Mountain View, CA Ð The effort to incorporate OpenStep into Solaris is well underway, according to Sun Microsystems.
"We are taking this project very seriously. Work is in progress, and NeXT and Sun engineers are in contact on a daily basis," said Jim Green, director of object products at SunSoft.
Sun received the promised NEXTSTEP source code some time ago, and there have been no surprises that would delay the project, according to Green. Sun will announce its product plans and timetables at the Solaris Developer Conference on April 5.
There is a staff in place at Sun working on OpenStep, and the company is adding to it every day, with several positions yet to be filled. The group is made up of external hires and voluntary transfers from other Sun groups, including a number of "major contributors among senior staff" from inside Sun, according to Green. The head engineers on the project report directly to Bud Tribble, SunSoft's vice-president for object products.
Right now, the work is being divided between Sun and NeXT engineers, but plans call for bringing key third parties and customers into the process once the announcement is made in April.