Oracle to offer 10g tools to Apple developers

Oracle detailed plans to release new programming tools for Apple Computer's MacOS X operating system on Wednesday.

As expected, the company said it would release a version of its JDeveloper 10g and Database 10g programming tools designed to work with Apple's latest operating system later this year. The Redwood Shores, Calif., company says the tools will help Apple programmers better tap into Oracle's JDeveloper software framework and visual development systems, which are based on Sun Microsystems' J2EE technology.

Announced simultaneously at Apple's and Sun's developer conferences, both this week in San Francisco, Oracle cited the news as further proof of its commitment to Apple's technology. Executives at the company have also revealed plans to offer Apple developers access to similar programming tools for its Oracle Application Server 10G, before 2005.

Earlier this week, Apple revealed details about Tiger, the upcoming upgrade of Mac OS X, and its server version, both slated to arrive early next year. Apple also promised a new version of the company's Xcode developer tools.

The Tiger incarnation of Mac OS X Server will include the 1.0 version of Xgrid, Apple's clustering software, and broader support for 64-bit applications. Thus far, Apple developers have expressed little anxiety over the fact that Tiger won't be released until next year, since the company plans to release a software development kit to allow programmers to start working with the software's underlying code.