IBM took the wraps off Java-based software development tool
enhancements to kick off its Rational Software Development Users Conference
this week in Texas.
The company unleashed a pile of
code to enhance several of its key software initiatives, which it will dole
out throughout the year. The intitiatives will support IBM’s efforts to integrate the open source
Eclipse Project and the Eclipse IDE
“Eclipse allows us to build our tools much more quickly, bring them to
market more quickly, but also provides much deeper integration,” said Mike
Devlin, IBM Rational software general manager, at a press conference.
“We’re extending that integration forward in the lifecycle into business
modeling and back into the operations and test side.”
ISVs
everyone from experienced coders to novice programmers to build business
applications faster. For IBM, it expands adoption of its middleware
environment to more potential customers.
Support on the IBM Software Development Platform includes:
JavaServerFaces
(JSF); visual refactoring for automatic changes throughout the
application; UML 2.0
among business, operations and development teams on a project; Service
Data Objects (SDO) support to link applications to databases; and C/C++
application development support.
IBM announced four additions to its Lotus Workplace
platform,
a J2EE-based
Web services on mobile devices.
Workplace Builder and Designer are intended for inexperienced J2EE
programmers and “line-of-business managers,” a term coined by IBM officials.
Developers using Workplace Builder can assemble an application from the ground up,
using building blocks of components, and
recycle the code to use in other programs. Builder will be
released as part of Workplace 2.0 this fall and resembles the Visual Basic
style of programming.
The Workplace API
integrate applications in a Web services environment on any sort of device,
from the desktop to the PDA
the third quarter of this year, with a client toolkit making an appearance
toward the end of the year.
Rounding out the Workplace enhancements is WebSphere Studio Device Developer
5.7, which extends Workplace applications from mobile devices onto desktops and
workstations. A key enhancement is the version’s support for applications
running on devices that aren’t always connected to the Internet.
This will become generally available at the end of the month.
The more advanced Designer, due
out in beta later this year, is used for building stand-alone apps. It also sports
a visual scripting tool and is easier to use than IBM’s WebSphere Studio,
according to Big Blue officials.
IBM is also devoting an area of its developerWorks Web site for Rational
programmers, called “The Rational Zone.” The site will feature 30 online
forums and about 800 “how-to” articles and Web-based tutorials for
developers working their way through a project.
“IBM remains committed to providing its developer ecosystem with the support
and resources required to help them be successful, including how to use
Rational products within the Software Development Platform to successfully
build, integrate, extend, modernize and deploy software,” said Gina Poole,
IBM vice president of developer marketing and Web communities, in a statement.
Other developer enhancements announced Monday at the conference include:
- Support for Linux on the IBM Software Development Platform.
- Support for Eclipse 3.0 with extensions to integrate software change
and configuration and requirements tools. - Alphaworks has three applications available for download: integration
tools for migration from .NETWinForms to Eclipse; the IBM
Reflexive UIBuilder to test GUI
functionality or use as a GUI renderer; and OptimalGrid, a
tool for developers working on optimizing grid networking applications or
online gaming projects. - The IBM Rational Functional Tester Extension for terminal-based
applications lets developers use the same tool to test Java-, client/server-
and zSeries/iSeries-based applications.
