Screen painting essentially takes an existing database and provides facilities to "paint" or piece together an end-user interface to that database. One of the drawbacks with the screen painting approach which is not initially apparent, is the massive amount of coding that is required, mostly in proprietary languages, to build the data interface. While the actual screen painting can be carried out relatively quickly, the development lifecycle slows down tremendously when developers are forced into the immense coding or scripting required. Synchronizations, field behavior, transaction requirements, etc., all have to be manually coded. As the code mounts, so does the complexity and cost, both initially and throughout the system's evolution.
The USoft Developer repository-based approach provides the ability to store all definitions needed to completely generate high performance, server/client information systems. This provides many advantages. All database and integrity rules, as well as the GUI styleguide and business rules, are stored in the USoft server/client repository. From these definitions, USoft Developer's dynamic generation capabilities create the systems while taking advantage of the most advanced techniques. Both server AND client components are completely implemented from integrated, centrally stored repository definitions.
USoft Developer not only provides extensive productivity advantages in development, but also in system evolution and maintenance. As information system requirements change, developers can add or modify the definitions in the repository and USoft implements the rest. Within USoft's fast and flexible environment, all database and end user systems reflect these changes in minutes. Alternatively, the screen painting approach requires changes at the source code level. This dramatically increases the amount of time required to reflect business objectives in information systems as compared to the repository-based systems engineering approach using USoft Developer.
More and more organizations are realizing that a move into server/client development involves more than just painting screens. Developers must be aware of both the client and server requirements and have centralized control over both. USoft Developer has enabled hundreds of organizations worldwide to effectively develop and deploy more sophisticated server/client information systems.
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