarke, Object Oriented
Products Manager at Micro Focus. "Thanks to the information we received
from our customers, this release is much more refined and offers
significant new functionality, including an improved user interface. The
OO Option available in the Early User Program is the next step in a
progression that will deliver a complete set of OO capabilities to the
COBOL community."

Micro Focus' Object Oriented Option consists of three primary components:
the OO Developers Kit, the Smalltalk/V PM and the Reusable Code Manager.

Object Oriented Developers Kit 

This is the key component in the OO Option and contains the Micro Focus OO
COBOL environment. The Developers Kit features a new OO Run Time
Environment (RTE) that serves as an extension to the COBOL Workbench Run
Time Environment. This new RTE provides services such as specialized
memory management required for OO programming. The OO RTE is accessed by a
special set of macros which are interspersed with COBOL statements. The OO
RTE is used to define new classes, create instances of existing classes,
and invoke those instances. The OO Developers Kit also includes a set of
System Classes that contain reusable components that describe commonly
used data type extensions such as lists, streams and sets. The OO
Developers Kit is designed for customers who want to add additional OO
programming capabilities to their combined Smalltalk/V PM and COBOL/2
Workbench environment.

Smalltalk/V PM 

Smalltalk/V PM is the second component of the OO Option. Smalltalk, as a
"pure" object-oriented programming language designed specifically to deal
with objects, provides an ideal environment for learning about and
experimenting with objects. This solution allows programmers to write code
with SmalltaL/V PM and then use the OO Developers Kit's extensions to the
Smalltalk/V class library to create communication objects. These objects
permit Smalltalk and COBOL programs to work together in a client/server
mode of operation.

Currently the Smalltalk and COBOL environments are mutually independent;
that is, while they are able to exchange information, there is no
Smalltalk-object to COBOL-object communication path. The ability to
exchange information means that Smalltalk applications can communicate
with COBOL programs, and existing COBOL programs can be re-engineered. For
example, the human interface section of a COBOL program can be replaced
with a section written in Smalltalk. which can benefit from re-using the
rich class library Smalltalk/V PM provides for developing such interfaces.
Micro Focus plans to facilitate object-to-object communications between
COBOL and Smalltalk objects, as well as C++ objects, so that the "language
of origin" for an object becomes inconsequential.

Reusable Code Manager 

The third component of the OO Option is the Reusable Code Manager (RCM).
RCM is a unique facility that allows developers to create reusable COBOL
macros and program models. Micro Focus has used RCM to develop a set of
macros that give access to the OO Run Time Environment. Using these
macros, programmers can create, initialize and invoke objects. The macros
are translated at compile time by the RCM preprocessor into code segments
that invoke the 00 RTE. Combining RCM with the OO Developers Kit allows
programmers to create "objects" comprised of actual COBOL code and invoke
that code in new or existing programs.

Pricing and Availability 

The Micro Focus Object Oriented Option can be purchased in one of three
different configurations. The Developer's Kit itself is $250; the
Developer's Kit with the Smalltalk/V PM is $495; and the Developer's Kit
with both the Smalltalk/V PM and Reusable Code Manager is $750.

Micro Focus is the leading developer of COBOL compilers and programmer
productivity tools for business application development. Micro Focus
products are available on micro, mini and mainframe computer systems and
support many standard and proprietary operating systems. The company
developed the first National Bureau of Standards-certified ANSI'85 COBOL
compiler. Micro Focus COBOL also conforms to the IBM Systems Applications
Architecture (SAA) standard, the X/Open standard, and is FIPS PUB 21-2
compliant. Micro Focus is a member of the IBM International Alliance for
AD/Cycle.

Micro Focus Inc. 2465 East Bayshore Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303
(415) 856-4161    Fax: (415) 856-6134

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