big aa pp am a dai ke ok kra Siri ooepie — ole zA RENER NOST . rol me a Pace 56 PO WEEKNAPPLIGATIOM DEVELOPMENT AVGUST 6, 1990 APPLIED INTELLIGENCE Design Projects Reguire Tools with Multiple Functions; € embedded methodology aids. A critical attribute of the non-inte- grated CASE category is support for the Unix environment—a trait not support: ed in any I-CASE tool. € reguirements traceability, or solt- ware used to generate reports tracing the linkage between original reguire- ments specifications and the resulting source code and documentation; and for an integrated project support environment, (IPSE). To be competitive, CASE tools will have to support reguirements such as a software-backplane environment Although last week's column focused on the sweeping pro- ductivity bene- 8 software backplane, or the ability to With the worldwide pace guickening that will enable buyers to select "best fits of integrat- mix products from multiple vendors; toward Unix, tools need to be capable of breed" CASE products for each ed CASE tools, e Sapedbil with industry-stan- of generating a full o m in C phase of the life cycle. nese; mea a CASE tools will also be reguired to short of provic ' handle cooperative-processing and ing a range of important Functlons of d CASE Tool - eljent/server applications that are auxiliary or ek čija id compliant, with the services offered by | UAMES secondary func- pi | | ef: z "7 | IBM SAA or Digital's NAS environ- edini tions. There- | nina [EU - Desa | oni" 4 ments. In turn, these applications MARTIN ok pake iII | z— zi dov zam - — o ai one IN should be portable across a variety of hardware and software platforms. Reverse engineering and re-engineer- ing functions also can be critical to the managment | assistance for design projects or sup- | port for alternative operating environ- z] Creaes SEBI PIENI V JA borimo de BIO corverora DU SMOSS- Ne MOOVEVINO JST EEZE ETER | ments need to evaluate the non-inte- | grated tool class that delivers many of these specialized capabilities. To reiterate, the following functions | are critical to obtain maximum pro- | ductivity from a CASE tool: a graph- ics-oriented interface; support for the entire life-cycle process; desktop gener- ation of code for 100 percent of an ap-. plication; generation of code in COBOL, C, Ada, etc.; and support for industry | standards such as the Structured Oue- ry Language (SOL) and IBM's | AD/Cyele repository standard, which defines design information. While the best-selling 1-GASE tools support most of these primary reguire- ments for high-end productivity, they | lack the palette of extra functions that some users deem critical for the full application-development; life cycle. As shown in the figure, these addi- tional functions include the following: € generation of applications for the Local repositoH s JADi oe somplan) 2. — a NE EINE, NR ee ona de Na ae da RJA Genjerdtes code PI Y: Ze RR /17 C MNZ CODA and Ada Id trget evrov. NEN3 SVA 5 SAA, digit UZ RELA vx ki 0 ne a nal - ala AO kli buči ea a V jeli m aa PRA IONE 1), NA ZAE AM (mn a En Ši oo TE neEvuves sipport /Of.: » Mnihijole | 912: 2318! 0/7 8 ZAW | Šhatec eposltor' on A, ile server a, v Pe ZAW nn mna - dard architectures such as IBM s Sys- tems Application Architecture and Dig- ital Eguipment's Network Application - PO; O/ECf MINA femme | » CO/77. 44 fef94 PILOTI PIIITPDIJOTTE DI. : HBeJUVremenms V <7 ceabliit y « Cooperatve processing, Rbkrakosi — SETVE APPIICA(10hS | : Forward and reverse engineering " s dBilit; lo mik Broduciš trom -. —hultjple vendorš a > Partablni of dio idleznaleeika bei O pramons ŠE | dni language for a Unix target envi: ronment. Most I-CASE tools also are unable to oe. ENE EINEN JP JE LA zm Nm omami ome oe SELE: sl a a a a ME 4 Ma extra aeatiiie z a CASE dna pas PRI success of a CASE tool. Reverse engi- neering is an analyst-assisted process that extracts high-level specifications solve inconsistencies, while restructur- ing process or data definitions. end, embedded computer-based train- ing tools will offer this training within a window in the CASE tool. Next week, I will discuss the gues- tions that should be asked when as- sessing the functionality of a CASE tool for your organization. 8 The concepts embodied in this article are described in the CASE volume tn The James Martin Report Series. For ' more information on this volume, call (617) 639-1958. For information on seminars, contact (in the United from existing source code. Re-engineer- ing merely scans the source code to re- | Ho noč sile ste bat Embedded methodology niji which KE NE ; (Fe Slane pesa Hi, ši zra zale rano EV 'pomn ma me mi o OB). MA - Unix environment; Support, adeguately support a work-group envi- States and Canada) Technology [€ support for multiple analysts € support for cooperative-processing ronment, which allows multiple analysts Transfer Institute, 741 10th St., San- ' working on a LAN; and client/server applications; to share and consolidate design specifi: ta Monica, Calif. 90402 (213) 394- € support for real: time applications; € project-management, functions; € configuration and version control; e portability of applications among multiple platforms; € forward and reverse kai and FourGen | Code BE nie iso cations across a LAN. Similarly, most I-CASE tools provide poor ona for real-time pone Borland | Code Reusability I S Key 8305. In Europe, contact Savant, 2 New St., Carnforth, Lancs., LA5 9BX United Kingdom. ( 052) 734 505. Continued from Page 55 The new version lets users easily navi- Continued from Page 55 time—initially, personnel hours could be | — gate through the system to gather the lu- | . — — magnified by as much as 40 percent, they ware ine. in Edmonds, Wash. formation needed to build applicationa, Projects that lend themselves to OOP lan- said. Nonetheless, seminar attendees were "This new code generator can't be com- pared with the old version because of the number of new features that we've add: ed," Kloes said. The new screen painter, designed for both novice and expert developers, builds data-entry screens simply by selecting the appropriate fields from an |nformix data- base dictionary, Kloes explained, Once the screen design is complete, FourGen-Screen Gonzales said. "You can position the data fields whor- ever you care to, and if you are unsure.o[ the nameofa specific table or column, you can hit a control key to list all available data, Gonzales explained. Users can attach free-form notes to any data field —a feature that was lacking in. the original FourGen code generator. "At: taching a note to a field usually reguires a guages are medium-sized to large applica- tions, graphical user interfaces and inte- grated applications, according to David In- tersimone, director of developer relations for the Scotts Vally, Calif., company. Device | drivers or applications that have critical dependencies on efficiency and size are not ' good candidates for OOP, he said. Competent C programmers can expect | to learn C-t-- syntax in about four weeks enthusiastic about, the long-range produc: tivity payoffs—mainly, minimal redun: dant coding and fewer programmers re- guired for a project. he primary benefit will be reusability <— | — of code, because | can't afTord the number JE | ers it takes now to keep [stay competitivej" said David Steinberg, a senior software engineer for Analogic Inc., an electronics automatically produces the necessary lot of extra coding," Gonzales sald. The | and be up and running in about three to maufacturer in Wakefleld, Mass. code, he added. > erslon lets users attach notes to a | six months, Intersimone claimed. Though interest, was high, most seminar The new version also delivers added nexi: field ora column without changing any of | ris allowing de ) app iona telih opadiai femtiree Kadionh ing to Michael Gonzales, president of Data- bank Information Systems Inc., a software- development; contractor in El Paso, Texas. O RIO be new bo ih Gen-Screen to develop FourGen' order-entry and inventory-control a tion, Gonzales said. mi pplica EN ee Here the underlying code, he added, FourGen-Screen will run with a variety of Informix-4GL, versions for Unix, as well as Unix operating systems from The Santa Cruz Operatlon Inc., ATST, Digital Eguip- nači sil and NCR Corp. Pricing starts Four(jen Software |ne. can be reached at (206) 776-5088. 8 sreed about the time frames. "1 imeni [Borland] waš | overly optimistic," said Paul Johnson, vice dent of research and development for Great American Software Inc., a software developer in Nashua, N.H. Even Borland officials acknowledge that the learning curve involved in switch: ing to an object-oriented style can mean a significant. investment in development »ndees were just evaluating C-- or us: ing it for the first time. One factor that hinders its acceptance, attendees said, is the lack of debuggers, browsers and a full de- velopment, environment for the language. "1 would like to use C4-- in the next six months because there are a lot of clear ad: vantages, but. if the tools aren't there it won't do us much good," said Siemens Bishop. K sad gl