An Early Survey of Windows 95 Plans

It's starting to look like Microsoft will release Windows 95 this August. BYTE recently polled a number of vendors to gauge their Windows 95 applications plans. The following list is not a comprehensive list of functionality; all the vendors we surveyed were still developing applications, and their feature sets were not all finalized at press time. All vendors will support some element of OLE 2.0, as well as long filenames.

COREL

((613) 728-8200; fax (613) 728-9790)

CorelDraw 6. Offers faster redrawing, multitasking, and multithreading; OLE 2.0 automation; and in-place editing. Has a new presentation module that offers 3-D modeling. Also, CorelCAD, a 3-D CAD package for Windows 95, and 32-bit Corel Ventura 6, which offers support for HTML (Hypertext Marku p Language) and SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).

DELRINA

((800) 268-6082; fax (408) 363-2340)

Rebuilt 32-bit versions of WinFax Pro and WinComm Suite . Both offer background communications without the hiccups. They now support call control through TAPI (telephony API), and unified messaging lets you store fax, E-mail, and voice messages in one mailbox.

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT

((800) 343-5414 or (617) 577-8500)

Windows 95 version of SmartSuite . Includes OLE 2.0 and information-sharing among applications, including Notes. Team-collaboration tools in 1-2-3 and WordPro (formerly Ami Pro) let you distribute portions of a spreadsheet or document to colleagues via a LAN, Notes, or E-mail; collect comments and annotations; and consolidate them in your final document.

MICROGRAFX

((800) 765-7859 or (214) 234-1769; fax (214) 994-6477)

Picture Publisher for Wind ows 95 . Offers extensive support for multithreading; is 50 percent faster when working with large files and 200 percent faster when applying filters.

MICROSOFT

((206) 882-8080)

Windows 95 32-bit versions of Excel, Schedule Plus, Word, and other applications . Single-threaded assembly code for Excel recalculation has been hand-tuned for 32 bits, making it 50 percent faster than before.

STYLUS INNOVATION

((617) 621-9545; fax (617) 621-7862)

Visual Voice 32-bit OLE controls, which are environments for developing computer-telephony applications, such as interactive voice response, text-to-speech, faxback, or voice recognition. These OLE controls can be used in any development environment that supports OLE, such as Access, Delphi, Excel, PowerBuilder, and Visual Basic 4.0.

3D/EYE

((800) 764-5237; fax (607) 257-7335)

TriSpectives 1.0 , an affordable 3-D product-design and graphics tool for professionals, combines a CAD engine with a GUI.

WORDPERFECT

PerfectOffice for Windows 95 (which includes WordPerfect for Windows, Quattro Pro, Presentations, InfoCentral, Envoy, and GroupWise) will offer full OLE 2.0 support and up to a 60 percent performance improvement in some areas due to 32-bit code, code tuning, and more shared code (and, thus, less hard disk access). Other benefits: Long filenames are supported at the OS level, and OLE drag-and-drop support will break down existing walls among applications.