IBM Licensed Programs: Application Development Products 645
IBM Licensed Programs: Application Development Products
• Visual construction from components
VisualAge Generator includes IBM's award winning visual, component-based
construction architecture. This facility is much more than a User Interface (UI) layout
builder. Programmers can build their own components and make them available for reuse,
or they can take advantage of pre-built, pre-tested components sold by IBM or third
parties, visually assembling them to meet their system specifications.
Hundreds of reusable components are already available. With the growth of popularity of
JavaBean and Enterprise JavaBean component models, thousands more will become
available, allowing IT shops to implement a “Buy and Integrate” application development
strategy instead of the traditional “develop from scratch” approach.
• High level 4GL specification facility
VisualAge Generator provides a simple and yet powerful specification language. This
language includes a set of high-level and polymorphic constructs, such as I/O verbs, Unit
of Work (UOW) management verbs, and Remote Procedure Call (RPC), and hides the
complexity of underlying target execution environment. The programmer, therefore, can
focus on the business problem rather than on writing to a complex API. An example of the
power of the abstraction level of such a specification is the Web Transaction Rapid
Development facility. Using a logical data structure definition and simple logical verbs,
such as CONVERSE, programmers can build and test without needing to learn and
master complex Web technologies such as Java servlets and JSP, fully functional
multi-tiered e-business systems.
Beyond the abstraction provided in the language, VisualAge Generator includes many
aides to make 4GL programming even more productive. These include powerful utilities
such as language sensitive editors, wizards, and graphical assistants. Each is fully
integrated and designed to speed the programming effort and help to prevent or eliminate
errors.
• Interactive Test Facility (ITF) integrated with the development facilities
The most powerful feature of the development workbench is the ITF. This facility is tightly
integrated with the specification environment, allowing programmers to easily specify,
animate and verify the application without leaving the development environment. This
rapid iteration between specification and verification frees the developers from costly
generation (compilation) and deployment steps, and facilitates an evolutionary
development approach for prototyping.
Fulfilling the Enterprise Requirements
An “enterprise class” application development solution must be capable of fulfilling the
following key requirements:
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