Application development tools

Software Development Platform Comparisons

So many development environments to choose from, so little time to work with them!  You may see something about an environment of interest to you, but wonder just what is working with it really like?  Well, I stumbled upon a recent report of interest from Evans Data Corp. on the top software development platforms.  Their report is loaded with useful information about the products evaluated: Eclipse, Delphi, Rational Development Tool Suite, IntelliJ, Visual Studio and Tools, NetBeans, Jdeveloper and tools, and Sun Studio.

Since I work mostly using Visual Dataflex my experience with these tools is limited — yet my interest in them is high, so I found the report particularly informative.  The report ranks the tools in over 15 areas such as “Ready to Use out of box experience”, “Sample Apps”, “Database Development Tools” and “Integration with Databases”.  There are also charts and comment on overall ratings by development platform.

The report is freely available from Evans Data — I’m sure many who read this will find it an interesting read.

Danger! Has Software Development Become Too Easy?

While reading on the web recently I actually saw a comment from a developer who expressed (rather strongly as I recall) his thoughts regarding software development ease.  His basic premise was that software development has become so easy given the tool-sets available to developers these days that there are too many developers who are developing software that shouldn’t be because while they may understand how to use a tool to get something working, they do not have the background knowledge to really “understand” what they are creating, therefore creating a “danger” - be it a security danger or data integrity danger.

WOW!  What a perspective!  I believe it was originally posted somewhere in response to the release of the SANS Top 25 Programming Errors.  (See my January blog post “Software Development, Security and Programming Errors“).  At the time I simply dismissed the comment as being way out in left field - but the comment has haunted me since reading it.

I suspect that the comment has haunted me as it has because I am keenly aware that certainly there is the potential of an element of truth to the perspective.  However, I’m not so sure that “easy” software development tools add to the problem, I would expect well designed tools (easy or otherwise) to be producing well designed and secure software.

Why Create a Custom Application?

First — In the interest of public discloser I must confess that perhaps I am biased on the subject of custom applications.  While writing my previous post I found myself once again becoming excited about application development, and more especially the value that such an application can bring to an operation.  I suspect that thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of potentially high value applications remain undeveloped because those responsible for the operation do not realize that it is possible to have the kind of efficient, specific and valuable applications developed at a reasonable cost.

Development tools available today provide the means to easily produce an application in stages, creating an initial database, entry forms and limited reporting as users are loading data into master tables etc.  While my experience with development tools other than Visual Dataflex (VDF) is limited, I’m aware that there are multiple paths to produce powerful applications for a reasonable cost.  The applications can easily be multi-user at the start and grow as additional functionality is desired.  No need to use an expensive database, although the tools in most cases can “talk” with multiple databases. 

So, back to “Why a Custom Application?”  I’d list the following:

• Custom Apps can be “lean and mean” - no “extras” needed
• “New” functionality is added only as desired, not at a designers whim
• “Lean and mean” is efficient
• More “understandable” for users - thus easier to use with fewer errors
• A well developed app can provide excellent return on investment
• “Off-the-shelf” software doesn’t really “fit” your needs or requires too much in the way of training, maintenance or “tweaking” for it to be of value
• Your industry doesn’t have any “canned” vertical market software available, or it is designed for too large/small an operation, is too costly, doesn’t “fit” the way you want/need it to.

You can probably think of many others as well, but I believe those above list covers the gambit.

Next Post — “Factors Against a Custom Application?”