February 1997
By Clara Parkes
DB/Expo Wrap-Up:
Shifting Tides
Whenever I attend trade shows, I hear the lament, "There just aren't as many people here this year." The more I hear it, the more it becomes apparent that this is not just a temporary affliction but a continental shift in the industry. We appear to be leaving behind the Comdex-style supershows of yesteryear and entering an era of smaller, specialized conferences and summits. A simple glance at the Web pages of DCI, Blenheim (now owned by our parent company Miller Freeman Inc.), and even Miller Freeman will prove my point. The problem today is no longer finding a good conference, it's choosing which one to attend.
In keeping with tradition, I chose DB/Expo in New York. Despite its seemingly lower attendance, from a news standpoint the show was a success. Perhaps the crowds stayed away when they learned that we were sharing the Javits Convention Center with a dental exposition. I certainly was tempted to return to my hotel and hide.
The Great Debate
Oracle Corp. was noticeably absent from the show, as was Microsoft Corp., although the company was kind enough to send Repository Architect Philip Bernstein to participate in Herb Edelstein's "Great Debate." Also participating were IBM Corp.'s Fellow and Director of Strategy and Technical Planning for Database Management Don Haderle, Sybase Inc.'s Executive VP Robert Epstein, and Computer Associates International Inc.'s Senior VP of Product Strategy Yogesh Gupta, who repeated yet again his "shift happens" pun and defended his "object or bust" philosophy. Meanwhile, Informix Software Inc.'s VP and CTO Michael Stonebraker was primarily concerned about the lack of standards in the Internet space. Because JDBC will not allow objects to go through that interface to a database, many companies have developed solutions that "fake" that state, but none follows any standard.
Logical Directions
On the show floor, there was no lack of news being generated. Informix officially unveiled Informix-Universal Server, and IBM announced the DB2 Universal Database. I previewed both of these announcements last month, so I'll skip to other significant announcements. Logic Works Inc. (Princeton, N.J.) announced support for the Informix-Universal Server in a future version of the company's data modeling tool ERwin. Logic Works' Universal Modeling Architecture will use Logic Works' ModelBlades to model DataBlades designed for the Informix-Universal Server. Version 3 of ERwin should enter beta in the first quarter of 1997, and a subsequent release due around the second quarter of 1997 will deliver the Informix-Universal Server support. Logic Works also promised to ship its newly acquired TestBytes tool by December 31, 1996. TestBytes generates meaningful test data so developers can stress-test databases and applications. Contact Logic Works Inc., 800-783-7946 or 609-514-1177; www.logicworks.com.
Managing the Web
Mercury Interactive Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) announced that it will also remarket Logic Works' TestBytes as part of its suite of testing tools. The company also announced Astra SiteManager, a visual Web site management tool that was developed with an open API. The product scans an entire Web site and displays the Web architecture as a graphical, color-coded map, representing the site in a "hubs and spokes" map. It graphically displays usage patterns, lets you compare two different snapshots of the site architecture, and identifies and displays link-related problems.
Along with this announcement, Mercury announced Astra SiteTest, which lets you stress-test a Web site using a single Windows 95 or Windows NT workstation. The tool generates the equivalent load of 4.3 million HTTP hits to a Web server in a day on a single workstation, and it lets you automatically generate test scripts by accessing the Web application to be tested using either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer. Contact Mercury Interactive Corp., 408-523-9900 or fax 408-523-9911; www.merc-int.com.
New Magic Tricks
Magic Software Enterprises Inc. (Irvine, Calif.) previewed Magic 8, the next major upgrade to its table-driven application development tool. Magic 8 will enable Magic developers to deploy Magic applications as HTML pages and to build Java clients, integrate Java applets and ActiveX controls in Magic applications, and manage the state of a Web application. Magic 8 should ship sometime in the second quarter of 1997. Contact Magic Software Enterprises Inc., 800-345-6244, 714-250-1718, or fax 714-250-7404; www.magic-sw.com.
Allegris Available
Intersolv Inc. (Rockville, Md.) announced the January 1997 availability of its new Allegris Series, a suite of tools for building client/server and Internet/Intranet applications based on components stored in a repository. The Allegris Series includes the Allegris Constructor, which assembles applications from components; the Allegris DataDesigner, which models databases and maps databases to application objects; the Allegris Object Repository, which stores software components; and the Allegris Workshop, a C++ development environment that can build components used in Allegris. Contact Intersolv Inc., 800-876-3101 or 301-838-5065; www.intersolv.com.
'Twas the Season
Four Seasons Software Inc. (Edison, N.J.) is shipping SuperNova Version 5.0//WEB. This product lets users run SuperNova applications in a browser, while the applications reside on a server. The new version supports HTML forms and dynamically generates HTML pages. Contact Four Seasons Software, 908-248-6667; www.4seasons.com.
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Updated Wednesday, January 22, 1997.