|
JavaOne: Still About the Code
Third-party vendors emphasize infrastructure,
integration
By David
Rubinstein and Alan
Zeichick
July 1, 2001 — SAN FRANCISCO —
While much of the buzz at JavaOne revolved around the latest
trends—Web services and Java in embedded devices—many traditional
code creation, testing and management vendors showcased new versions
of their tools, keeping the feet of the visionaries rooted to the
ground.
After 10
years as a services company, Spectrum Software Inc. launched
its first product, a source configuration management toolkit,
SpectrumSCM, that despite costing only $750 per user is claimed to
be a full-featured solution. “There was a big hole in the market,”
said Adrian Raybould, director of software development at Spectrum.
“The high-end tools are very expensive, complicated and awkward to
maintain. The low-end tools, that you have to buy in pieces of
functionality, often have integration problems.” SpectrumSCM is a
Java-based toolkit for version control, process control, release
management, branching and issue tracking without dependence on an
underlying operating system. SpectrumSCM also is Web-based for use
by disparate members of an organization, with SSL, cryptography
extensions and digital signature security.
In the code
visualization space, Dublin, Ireland-based Headway Software
Inc. has integrated Headway reView 2.4 with Sun’s Forte for Java
development suite. The $1,000-per-seat reView is designed to take
code and reverse it into a tree structure or model so developers
“can see exactly what they have,” said Brendan O’Reilly, CEO of the
18-month-old company. Meanwhile, Visicomp Inc. has improved
its VisiVue runtime tool for trace text filtering, allowing
developers to customize what founder Ron Hughes called “the smoking
gun” of application failure to see just the lines of code where they
suspect the problem to have occurred.
Another company focused
on debugging, The Kernel Group Inc., showed off a new version
of its AutoTrace tool that now adds Java compatibility and native
compiler support. The AutoTrace 3.1, according to the company, can
trace Java threads, as well as the C/C++ supported by previous
versions.
At the show, Instantiations Inc. claimed
that next month it will release a version of its jFactor code
refactoring tool for the JBuilder development environment. jFactor,
which costs $695 per seat, currently has 23 refactoring functions
for improving the design of code as it is written. jFactor already
is integrated with IBM’s VisualAge for Java.
Released into
beta last week, Bean-test 4.1 from Empirix Software Inc. is
scheduled for general release in August. The upgrade includes a
graphical user interface for method ordering, so more people in an
organization can use the testing tool earlier in the development
cycle, according to Bean-test product manager Diane Mailloux. The
new version also allows for extensible testing configurations, in
which the results of one Enterprise JavaBean method can be passed to
another, or the testing of more than one EJB in one test case, she
said. The data sources can be randomly generated or user-supplied,
depending upon the needs of the application, and the runtime of the
load test can be customized, she added.
Working to improve
the performance and reliability of Java applications, VMGear
Inc.—which changed its name from Intuitive Systems Inc. in
April—has a new suite of software, called Optimizeit. According to
the company, Optimizeit includes three tools: a memory and
performance profiler, a real-time thread debugger, and a
code-coverage checker for use during test sessions. Optimizeit
Profiler has been an existing stand-alone product; the debugger and
coverage tools are currently in beta for Windows and are expected to
be generally available in the fall on Linux, Solaris and
Windows.
Sitraka Software Inc. has updated its JProbe
code management and JClass interface-building components, and also
will support the Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP) in its
DeployDirector application management solution. JProbe 3.0 now has
snapshot differencing capabilities that allow development managers
to set baselines for application performance and then to test the
applications against them; an instance viewer that can narrow down
code to find memory leaks; and improved examples and documentation,
according to Jeff Zado, Sitraka’s JProbe product line manager. In
addition, the software now runs on AIX and HP-UX, with support for
Oracle’s 9i application server expected in the next release, Zado
said. In JClass 5.0, Sitraka has added 3D charting capability and
has created JClass ServerChart, which takes advantage of application
server services and scales along with the server to provide 3D
charting capability for server-side applications, Zado said. Also,
Sitraka has sold its Sitraka Mobility division to Everypath Inc., a
developer of wireless applications, for an undisclosed
sum.
Programming for nonprogrammers? To the list of companies
that target “business analysts” with drag-and-drop developer tools,
add Synthis Corp., whose new Adalon, unveiled at JavaOne, is
intended to complement software such as Rational’s Rose and
TogetherSoft’s ControlCenter, according to company president Wells
Burke. The Java-based tool lets those nontechnical users diagram the
business processes within an e-business application, including data
types, data rules, error conditions, messages and workflow
dependencies. When the design is complete, the data is stored in a
proprietary data format that the company calls adXML, or Application
Design XML; the adXML data can be used to generate code skeletons.
The prerelease version of Adalon is currently available for early
access partners; general availability is scheduled for
August.
Rational Software Corp. has integrated its
Rose UML modeler and ClearCase code tester with Sun’s Forte for Java
IDE. The integration allows the auto-synchronization feature to be
turned off between the code and the model on a class-by-class basis,
according to Bill Taylor, director of product marketing for
Rational’s visual modeling and developer tools. Rational also
launched jRoundup.com, which Taylor described as a vendor-neutral
Web site that has aggregated materials relative to Java and allows
users to download servlets, applets and EJBs with tutorial support
and discussion groups.
Wily Technologies Inc. released
its Introscope 2.6 Web application monitor with integration for the
iPlanet and HP Bluestone application servers, in addition to BEA’s
WebLogic. Introscope, according to marketing vice president Vic
Nyman, can tell developers what is going on inside a JVM, alerting
them to system breaks and allowing for performance trend reporting.
The new version adds automatic performance management when the tool
is used with a supported application server.
Sybase
Inc., although best known for its database software, also offers
development tools, and the company was previewing the next version
of one of them—PowerDesigner—at JavaOne. The new version, yet to be
numbered, includes business process modeling, first-time support for
UML activity and component diagrams, better support for EJBs,
integrated data-warehouse modeling, and support for Microsoft’s
Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. The company plans
to release a beta of the updated PowerDesigner before August, and
claims that the software will be generally available in the fourth
quarter.
Data Representations Inc. unveiled three
extensions to its Simplicity software family. Simplicity Enterprise,
which the company says will be generally available in early July, is
a graphic component-based development environment that is designed
to add functionality to Java servlets by incorporating databases,
XML documents, files and EJBs to server-side Java applications. For
J2ME developers, Simplicity for Mobile Devices, also expected in
early July, provides an environment for building software compliant
with Sun’s Mobile Information Device Profile; it also includes a
J2ME MID emulator. New at the show was a Simplicity for Palm OS,
which the company has priced at $695 per developer set. Pricing for
the other versions was not revealed at the
show.
Embarcadero Technologies Inc. renamed its GDPro
modeling tool Describe, and has given developers the ability to see
both a UML model and code from a single screen, alleviating the need
to toggle back and forth between the model and the development
environment. Describe also now includes a bridge to its ER/Studio
database to allow an application to be built based upon the database
model. Describe, to be available this month, integrates with Sun’s
Forte for Java IDE, with future integrations for JBuilder, VisualAge
for Java and VisualCafé expected, the company says.
A new
application from RadView Software Ltd., called WebFT, is
designed to provide functional testing of Web applications. WebFT,
which the company says will be available in late July for $4,995 per
developer seat, uses a JavaScript-based language to create test
scripts. The program offers both a graphical icon-based testing
environment and a command line from which QA staff can execute
JavaScript calls to manually exercise specific Web application
features.
RadView says the same language, which it calls
SmartScript, is used on all of the company’s testing products as
well.
Finally, for developers using Jcorporate Ltd.’s
Expresso open-source Web application framework, JavaOne was the
venue for a minor update. New in Expresso 3.1 is enhanced support
for the Model-View-Controller design pattern, with a new
ControllerServlet component type that can support multiple graphical
user interfaces within a single application. It also includes a new
tool for measuring performance of Expresso-based applications and
their external URL links. The new release is now compliant with
Sun’s JDK 1.2, according to the company.
|
|
Advertisement
Back to
Top |