Bowing to the wishes of developers, Netscape said Tuesday that the next version of its Communicator browsing software will contain new "brains" designed to push browser technology into the future.
The code, developed by Netscape's Mozilla open-source group, will overhaul the "layout engine" of Communicator 5.0, a critical portion of the software that handles the display of Web pages.
The new layout engine, once called NGLayout and now known as NGT, was quietly revealed to developers in late October.
The company originally held off committing the new technology to Communicator 5.0 but gave in after growing complaints by developers that its current technology had gotten stale.
"Including NGLayout in our 5.0 product will continue us in the tradition of being leaders and innovators on the Web," Eric Byunn, Netscape Navigator's product manager, told Wired News two weeks ago.
Netscape said Tuesday that NGT will form the foundation of all its future client products. The next-generation code will deliver smaller, faster, modular applications for a wide array of computing platforms, devices, and information appliances, company officials promised.
Netscape also said that the technology will comply with key standards. Web developers have complained that inconsistencies between Internet Explorer and Navigator dramatically increase the time and expense required to build and maintain Web sites.
Developers are hoping that the move may herald the return of Netscape to its original business, building Web browser software.
In recent months, Netscape has positioned itself less as a Web browser company and more as an aggregator of Web content and services. Sources close to the company said that many Communicator product managers have been shifted to work on the company's Netcenter Web index site.
