Sun To Bundle UML Tool; Borland Licenses .Net SoftwareSun To Bundle UML Tool; Borland Licenses .Net Software

Sun Microsystems on Monday plans to bundle application-modeling software from Embarcadero Technologies Inc. with its Java programming tools. Sun will include a trial version of Embarcadero's new Describe 6 with the Java enterprise edition of its Sun One Studio 4, update 1.

Describe 6, which Embarcadero plans to release next week, lets development teams build models of software apps using the Unified Modeling Language. Nonprogrammers can then view the steps in an application under construction without reading its source code. UML tools also let developers reverse-engineer an app to derive a model.

During the past year, Sun customers have been increasingly listing modeling tools among their project requirements, group marketing manager Jeff Anders says. Describe plugs into Sun One Studio and integrates with its messaging and file-sharing functions, he says. Developers who use the trial version included in Sun's tools suite can purchase the full version. Sun also plans to include Describe with Sun One Studio 5, due in April.

Embarcadero, which also makes modeling tools for database development, entered the market for UML tools when it bought Advanced Software Technologies in 2000. Embarcadero designed Describe 6 to run as standalone software in its own shell or as a plug-in to commercial integrated development environments, director Greg Keller says.

In other software-development news, Borland Software Corp. plans to disclose Monday that it has licensed Microsoft's .Net Framework software development kit. Borland plans to release a development environment that lets programmers build .Net applications that work with Microsoft SQL Server and Internet Information Server early in the second half of the year.