mfriedma@oracle.com (Michael Friedman) (02/11/90)
I'm looking for CASE tools designed for 3GL's. I'd like to get an idea of what kinds of sytems exist to help people who are programming in 3GL's. Most CASE tools I have seen are aimed at people building databases. I'm looking into CASE tools that are good for someone building a system of 5 or 6 100,000 line C programs which do little or no database manipulation. In my mind's eye I see something that runs on a UNIX X-terminal. You build a flow chart. Each element of the flowchart can be expanded into another flowchart or into one or more lines of code. The system knows enough about C that at the lowest level it can generate the flowchart as you type in code. Is there anything like that on the market? Is there anything at all on the market that isn't intended for people using databases? Mike Friedman -- The passing of Marxism-Lenninism first from China and then from the Soviet Union will mean is death as a living ideology ... . For while there may be some isolated true believers left in places like Managua, Pyongyang, or Cambridge, MA ... - Francis Fukuyama
dennism@menace.rtech.COM (Dennis Moore) (02/13/90)
mfriedma@oracle.com (Michael Friedman) of Oracle Corporation, Belmont, CA asks: |I'm looking for CASE tools designed for 3GL's. | |I'd like to get an idea of what kinds of sytems exist to help people |who are programming in 3GL's. Most CASE tools I have seen are aimed |at people building databases. I'm looking into CASE tools that are |good for someone building a system of 5 or 6 100,000 line C programs |which do little or no database manipulation. | |In my mind's eye I see something that runs on a UNIX X-terminal. You |build a flow chart. Each element of the flowchart can be expanded |into another flowchart or into one or more lines of code. The system |knows enough about C that at the lowest level it can generate the |flowchart as you type in code. | |Is there anything like that on the market? | |Is there anything at all on the market that isn't intended for people |using databases? | |Mike Friedman Well, Mike, INGRES/Teamwork is probably the kind of product you are looking for. The Teamwork components handle the analysis and design of systems. There is even a component which generates C code from the data dictionary. The INGRES components assist in the design of databases and 4GL applications. Teamwork runs on X terminals on Unix. BTW, it is only a recent invention by DBMS companies that CASE tools should integrate with DBMS's. The primary reason behind this drive is not that the tools should only be capable of building DBMS-based applications, like your ORACLE*CASE. The primary reason customers want to integrate a CASE tool with a DBMS is to permit easy querying of the dictionary. Typical queries (in English) range from "if I change the data type of this object, which applications will be affected" to "which applications call this library function?" A secondary benefit of this integration is that the data dictionary becomes stored in an open, if proprietary, dictionary format. Other tools can manipulate that dictionary and share data. Tools written by the DBMS vendors will automatically know the format of the dictianory, and be able to do things like generate 4GL code (or in the case of Oracle, "4th generation environment" applications -- SQL*FORMS ;-}). There two standard dictionary formats. One comes from the ANSI IRDS committee, and one from the ISO equivalent (draft status at this point). Companies like IBM (AD/Cycle), DEC (CDD Plus), and Oracle have not adopted these open standards. These companies use the data dictionary for "account control" -- to lock customers into their products. Other forward looking companies have adopted the IRDS standard. These companies rely on their superior products, rather than their installed base or marketing prowess, to attract customers ;-). Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. -- Dennis Moore, Manager, INGRES/teamwork Product Development