IBM RELEASES VISUALAGE FOR BASIC

TEXT By Jacqueline Emigh

IBM has released VisualAge for Basic, also known as "Bart," a programming environment designed to extend the ease of use of the Basic programming language into two new arenas for the enterprise: multi-platform applications on both the server and client sides, and object development.

In a conference call with Newsbytes, Scott Hebner, IBM's program manager for object implementation, contended that Microsoft's Visual Basic does not provide the ability to build "true objects." Instead, "Visual Basic has been used mainly for client-side productivity applications," he said.

IBM's "Bart," on the other hand, is designed for server-as well as client-based applications, supporting the current rise of "network-centric computing," according to the program manager.

VisualAge for Basic lets developers use visual scripting language to produce applications for a wide range of server and client platforms, as well as multivendor object environments and relational database management systems (RDBMS), "all in the same box," summed up the IBM exec.

From a single CD-ROM disk, Hebner elaborated, applications can be developed for OS/2, Windows 95 and Windows NT clients; in addition to OS/2, Windows NT, and AIX 6000 servers. Documentation is also included in the disk.

Server-based applications provide enhanced security and maintenance, Hebner said. Logic is optimized when stored procedures and user-defined functions reside on the server, because there are "fewer calls moving across the network."

Also unlike Visual Basic, IBM's VisualAge for Basic supports inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation, according to Hebner. "You can build classes and subclasses, and then use these to build new objects," he said.

Object environments supported by Bart include C/C++; OpenDoc components; Systems Object Model (SOM); and Object-Linking-and Embedding (OLE), with OLE controls.

VisualAge for Basic has been optimized for building server-based stored procedures and user-defined functions in Basic for IBM's DB2, Hebner said.

Developers can create Web-accessible applications by connecting to DB2 stored procedures through IBM's Net.Data, he suggested. Bart also supports application development for all other Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)-compliant RDBMSes, according to the program manager.

Hebner noted that IBM has just finished beta testing VisualAge for Basic among 14,000 developers, who downloaded the new development environment from the IBM World Wide Web site. "We're expecting a strong rampout as we go into commercial release," Newsbytes was told. IBM's VisualAge for Basic can be ordered on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/software/ad/vabasic/.

IBM is also selling the product direct through several catalogs, including IBM Direct, Programmers Paradise, Indelible Blue, and Corporate Developer, Hebner added. The suggested retail price (SRP) is Dlrs 119.