2 . 7 Microsoft
Although Microsoft was slow to warm up to the Internet, it's clear that this 800pound gorilla has woken up. Microsoft is now running through the jungle, shaking all the trees in it's effort to make the Internet another conquered territory. Simply put, the collection of technologies Microsoft is either buying or creating for the Internet is extremely impressive.
On the authoring front is, the Internet Assistant (IA) for Word, IA for PowerPoint, and IA for Excel. These extensions to already popular products make these tools capable of content creation for the Web. There is also Microsoft FrontPage (formerly Vermeer FrontPage), a highly regarded fullfeatured authoring tool.
On the browser side, Internet Explorer is gaining on Netscape's Navigator. Microsoft is adding features nearly as fast as Netscape. For Web servers Microsoft is bundling its Web server with every copy of Windows NT.
To bring more active programs to the Web, Microsoft has licensed Sun's Java and is developing its own strategy called ActiveX. Microsoft's goal is to integrate Java with Microsoft's component object model (COM). No stone is being left un-turned; the gorilla is running hard.
2 . 7 . 1 Internet Explorer 3.0
Version 3.0 of the Internet Explorer introduces a host of new features. Frames, and VBScripts (Visual Basic Scripts) are part of the new suite of technologies. Significantly, Internet Explorer 3.0 will also support the W3Os Style Sheet Specification, the Cascading Style Sheet.
VBScript is Microsoft's version of Visual Basic for Web programming. VBScript programs can be embedded in HTML. In addition, and the Web browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer (version 3 or later), can interpret the VBScript.
This following illustration shows a demonstration page of an order form for Pizza. It was created using VBScript embedded in an HTML page. The form calculates the bill and illustrates some of the capabilities of VBScriptenhanced HTML as interpreted by MS Internet Explorer 3.0. The image and file are part of the sample provided by Microsoft with their InternetSDK (System Development Kit) and ActiveX(TM) Development Kit
Web page with VBScript forms in Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 3.
2 . 7 . 2 ActiveX
ActiveX Technologies are a new set of technologies being touted by Microsoft as the way to create "active" Web documents. ActiveX Controls will enable developers to create Web pages with actions such as games, multimedia, animation and video.
On March 12, 1996, Microsoft issued a press release describing these technologies.
ActiveX Technologies form a robust framework for creating interactive content using software components, scripts and existing applications. Specifically, ActiveX Technologies enable developers to build Web content easily using ActiveX Control (formerly OLE Controls), active scripts and active documents.
A key benefit of using ActiveX TEchnologies is the ability to integrate applications into Web browsers so data managed by those applications becomes accessible as Web pages. This technology, called ActiveX Documents, lets a user navigate a corporate intranet to view a department's Web page, examine the department's budget spreadsheet, query the database for sales data or write a memoall from within the Web browser and without undergoing the expensive and unnecessary process of converting that content into HTML format.
ActiveX Server Scripts can be written using a host of popular scripting languages including Visual Basic Script, PERL, and JavaScript. Together, these ActiveX controls and scripts allow Web developers, using familiar tools, to build smart, interactive server applications with little or no programming knowledge.
In addition, Microsoft has co-developed an ActiveX plug-in for Netscape Navigator with nCompass Labs Inc., enabling NetScape Navigator browsers to view active content.
