Microsoft Announces Widespread Licensing and Availability Of Visual Basic, Applications Edition

ActiveX-Enhanced Version of the Language Engine Will Be Available In Future Releases From Adobe, Autodesk, Micrografx, NetManage, Rockwell Software, Sagent, SAP and Visio

REDMOND, Wash., June 4, 1996 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that, in response to ISV demand, it will widely license the Microsoft® Visual Basic®
programming system, Applications Edition version 5.0, the technology behind the world’s most popular development tool and productivity suite. By licensing Visual Basic for Applications, Microsoft will enable independent software vendors to embed this popular programming tool in their own applications, turning them into customizable development platforms immediately accessible to the millions of programmers for Visual Basic.

The language engine will be featured in the next version of Microsoft Office and Visual Basic, and future releases of Adobe
™
Photoshop
™, Autodesk® AutoCAD® , Micrografx® ABC Suite, NetManage Chameleon, Rockwell Software’s RS tools, Sagent’s Data Mart Solution, SAP®
R/3
™and Visio Corp.’s Visio®
.

“We are pleased that we can make Visual Basic for Applications available to the industry,”
said Bob Muglia, vice president, developer tools, at Microsoft.
“This technology will revolutionize applications for ISVs, corporate developers and end users.”
Muglia plans to unveil Visual Basic for Applications on June 5 to more than 12,000 developers at Developer Days and at Windows World ’96 in Chicago.

Microsoft is providing widespread licensing of the Visual Basic for Applications 5.0 technology through Mystic River Software Inc. and Summit Software Co., leaders in embedded language technology. In addition, they will provide integration support and implementation consulting to the licensees of Visual Basic for Applications 5.0.

In addition to being available for licensing, Visual Basic for Applications 5.0 has been improved to provide greater productivity and performance than that available to date in applications such as Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel. Its completely redesigned development environment now shares many of the features found in the standalone version of Visual Basic such as support for ActiveX
™
Controls and a new cross-platform forms package. Visual Basic for Applications, which has applications on the desktop, is also expected to become a popular programming tool for servers. Database, Internet and application servers are all candidates for the integrated development environment of Visual Basic for Applications.

Delivering on the vision of common, high-level application programmability first implemented in Microsoft Excel in 1993, the new version of Visual Basic for Applications features cross-platform ActiveX support for the Microsoft Windows®
95 operating system and Visual Basic family of products.

Visual Basic for Applications is the second member of the scalable Visual Basic family. Visual Basic for Applications has full Visual Basic language syntax, the new forms package and support for ActiveX Controls. The three standalone development editions of Visual Basic – Standard, Professional and Enterprise – build on the Visual Basic for Applications language engine offering with additional components. Other members of the family are Visual Basic Scripting Edition, the entry-level Visual Basic solution, which provides a fully compatible subset of the Visual Basic for Applications language that is optimized for Internet programmability and integrated in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 browser.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) 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

Microsoft, Visual Basic, ActiveX and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Adobe and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc.

Autodesk and AutoCAD are registered trademarks of Autodesk Inc.

Micrografx is a registered trademark of Micrografx Inc.

SAP is a registered trademark and R/3 is a trademark of SAP AG.

Visio is a registered trademark of Visio Corp.

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