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GUI tools rolling out as enabling machines
Source: Software Magazine Published: Sep 1991
Industrial-strength front-end tools are beginning to become available for client/server architectures. These tools take advantage of PC graphics, connect to many server databases and offer powerful object oriented capabilities to the professional application developer. “You can consider these products as replacements of the 4GLs of the ’80s,” said George Schussel, president of Digital Consulting, Inc., in Andover, Mass. “They’re graphically oriented code generators. They run under the dominant graphic standards, which are Windows 3.0, Presentation Manager, Motif and Open Look,” he added.
The front-end tools are open, so they support multiple independent DBMSs, said Schussel. “They also support execution across the network in a client/server mode.”
In addition to supporting shared repository and data dictionary environments across that network, Schussel said the front-end tools will be project-oriented for teams. “They will also support the debugging process in a windows environment,” said Schussel. Therefore, a developer could have one window running the program, other running the debugger, and another examining output from that program. He said they will also have an industrial-strength language with which a developer can write detailed procedures. “And of course they have to integrate with and manage the SQL environment,” Schussel added.
