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Occasionally, a product comes along that seems to catch fire: Suddenly, everybody's using it. Visual Basic was one. Java might become one for the World Wide Web. Vision Software Tools Inc.'s Vision Builder, due to ship mid-May, may be one for the realm of client/ server application development.
An encyclopedia might say that for combustion all that's needed is oxygen, fuel, and a heat source; there are many other factors involved in making "hot" software, but once some prerelease nits are picked out, Vision Builder just might be the right kind of fuel to light a client/server application development fire.
Vision Builder is a code-generating application. It includes a development environment for both application and server code and, to some extent, some CASE tools.
Code-generating applications routinely promise the world in the form of complete, working applications the first time, and Vision Builder is no exception, but it does recognize the reality of customization, tweaking, and debugging after generation.
Organizations without an established client/server development methodology might do far worse than to consider Vision Builder. The benefits to wellestablished client/server organizations may be somewhat fewer, but the tools for implementing business rules and the comprehensive tie-ins with client application development may add value enough.
Cooperation a strong point
Vision Builder capitalizes on its strong points by cooperating with many other development tools. Vision Builder includes a strong Business Rules Designer, but it can also import rules from other sources. Many CASE tools, Logic Work Inc.'s ERwin and Asymetrix Corp.'s InfoModeler, for example, can put their rules into a form that Vision Builder can use...