Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 04:53:42 -0500
From: Helena Stolka <helena.stolka@news.netbeans.com>
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: NetBeans and KL Group Team Up to Deliver Advanced Functionality With NetBeans IDE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Helena Stolka
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
NetBeans Inc. +4202 8300 7322
helena.stolka@netbeans.com

Marie Vecsey
Strategic Partner Marketing Manager
KL Group, Inc. (416) 643-3565
mjv@klg.com

NetBeans and KL Group Team Up to Deliver Advanced Functionality 
With NetBeans IDE

Toronto, Ont. and Prague, Czech Republic, September 29, 1998 - KL Group Inc., a 
leading provider of GUI components and Java development tools, today announced 
that NetBeans' Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Java, now includes 
JClass Chart Lite from KL Group. A beta version of NetBeans Developer featuring 
the JClass Chart Lite component can be downloaded for free from the NetBeans Web 
site, with a full version scheduled for release in early October.

Together, NetBeans and KL Group bring a full complement of powerful programming 
features to Java software developers. Both NetBeans Developer 2.0 and JClass 
Chart Lite work with Swing, taking full advantage of its robust, cross-platform 
features. As a JavaBean, JClass Chart Lite is fully integrated with the NetBeans 
Form Editor. NetBeans Developer 2.0 also provides complete support for KL 
Group's suite of JClass 100% Pure Java components for visual development of Java 
applications and applets.

NetBeans Developer 2.0, written entirely in the Java(TM) language and based on 
Sun's Java Foundation Classes framework, is a full-featured, object-oriented 
visual programming environment enabling flexible development on any platform 
which supports JDK 1.1.x, including Win NT/95/98, Linux, Solaris, OS/2, HP-UX, 
and others.

"The integration of these two complex products is seamless, proving that adding 
complex and complicated functionality with JavaBeans is an easy task," said 
Roman Stanek, Founder/CEO of NetBeans Inc. "What NetBeans has done with JClass 
Chart Lite any software developer can do with their own JavaBeans and a copy of 
a NetBeans IDE. Our vision for our NetBeans IDEs is to create a 
JavaBean-compliant tool that can act as bedrock for additional functionality. 
This alliance with KL Group is the first step in offering powerful JavaBean 
development tools."

"The new JClass Chart Lite is a permanently enabled version of our latest 
release that we've enhanced for visual development in IDEs, "said Greg 
Kiessling, President of KL Group. "NetBeans developers will find its rich 
functionality useful right from the start and fully compatible when upgrading to 
the advanced features of JClass Chart. We are impressed with the Java support 
provided by the NetBeans environment and excited to be working with such an 
emerging growth company."

NetBeans Integrated Development Environment
NetBeans combines the cross-platform compatibility of Java with the ease-of-use 
of a visual RAD programming environment. NetBeans' internal structure is easily 
configurable and extensible, and integration with other tools is seamless. 
NetBeans will ship in two versions: Developer and Enterprise. NetBeans Developer 
was created for the single developer working on a single platform. NetBeans 
Enterprise was designed as a multi-user, multi-platform product. Users can fully 
exploit the object-oriented nature of the IDE, design distributed applications 
based on RMI/CORBA, share virtual filesystems, debug remotely, and access source 
control systems. NetBeans Enterprise will include KL Group's JClass Chart Lite 
and JClass Table Lite components.

KL Group JClass Chart Lite
JClass Chart Lite is a powerful 100% Pure Java data-aware Bean, enabling 
NetBeans users access to complex charting capabilities, via easy-to-use custom 
property editors. This permanently enabled version has been enhanced for visual 
development in IDEs and is fully compatible with the advanced feature set of the 
industry-leading JClass Chart. JClass Chart supports many popular types of 
business & scientific charts including line, bar, pie, stacked bar, plot, and is 
loaded with interactive features for making professional graphs and charts. 
Users can create charts with multiple axes and multiple data views, where 
advanced control of appearance, text, and axes is robust and easy. JClass Chart 
works with all popular IDE's, supports the latest JDK releases, and uses a 
flexible data source that can access files, JDBC, sockets and more. For more 
information visit http://www.klg.com/jclass/chart.

NetBeans users can visit the JClass Web site at http://www.klg.com/jclass for 
information and tips on using JClass components with NetBeans IDE. For more 
information on NetBeans Developer, users can visit the NetBeans Web site at 
http://www.netbeans.com.

Availability
NetBeans Developer 2.0 Beta 3 with JClass Chart Lite from KL Group is available 
for free download from the NetBeans Web site at http://www.netbeans.com. The 
full release is scheduled for October, 1998. The retail price will be $149 US, 
and will be free for non-commercial and educational use. Pricing and 
availability of NetBeans Enterprise will be announced in late September, 1998.

About NetBeans
NetBeans, Inc. is an emerging growth company based in Prague, Czech Republic 
that has quickly risen to the forefront of Java technology development. NetBeans 
was founded in July, 1997, by a team of talented Java technology developers led 
by Roman Stanek, formerly the Regional Director of Central and Eastern Europe 
for Sybase.  NetBeans is a privately-held company whose investors include Esther 
Dyson, CEO of EDventure Holdings. Ms. Dyson is a leading private global 
technology investor and is widely known in the computer industry as an analyst 
on emerging information technologies worldwide, an author, a speaker, and an 
advisor (see http://www.edventure.com/bios/esther.html).

About KL Group
KL Group is a Toronto, Canada based company, which provides innovative software 
development tools to dramatically accelerate the software development process. 
KL Group has been making software developers more productive since 1989. KL 
Group develops and markets the award-winning XRT family of GUI components for 
Motif, Olectra components for Windows, JProbe Profiler, the first in a family of 
advanced Java development tools and the JClass family of 100% Pure Java 
certified JavaBeans.

Recently cited by Arthur Anderson as one of Canada's "50 Best Managed Private 
Companies", KL Group has received numerous awards, including the 1997 UNIX 
Review Editor's Choice Award for Company of the Year. Additionally, for the last 
three years in a row, KL Group has been recognized by PROFIT magazine as one of 
the 100 fastest growing Canadian companies and was named a "Java Innovator" by 
Information Week in 1997. Products are sold and supported through an 
international network of qualified resellers, and from KL Group's European 
headquarters in Amsterdam and worldwide headquarters in Toronto. Visit KL Group 
on the World Wide Web at http://www.klg.com.

####

Note: Sun, Sun Microsystems, Java, 100% Pure Java, and JavaBeans are trademarks 
or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and 
other countries. JProbe, JClass, Olectra and XRT are trademarks of KL Group Inc. 
All other brand names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their 
respective holders.

Copyright (c) 1998 KL Group Inc.