Second of a
series of articles
on the IBM Re-
pository, a sig-
nificant compo-
nent of IBMs

ile sl ZREKLE

po V k V Z o | A ud kcal

AD/Cycle Repository Open

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-

applications-de- — to
velopment. strat-
egu for the
19905.

The IBM Re-
pository, an-
nounced last
month, establish-

MAR VI hi
SUAALIN, | es a common
standard for de-

Sign specilivalions generated by comput-
er aided software engineering (CASE)
products and other development tools.
As deseribed in last week's article, the
Repository represents a critical compo-
nent of AD/Cycle, which provides a
standard development environment,
within IBM's Systems Application Archi-
tecimre (SNA).
Vsers demand an open software-devel-
opment environment in which tools"
— kom many vendors can be used inter-
uteably, sharing specifications from
nanon repository of design informa-
on. lu defining a repository standard,
Jo la

Many vendors of sofLware-develop-
ment tools claim compliance with IBM's
application-development standards; still,
is important to determine the level of
commitment that the vendor intends to
make to the standard.

As (he figure shows, there are at least
four levels of compaltibility with the
AD/Cyele standard for an applications-
development environment standard:

% Uompliance with CUA. Entails sup-
port for a common user interface [or ali
applications, using the Corimon User
Necess services specified by SAA.
? Compliance with AD/Cyele. Entails
use oa conunon slandard for design
specilicalions, as defined by (he
AV/Cyele Repository.
— 2 Compliance with External Source
Format. (ESF). ESF is an IBM specifica-
iuage used to import/export de-
pecilications from frontcend CASE
Cross Byslem Produci/Applica-
(CSP/AD), the desig-

ry 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.

Fout Ways

To Comply with Ab/Cycle.

Softivare Development Tools May
Corpuatible with One vi'

cations-development tools and applica-
tion models. ESF can be used within an
integrated project-support environment

to import/export. design specifications to

a variety of library and configuration-
management tools.
To date, several vendors of applica-

pra via k ee (edi rv ne

OCTOBER 9, 1989

s Door to Standard Design

Repository standard, obey SAA stan-
dards and create code that's portable
within SAA environments.

Many users view the introduction of
the IBM Repository and the AD/Cycle
applications-development environment j
as the first steps toward the develop-

tions-development tools have announced '— ment of a software-backplane capability.

ESF support, including Index Technolo-
gy Corp., KnowledgeWare Ine., McDDon-
nell Douglas Corp., Nastec Corp., Sage
Software Inc. and Texas Instruments
Ine. These vendors are committed to
producing an ESF tag language to inter-
face with CSP/AD.

When CSP/AD version 3 ig available
on the PS/2 as an SAA application gen-

€
More Eleihenits

n—

ni
A

HGEŠČIN
Stat

Genjetat

John. Avaklan.

IBM's Repository will make it possible to use CASE tools
from different CASE vendors, all of which interact

CSP/AD version 8 will be available on ;

SAA application-generation facility.
C ESF isa published interface to the

Cross System Product. that enables
RE edrA vendor tools to connect with

— CSP/AD, 1 is represented ns a General
Markup Language (GML), which is a hu-
consisting

- man-readable

Y . ESF

wilh a common knouledge base of design information.

— he PS/2 workstation in June 1000 as an.

erator, it will be used to generate exe-
cutable code for all SAA environmenits.
dai Samice can use Kajne ver-
ahjs.in hrough the mec
nism of ESF. ; s ke:
A vendor might decide not to use
CSP/AD as the code generator becnuse

of tags —

all of the objects hat are specitied by a
CASE tool —entities, relationships, data

The objective of a software backplane is
one of enabling users to select a variety
of compatible front-end analysis and de-
sign tools, code generators, project-man-
agement facilities and other support
tools that share design information from
a common Repository. j
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
common design database. However, the
database needs to store more than just
design inforrnation; it needs to be a
knowledge base containing all the rule
processiny associated with objects in the
database. The design repository should
be an object-oriented kola me

he Repository Contatms de

models, process models, normalized da- V
vabase schemes, procedural code. The
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. 'Fhe database provides the
structure of a sollware backplane. In

this way, it will be possible to use CASE
tools [rom different GASE vendors, all
of which interact with a common
knowledge base of design information.
There will be a diversity of ideas from
different vendors and a wide range of
views on what constitutes the most
powerful tools; however, the tools must
be portable, they must interconnect, and
they must have integration down the
value train across the corporation. One -
application in the value train might be
built with one tool; a different applica-
tion might be built. with another tool.
However, the tools must integrate across
aj tions. Building a computerized —
corporation reguires the acceptance ol
standards, as well as a fully integrated
development environment.

Next week, I will describe a strate
for CASE based on the most powerful
software clevelopinent technology, H.

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