Inside DCOM by Mark Roy and Alan Ewald To date, the Object Management Group's CORBA specification has defined the distributed object computing platform of choice. Software professionals must now consider another distributed object architecture from Microsoft called the Distributed Component Object Model, or DCOM. This article examines the DCOM architecture, including the fundamentals of COM and how DCOM extends COM over networks. Driving Development by David S. Linthicum Choosing an appropriate application development tool remains a critical and strategic decision. Today's tools must overcome new hurdles that rarely mattered just a short time ago. Contributing Editor David S. Linthicum shows how to categorize tools and understand essential features by looking beyond marketing hype. Tackling Toolsets by Robin Schumacher When paradigm shifts occur, whole new types of tools appear. These newcomers are dramatically different and usually based on unconventional assumptions. This survey clears a path through the continuing chaos in the application development tool market by focusing on two critical differentiators: development platforms and developer skill sets. A product chart listing more than 100 application development tools accompanies this roundup.

From the Editor by Maurice Frank Trends driving development tools. Enterprise C/S by Judith Hurwitz Migrating to distributed computing. Data Warehouse Architect by Ralph Kimball Security strategies in the data warehouse. SQL for Smarties by Joe Celko Representing graphs in SQL. Application Architect by David S. Linthicum Dave reviews VB 5.0 in this month's expanded Products section. Server Side by Martin Rennhackkamp Managing large objects. Object.Client by Tom Spitzer Understanding Visual Basic for Applications.

Hands-On Reviews Edited by Betsy Slattery Soft Notes and In Print. Powersoft PowerBuilder 5.0 embraces Internet and Intranet development. Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0's performance and productivity enhancements propel this market leader forward. Borland Delphi 3.0 now supports ActiveX controls and distributed applications. Oracle Developer/2000 2.0 is a mature and solid development platform.

Letters Event Alerter A calendar of conferences, trade shows, and seminars. Client/Server Connection News from around the industry. Advertiser Directory Links to this month's advertisers.