IBM recently announced VisualAge, a visual programming power tool for developing robust client/server applications quickly and easily. This is being tested by early customers and planned to be generally available early in 1994. VisualAge enables rapid application development by combining the power of object-oriented (OO) technology with the simplicity of visually connecting pre-fabricated software components. The combination of the VisualAge integrated Smalltalk environment with necessary team-oriented facilities provides for the development of scalable, line-of-business applications. VisualAge's features include: rich and open networking and communications, access to IBM and non-IBM databases , multi-media components, and access to and use of existing applications. VisualAge is especially well suited for developers who build state-of-the art client/server applications that need to access enterprise applications and data. VisualAge comes in two versions for building industrial strength applications: VisualAge for standalone programmers and VisualAge Team, which includes library support, version control and configuration management capabilities. VisualAge is the premier application builder for DB2/2 applications. DB2/2 access and support is built into the base products of VisualAge and VisualAge Team. Access to Sybase and Oracle is available as an optional feature. VisualAge is an extensible, high-powered client/server development tool which eliminates possible programming obstacles end users might encounter using other rapid application development tools. Because the product uses and generates Smalltalk, end users benefit from the productivity of a 4GL and the flexibility of a 3GL. VisualAge contains a complete, embedded Smalltalk environment, which adheres to industry standards such as OSF MOTIF, POSIX and X-WINDOWS. It is also based on the proposed common-base Smalltalk submitted by IBM to ANSI earlier this year. VisualAge comes complete with a set of reusable parts. When new parts need to be written, programmers can take advantage of the full Smalltalk environment within VisualAge. As an alternative, parts can be written in C or COBOL, with VisualAge packaging the parts to behave like objects. VisualAge will first support IBM's OS/2*, followed shortly by Windows**, then AIX and other platforms based on customer demand. The first release of VisualAge will support IBM's Systems Object Model (SOM)*, which provides component reusability and interoperability across languages. IBM's SOMobjects technologies, including the System Object Model (SOM) and Distributed Systems Object Model (DSOM), were designed to enable the creation of industrial strength, binary object classes that are truly reusable and are scalable to client server configurations. SOM is a language-neutral object model that allows developers to 'package' object classes in such a way as to provide an enhanced ability to reuse, modify and customize them within and among different language compilers. SOM, initially used in the development of the OS/2 Workplace Shell, will become a core technology for 'packaging' object frameworks that are designed to be extended by others, such as the forthcoming OpenDoc compound document architecture from IBM, Apple, Novell and Wordperfect. SOM has the unique capability to separate the object's type from its implementation, resulting in a very flexible and dynamic model for developing object oriented applications. DSOM, a scalable extension to SOM, provides transparent, distributed object services that are fully compliant with the Object Management Group's CORBA specification. By integrating the strengths of the VisualAge development environment with IBM's SOM and DSOM technology, VisualAge developers, and the end users of the resulting applications, will benefit from the following enhancements to the VisualAge development environment: Reuse of Object Classes Developed in Other Languages: Using currently available development tools, object classes developed in one language environment cannot be effectively reused in another language environment. The VisualAge SOMsupport will allow VisualAge developers to reuse and subclass object classes developed in other languages, as well as allow VisualAge Smalltalk object classes to be reused by other languages (if they also support SOM). This can significantly increase the availability of object classes to be used in VisualAge as well as allowing VisualAge classes to be used effectively in other development environments (such as C or C++). In all, this will allow developers to reuse more code, thus resulting in less costly and risky development. Support for CORBA Distributed Objects: Client server computing is quickly becoming a standard requirement in the development and deployment of new applications. The Object Management Group's CORBA specification (as fully implemented in IBM's SOM/DSOM technology) was designed to provide a productive, flexible and dynamic C/S solution by exploiting the power of distributed object services. IBM's DSOM is a scalable extension to SOM that provides local/remote distributed object services across a heterogeneous network. VisualAge SOMsupport is planned to support the DSOM extensions and the ability to development workstation CORBA-based distributed objects (deployment across a workgroup requires the IBM SOMobjects Workgroup Enablers). VisualAge SOMsupport can significantly decrease the costs and risk associated in developing, deploying and adapting client server applications while enhancing the migration path from local objects to distributed objects. Support for SOM-based OS Services: Over time, an increasing number of operating systems services will be 'packaged' as SOM object classes and frameworks. The first of these frameworks was the OS/2 Workplace Shell, which allows developers to customize, extend and integrate into the Workplace Shell desktop as well as inherit behavior and characteristics (such as drag/drop) when developing new applications. OpenDoc, a compound document architecture being developed by IBM, Apple, Novell, WordPerfect, and supported by others, will be packaged as a framework of SOM object classes that can be used in developing document-centric, collaborative applications. VisualAge SOMsupport is positioned to exploit these frameworks, as they are made available, which will help automate the design and development of a new wave of document-centric, collaborative applications in a very productive and high quality fashion. Industry Standard Class Definitions: The SOM interface definition language fully conforms to the Object Management Group's CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL) standard as does the SOM interface repository (providing runtime access to class information and definitions). The VisualAge SOMsupport Smalltalk bindings will evolve to be compliant with OMG standards as they are made available. VisualAge SOMsupport classes will, therefore, adhere to industry standards (CORBA IDL), allowing customers to retain investments in skills and code. It also provides a mechanism for interoperability, over time, with other CORBA-compliant object request brokers (such as Hewlett-Packard's HP ORB, Sunsoft's DOE and Hyperdesk's DOMS). IBM's System Object Model (SOM) is not intended to replace existing object oriented languages (such as Smalltalk). Rather, it is intended to complement them so that application programs developed in different language and with different compilers can share common SOM object class libraries that are CORBA compliant. SOM also provides a rich set of object oriented characteristics that can complement existing object oriented languages (such as Smalltalk and C++) as well as procedural languages (such as C, COBOL & REXX). In summary, SOM, when integrated with the VisualAge development environment, can result in a more productive and powerful set of application development capabilities. For more information about VisualAge, call 1-800-IBM-CARY or talk to us on Compuserve or TalkLink under VISUALAGe. For more information on the SOMobjects Developers Toolkit please call 1-800-342-6672 or 1-800-465-7999 in Canada. Trademarks: VisualAge, IBM, SOMobjects, OS/2 are registered and unregistered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1993. All Rights Reserved.