REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 21, 1997 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate availability of new apartment-threaded ActiveX
™Control creation capabilities for the Microsoft® Visual Basic® 5.0 programming system. The new apartment-model-threading capabilities will allow developers using Visual Basic to create high-performance controls for Web-based applications. Visual Basic again sets the standard for rapid application development (RAD) tools by providing developers with technology that previously required significant technical understanding and extensive coding. With one click of the mouse, developers using Visual Basic 5.0 can create ActiveX Controls and documents that take full advantage of multithreaded clients, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. The new apartment-threading features in Visual Basic 5.0 are available in Visual Studio
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97 Service Pack 2 for Visual Basic and in Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition with apartment-model threading. Both can be downloaded now from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/vbasic/ .
“Now, 3 million developers who use Visual Basic can quickly and easily create controls that take advantage of the power of Internet Explorer 4.0,” said Jon Roskill, director of Visual Tools marketing at Microsoft. “Visual Basic takes care of the technology, so the developer can focus on creating high-performance sites that stand out on the Web.”
Authoring Web Content for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 provides a powerful development platform that offers the richest Web experience for end users and unlimited opportunities for developers. Internet Explorer 4.0 offers the widest array of development choices including support for ActiveX, Dynamic HTML, Java
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Applets and other forms of dynamic content. Developers can now develop content that can be utilized either on the Web or as items on the Internet Explorer 4.0 Active Desktop. In a multithreaded environment such as Internet Explorer 4.0, apartment-model-threaded ActiveX Controls and documents created with Visual Basic 5.0 run with no degradation in performance, even when a number of desktop items are running simultaneously. Developers creating ActiveX Controls and documents can make use of the advanced capability in Internet Explorer 4.0 to provide optimal performance of their Web projects.
Apartment-Model Threading in Visual Basic
Unlike other threading models, apartment-model controls are thread-safe, permitting them to work independently and without interfering with other components and controls. However, implementing apartment-model threading using traditional development languages is difficult and time-consuming, requiring extensive coding and testing. With the new threading features in Visual Basic, developers can create apartment-model-threaded projects with a single click of the mouse. Developing controls and applications that take advantage of multithreaded client capability has never been faster or easier.
New Features
The apartment-model-threading features in Visual Basic 5.0 provide the following benefits:
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Apartment threading with the simple selection of a drop-down list box, enabling enhanced project performance
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Elimination of the need to write complex threading code, reducing development and testing time
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Thread safety, increasing reliability and productivity
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Ability for developers to convert single-threaded ActiveX Controls to apartment-threaded controls by simply recompiling them
Pricing and Availability
The apartment-threading enhancements to Visual Basic can be downloaded immediately at no charge from the Microsoft Web site (connect-time charges may apply). Microsoft has posted Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2 for Visual Basic (for developers using the Professional and Enterprise editions of Visual Basic 5.0), as well as the new Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition with apartment-model threading, on its Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/vbasic/ . For more information on the complete Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/sp/ .
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
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) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
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