IBM's Tool-Timing Plan

Eric Naiburg, group market manager of desktop tools, said that moving forward, IBM will release upcoming versions of WebSphere Studio and the Rational tools at the same time. In December, the Armonk, N.Y., vendor turned over WebSphere Studio to the IBM Rational Software group to help streamline and merge an often-bewildering array of tools into one offering, tagged the IBM Software Development Platform.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction," said Supreet Singh, vice president of operations at Pegasus Knowledge Solutions, a Schaumburg, Ill., solution provider.

"This is an evolution toward the logical unification of the WebSphere and Rational product lines."

WebSphere Studio 5.1.2 includes two key technology enhancements aimed at what developers and vendors consider the Holy Grail of Java development: enabling developers largely unfamiliar with the language or the J2EE platform to develop applications visually without hard-core coding.

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New to the two core tools of the suite, WebSphere Site Developer and WebSphere Application Developer, is support for Java Server Faces (JSF), a recently finalized Java standard that provides a way to drag and drop visual application components into a Web page, said John Ward, market manager for WebSphere Studio. The tools also include support for Service Data Objects (SDO), a proposed Java standard to link visual elements of a GUI to various data sources.

Another addition is Enterprise Generation Language (EGL),a 10-year-old IBM technology allowing COBOL, SQL and RPG developers to write business logic for applications without knowing Java code. This feature, combined with JSF and SDO, enables developers without strong Java skills to build dynamic Web applications using the new WebSphere Studio.

Indeed, most Java tools vendors are attempting to tackle this problem. BEA Systems and Sun Microsystems have released Java tools that emulate the way developers build applications using Microsoft Visual Basic, while Oracle and Borland are automating more code generation in their tools.

DEVELOPER TOOLS STREAMLINED
IBM is releasing new versions of its WebSphere Studio and IBM Rational Suite developer offerings. Below is a list of new features in each, according to the particular tool in the suite:
WebSphere Studio Tool
New Features
WebSphere Studio Application Developer

• Visual portlet development tool

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• Support for STRUTs framework

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• Portlet testing tool

WebSphere Studio Application Developer and WebSphere Studio Site Developer Standard

• Support for Java Server Faces, including tag library of user-interface components

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• Support for Service Data Objects (SDO), a proposed standard for linking visual GUI components to various data sources

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• Addition of Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) so developers familiar with Cobol, RPG and SQL can write business logic and build data-driven Web apps without knowing Java

IBM Rational Suite Tool
New Features
Rational XDE

• Support for database modeling for DB2 on the iSeries

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• New model-driven architecture (MDA) toolkit

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• Support for C#, both managed and unmanaged code

Rational Test Manager
• Integration with VMware
Rational Robot
• Support for latest versions of Visual Studio, Powerbuilder, Delphi and Oracle forms
Rational Rose PurifyPlus
• Linux support
Rational Rose Realtime
• Linux support

BEA said it also will support JSF and SDO, which it co-authored with IBM, in future releases of its WebLogic platform.

However, IBM, especially with its Rational portfolio, is arguably the most well-positioned to take on Microsoft's mass-market appeal with developers, solution providers said.

"If you look at the full suite [of tools], IBM is the company to beat," said Scott McIntosh, technical director at Fairfax, Va.-based solution provider ICF Consulting.