REDMOND, Wash. - Dec. 7, 1995 - Microsoft Corp. today announced Visual Basic Script, an Internet scripting language based on Microsoft® Visual Basic®, the world's most widely used programming system. This fast, cross-platform subset of Visual Basic will be provided as part of the Microsoft Internet platform, and will be licensed at no cost to application, browser and tool vendors creating Internet solutions.

Visual Basic Script is a high-performance scripting language designed to create active, online content on the World Wide Web. Visual Basic Script allows developers to link and automate a wide variety of objects in Web pages, including OLE objects and "applets" created using the Java language from Sun Microsystems Inc. OLE objects are supported by a variety of tools from Microsoft and more than 80 third-party tool vendors.

Microsoft will propose Visual Basic Script to the W3 Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an open Internet scripting language standard. Visual Basic Script will be a freely licensed proposed specification available to the entire Internet community. In addition, a source reference implementation will be posted on the Internet to allow third parties to implement it on other platforms.

"There will be many ways for developers to create applications for the Internet," said Bill Gates, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. "By providing Visual Basic Script for free over the Internet, we plan to make Internet development accessible to a broad range of users, content authors and developers on all platforms. I'm very excited about applying the momentum of Visual Basic to the Internet to make Web content even richer for end users."

Strong Industry Support

• Asymetrix Corp., Attachmate Corp., Bristol Technology Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., FTP Software Inc., HAHT Software, Micrografx, MainSoft Corp., Netmanage Inc., Oracle Corp., Scopus Technologies, Spider Technologies, Spyglass Inc., Vermeer Technologies Inc., Visio Corp., Wall Data and Wayfarer Communications were among the first leading software vendors to announce support for Visual Basic Script and their intention to use it in future products.
• In separate announcements, both Bristol Technology Inc. and MainSoft Corp. announced their intent to provide versions of Visual Basic Script for non-PC hardware platforms including HP-UX®, IBM® AIX®, Sun® Solaris, Digital's UNIX® and others.

Visual Basic Script is upwardly compatible with Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 and the Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Developers will also be able to use either Visual Basic Script or Visual Basic 4.0 to extend Microsoft Internet Information Server (formerly code-named Gibraltar). This approach allows developers to provide business object extensions to World Wide Web applications, and facilitates their integration into existing corporate systems. Together, the Visual Basic family of products provides a scalable development solution for both Internet and enterprise applications.

There are more than 3 million developers creating applications with Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications every day, making it the most widely used development environment in the computing industry.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft and Visual Basic are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

HP-UX is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Co.

IBM and AIX are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.

Sun is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc.

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively to X/Open Company Ltd.