OpenDoc 1.0 & SDK Available! Apple intends to include OpenDoc as part of the Mac OS with hardware bundles and as additional system software components throughout 1996 - but you can get it sooner than that, if you want. Apple last week announced the availability of the OpenDoc Software Development Kit for the Mac, which includes the complete OpenDoc 1.0 release as well as sample code and tools for OpenDoc developers. Supposedly, a free developer CD can be obtained by mailing <opendoc@apple.com>, but some messages have been bounced from that address, so I can't guarantee it.
Before downloading OpenDoc, you need to know two things. First, most people have no reason to install OpenDoc, since only a few components are available and no applications support it. Three hundred developers have committed to shipping OpenDoc-compliant programs in 1996, but that's still a ways off. Second, OpenDoc is big, with the basic installation and a few sample components coming in around 4 MB, and the development tools are hefty 20+ MB in addition to that. (Apple thoughtfully provides separate, smaller files for people using modems.) So unless you're a developer or terminally curious, there's no driving reason to install OpenDoc yet. I applaud Apple for releasing OpenDoc and - better still - making it freely available. This release follows hot on the heels of the announcement that IBM will be taking over development of OpenDoc for Windows from Novell, although Novell remains publicly committed to the technology. [GD]
