MENT

JUNE 26, 1989

ENE:

Evolving SAA Strategy Will Have a Place for the AS/400

nal part of a se-
ries om IBM s
midrange com-
puter family,
the AS/400, a
pivotal part of
IBM s strategy
to provide great:
[y enhanced, con-
sistency and
connectivituy
across multiple
supported envi-
An important
strategic goal of IBM and other vendors
is the provision of a consistent applica-
tion-development environment, across its
major product lines. Today, program-
mers often have to use a different set of
languages, tools, editors and develop-
ment procedures for each computer en-
vironment. This makes it difficult to de-

|

MARTIN.

' velop applications that can be run on a
| number of computers without the need
|

for redesign and reprogramming.

As a solution to this problem, IBM in-
troduced Systems Application Architec-
ture (SAA), which is an integrated com-
puting environment supporting a Com-
mon User Interface (CUA), Common
Programming Interface (CPI) and Com-
mon Communications Support (CCS).
The CPI permits users to develop appli-
cations that are independent of the un-
derlying system architecture. As shown
in the graph, the CPI includes a common

zem m" ona

offered by Digital Eguipment Corp,,
Wang Laboratories Inc. and Data General
Corp. It supports word processing, elec-
tronic mail, calendar management and
simple "directories" (or personal
databases) in an integrated software
package. The initial version, announced
in June 1988, is adeguate for its task but
little more. A greatly improved version of
SAA Office was announced in May.
Office automation was dead as a tech-
nological niche by the end of 1986. In its
place emerged a reguirement to manage
information exchange throughout the
enterprise. Business information comes
from a variety of sources and takes a
variety of forms—data, text, graphics,

place AS/400 Office as the primary of-
fice-support package for the AS/400.

PC-Support. PC Support is a PO con:
nectivity tool introduced by IBM in 1984
as part of its Office Systems Family of
strategic office products for the Sys-
tem/36, System/38 and System/370-com-
patible mainframes. A much-enhanced
version of PC Support/38 was migrated
to the AS/400.

PC Support has achieved nearly uni-
versal acceptance among System/36,
System/38 and AS/400 users as the
method of choice for integrating IBM-
compatible microcomputers and IBM
midrange systems. It offers one-stop
shopping for most important connectiv-

tured programming notation. |
These features accommodate rapid ap-

plication development through succes-

sive iterations of prototypes while main:

taining design integrity. When the design
process is complete, Synon/2E automati:
cally generates corresponding RPG II or

COBOL program source code, as well as

the source code needed to create associ-

ated AS/400 data objects.

A strategic move by Synon Ltd. is the
decision to support IBM s SAA stan:
dards in Synon/2E applications. But,
Synon/2E's SAA support amounts to
conformance to CUA standards for key-
board usage and screen layouts.

Genesis V. Genesis V is an application
generator developed for the System/38
and later migrated to the AS/400 plat-
form by Sofbro Ltd. The product auto-
mates the generation of interactive RPG

programs based on a database defini-
tion and functional specifications de-
fined by the programmer. Unigue among
AS/400 application generators, Genesis
V uses rules in a knowledge base to di-
rect the translation of these specifica-
tions into RPG code.

LANSA. LANSA is a fourth generation
language (4GL) developed for the Sys-
tem/38 and modified to be suitable for
use on the AS/400 by Aspect Computing
of Hawthorn, Victoria, in Australia.

LANSA consists of an optional data-mod-
eling module, a comprehensive data dic-
tionary and a fourth-generation language.

The LANSA 4GL is consistent with

the AS/400 Command Language syntax
and relies on the AS/400 command-pro-
cessing facilities to prompt for and vali-
date LANSA command statements.
LANSA statements generate RPG [II
code as well as display sereen and re-
port data description specifications.

- Metaview. Metaview is an applica-
tion-development, tool for cooperative-
processing environments. It includes in-
tegrated Support for data, text and im-
age information in a cooperative-
processing environment. It also has a
cel pos! of hardware independence

zhicA Is critical for rativÂŤ
koor, Cooperative pro-

set of high-level languages, procedural
languages, application generators, expert
Systems, database interfaces, dialogue
interfaces and communications inter-
faces. Applications that consistently use
these services can run on any system
supported by SAA.

The AS/400 will participate fully in
the evolving SAA strategy. It will offer
SAA Capability to midrange systems
and will act as the control point for
Broups of intelligent workstations.

Application Packages

Most applications for the AS/400 are
in the form of application packages,

John Avakian

which are not compliant with SAA. Th A high-level instruction set defines a
AS/400 probably has the largest base of SITE — UoPerative-processing architecture on
zajetja application products available i) PA JA Mesna Pp nami can be built.
n any commercial computer. Alth EEA WE .-avlew applications see this high-
about 8,000 application packages Aa ina AS, eni m view of the network and treat it as -
Pk a, ray PRE MAJU n li single soft machine," independent. of
k 9 JEV MU ao the underlying details of opera ting sys-
icati —560EDEAN EN o | Raj A and network configura-
ishe0 | (di S, a pe 4 provides a striking endorse:
applications been migrated f | of IBMSs visio; abs orsement
he AS/400'ÂŤ nom rom || voi ei eh ne: z on of the coopera
the Ĺžno A s predecessors, the Sys- ea ime new office must i: ityf unetions, including terminal emula. TEA environment. tive-pro-
in addition to application packs IBM ships AS/400 Office with. tion, file transfer, fileserver functions h <Wo weeks, I will begin a series on
there are genera] ppYcatlon packages, AS/400, offerin Mmers a 90 gasi! - and printer-server functions. low to plan for the transition to an in.
which include IBie poe epplications, — trial of the product, Ee — SYmom. Synon/2E is the most wi tegrated computing environment. suci
pose application ge office product. OfceVislon ia aaa ga" Sd software engineering tool in the IBM  Tpo Jo. —— —
m pi ni o ee rni mare da ramo MT vame rin Poduii si
Vironmenta. OfficeVision supports docu. ih the design and the generation or po malo service updated guar-
h, filing, E-mail, decision  prgdn programs in 4 top-down ap- — ductivity Sega pa ouah High Pro.
to prooduling The data-modeling tool and an stopi, Pe Mass. (800) 242.1240, Fur,
provide integrated gram editor IF Uon-dia- matton on Semina SI infi OK
that can be run on els and f Create high-level data mod- the United Sta 'ars, please contact (in
mainframes, Applica- dependent of kapi a pone dai arein- — nology Transfer aja Ca >ijj Tech-
CPI Predeti u,, 94 implementation details. Santa Mona pa ee due, 741 10th St.
into an OfnceVision functions on data objects can. 8305. jp pav, uv ,20902 (213) 394.
is expected to re. — fashion pre op aneny A zdani te New St., ORA O Savant, 2
a a a RE K inodomi( 0624) 734 505.
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