Pace 84 AD/Cycle Repository Opens Door to Standard Design | Second of a series of articles on the IBM Re- pository, a sig- nificant compo- nent of IBM's applications-de- velopment, strat- egy for the 19905. The IBM Re- pository, an- nounced last. month, establish- es a common standard for de- sign specifications generated by comput- er-aided sofiware engineering (CASE) products and other development: tools. As described in last week's article, the Repository represents a critical compo- nent of AD/Cycele, which provides a standard development environment within IBM's Systems Application Archi- teclure (SAA). Users demand an open software-devel- opment environment in which tools (vom many vendors can be used inter: changeably, sharing specifications from a cominon repository of design informa- tion. In defining a repository standard, IBM is taking a major step toward pro- viding support for an open software-de- velopment environment. Many vendors of soltware-develop- men! tools claim compliance with IBM's applicalion-development standards; still, is important to deterinine the level of cenunitment that the vendor intends to inake to the standard. As the figure shows, there are at least. ' four levels of compatibility with the AD/Cycie standard for an applications - development environment standard: ? Compliance with CUA. Entails sup- port for a common user interface for all applications, using the Common User Necess services specified by SAA. " Compliance with ADY/Cyele. Entails use oa common standard for design specifications, as defined by the NM/Cyele Repository. " Compliance with External Source Format (ESF). ESF is an IBM specifica- ; pesjat used to import/export, de- (bols to Cross System Produci/A pplica- tion prem (CSP/AD), pijem š from front-end CASE čo NPPLIEO INTELLIGENCE. O cations-development. tools and applica- tion models. ESF can be used within an integrated project-support environment formation reguired for complete CASE development, such as that stored in the CASE Encyclopedia of Texas Instru- ments' Information Engineering Facility or KnowledgeWare's Information Engi- neering Workbench. IBM is working in- tensively to expand its current Reposi- tory design so that it will eventually provide all the facilities reguired by powerful, high-end CASE tools. One of the more pivotal consider- ations is compatibility with the ESF. Currently, CSP/AD runs as a develop- ment tool only on S/370 mainframes. However, it generates code that can be executed on AS/400 midrange machines and PCs. IBM has announced that Four Ways a variety of library and configuration- management tools. To date, several vendors of applica- tions-development, tools have announced ESF support, including Index 'Technolo- gy Corp., KnowledgeWare Ine., MeDon- nell Douglas Corp., Nastec Corp., Sage Software Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. These vendors are committed to producing an ESF tag language to inter- face with CSP/AD. When CSP/AD version 3 is available on the PS/2 as an SAA application gen- To Čomply with AD/Cyele Software Devetopinent Tools May Be CoHpatible with One br More E (ema User res | Access ) Source pa ? Fotat John Avakian IBM's Repository ill make it possible to use CASE tools to import/export design specifications to (0524) 734 505, Repository' standard, obey SAA stan: dards and create code that's portable within SAA environments. Many users view the introductim of the IBM Repository and the AD/Cyee applications-development environment as the first steps toward the develop: | ment of a software-backplane capabilih if The objective of a software backplane s one of enabling users to select. a variety (( of compatible front-end analysis and de. sign tools, code generators, projeet-man /f apement, facilities and other support TJ tools that share design information from //li a common Repository. A hardware backplane is based on the. | concept of plugging standardized hard ! ware modules into a common backplane structure. Similarly, a software backplane uses the concept of plugging | standardized software modules into a l coramon design database. However, the database needs to store more than just design information; it needs to be a knowledge base containing all the rule processing associated with objects in the database, The design repository shoull »be an object-oriented database that iš stores' both data"and'rules. ral venaars use the sarme object-oriented database with rule-based processing, then they can share design information. Common Knowledge Base The Repository contains delinilions o£ all of the objects that are specified hra CASE tool—entities, relationships, dala models, process models, normalized da tabase schemes, procedural code. Tle attributes of these objects are then de- fined in the form of a normalized rela: tional database. Next, the rules that must be obeyed by all of the objects and attributes are defined. The database provides the structure of a software backplane. In this way, it will be possible to use CASE tools from different CASE vendors, all o£ which interact with a common knowledge base of design information. There will be a diversity of ideas [rom dryačo different. vendors and a wide range of views on what constitutes the most | powertful tools; however, the tools must be portable, they must interconnect, and they must have integration down the value train across the corporation. One | P | i | j application in the value train might be RMRLJA, a Kenerator, ti Ja different CASE vendors, all of which interact built, with one tool; a different applica- ; plinnce "Common Program wiih a commo: know ; . . tion might be built, with another tool. 4 a SCED serviete Such sb) ledge base of design information. However, the tools must integrate across ! o anode kila lerfaces olpkje, : o applications, Building a computerized ' and dialoge services, aje nie ne corporation reguires the acceptance of terfuces and interfaces provid' ve pola vori 8 WIl be available on erator it wi be used to generate eo ne ua lj lati rovid- or] , nn ms Gi component, of za SAA application genera ana DARSA £utable code for all SAA a S UNI pavi a strategy NW/Cgele dlary temi kej (aja, ESF is a published interface to the eh siva eine Fan use CSP/AD ver- — for CASE based on the most powerful ing o in providing an open develop- — third. o a odet that enables nism of ESF through the mecha- soltware-development technology. ment environment. The de: csp/; or tools to connect with A I S —————OOOOOpOpO€O€0X), to fines the tis rep jvendor might decide not to ; Hb zene of the evo ban novice ml Markup Language (GM), o be sedla 28 the code generator Peče - pola opeki mna o podna DI ces. To be fully compliant lih? mi nd alko (iš ine Of tags tochniajes (kat au calion-enabling Martin Report, an information service NE es frota third party ven. of ESF as a tag langu z des- — IBM' strategy is to (oseba pite updated guarterly, at (800) 2412-1240 ji i A dra repositories that — can be used to export desiga poeta ESF O CSP/ADas the application peča of. For information on sen inars, plrase | il anane mela-data model tions from design and ag However, if a for contact (in the United States and Can. aa been defined by IBM for the nents of CASE ea ke bagivais compo- — opa a mare di code gra devel ara) Technology Transfer institute, | | AD/Cycle Repository, or partial applicati ild complete IBM does not want to preclude tor, 741 10th St, Santa Monira, Galif. ; IBM recognizes that its current Reposi- — CSP/AD code Medani me Rather, IBM's intent t ie karja 90402 (213) 394.835. mn Europe, con- P1Y contains only a (raction of the in £an also be imported from AIOEEEI a as CSP/AD, may be ah ja iii kem Lan 7 used, pro t they conform to the ster, LAS 9BX Unit pm