Manipulating the diagram on-screen automatically alters the underlying code. For example, moving a line connecting two boxes could change the point at which a piece of input data is entered into a program.

“Non-programmers can use Ace to build a skeleton of their application,” says Ali Sayed, a member of the Ace project team. “But to make it completely working they [or a colleague] will have to write some minimal amount of code.” Ace should also let non-experts modify a program after its core components have been written.

Minimal code
Andy Rutter, a Java programming consultant with UK company GBDirect, says there have been attempts to provide user-friendly graphical programming aids for other languages.

He says these often make development easier, but reduce the flexibility of the programs that can be written. “If non-technical people are putting together a system, then they have to have a small number of technical choices,” Rutter told New Scientist.

However, Rutter believes Ace could be useful for Java developers: “A common criticism has been that Java is very hard to use. Ace will bring the tools and facilities of Java to more people.”

Sun hopes that Ace’s ease of use could cut the cost and complexity of developing internet and wireless programs. It also aims to reduce the work needed to make individual programs work on different platforms, by automatically adapting the code for different components such as databases or web servers.

Sayed told New Scientist that some of the source code behind the Ace language may be freely released at the JavaONE conference in June 2003. This would let other programmers expand the range of applications the language can be used to write.

The e-mail containing the worm, dubbed Palyh (pronounced Pale-H) or Mankx, appears to come from [email protected], but is not from the software company. It contains a file which, upon execution, copies itself to the Windows folder, scoops up e-mail addresses from the hard disk and starts sending itself out. Palyh also spreads to other Windows machines on a local area network (LAN).

Though the file appears to have a .pi or .pif extension, it is an .exe file which is automatically run by Windows as soon as the recipient double-clicks on it.

The malicious program has the ability automatically to update itself from a remote web server, and install spyware on infected machines.

Spyware is any software used to obtain personal information about a user or his or her computer without informing the user or asking permission. Spyware uses an Internet connection to receive the data about Web browsing habits or even passwords and credits card details.

Palyh is also time locked to expire automatically after 31 May. Most likely this trigger was built into the program because the server from which it downloads its updates will be closed in the near future.

The worm appears to originate from the Netherlands, but more than 60 percent of e-mails containing it were originating from the United Kingdom. It began spreading on Saturday and has apparently infected computers in 75 countries.

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