Summer 1996

http://www.synon.com

Volume 6, Number 3

IBM and Synon Partner to Establish Object Technology Lab

The Two Companies Will Assist Customers and ISVs in the Migration of Legacy Applications to Client/Server Technology
IBM Corporation and Synon Corporation announced on May 20 the formation of an Object Technology Laboratory based in IBMs AS/400 Rochester, Minnesota location. The two companies will use the Obsydian development environment to assist customers in building new AS/400 client/server applications and in migrating legacy applications to a client/server architecture. The lab is targeted to be operational in July, 1996. Synon and IBM will also use the lab to create Obsydian class libraries of business objects that exploit and encourage the use of native AS/400 advanced technologies in the areas of imaging, t e l e p h o n y, m u l t i m e d i a , Internet, data warehousing and Lotus Notes. Synon will make these business objects available to Obsydian application developers around the world to embed and reuse in their Obsydian-developed applications. The first class libraries are anticipated to ship by years end. In addition, the two companies will also provide in depth hands-on client/server training classes for ISVs and corporate developers at the lab location in Rochester. Thanks to the aggressive migration programs we have been running for the last three years, there are more than 3,500 client/server AS/400 applications currently available, said Jim Kelly, director of Partner Programs, IBM AS/400 Division. With this new program, we will be combining our heritage in

object-oriented technology with Synons tools and experience to jump-start the development of new objectoriented client/server

application, he said. We are delighted to have IBM recognize the importance of Obsydian See IBM, Page 2

THIS ISSUES FEATURES

Articles: IBM and Synon A Bright and Shining Future for Synon/2E European User Conference IBM & Synon Partnership Q&A SYNON96 Review Synon Makes A Splash Members Of The Million Line Code Club! Australian & European Events Schedule Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice BORN Information Systems Group New Synon Business Unit Formed IBM Incorporates NetSofts NS/Router Zwiren Nominated to COMMON Board Leaseplan Case Study Azur Technology IBM Represents Synon in Germany ICS Promotes Obsydian in the Netherlands Code-Named ALCATRAZ North American SLUG Update Synon Technical Support USA North American Education Schedule The Obsydian Development Process Staying Focused FAQs about NetSoft from Synon Customers Welcome to the Lava Lounge! Columns: Message From The President Simon Williams On Technology Bill Yeack On Service ISV Spotlight: IMPACT Software Synon/2E Tech Tips: Having Fun With Synon/2E SYNON/2E and OS/400 V3R6 FAQ Obsydian Tech Tips: Tips and Techniques

A Bright and Shining Future for Synon/2E

By Derek Hall Synon Corp. years, will continue to provide for your companys needs long into the future. Questions that were often asked are, How long is Synon/2E going to be available and maintained? and Will Synon/2E continue to be enhanced in light of the Obsydian product which is now available? Well, Synon/2E aficionados, devotees, fans and users: put your fears to rest! This article will outline a bright and shining future for the product for a good few years to come. When you consider the 5,000 Synon customer sites and 38,000 Synon/2Ebuilt applications around the world today, it is hard to believe there is anything other than an extremely bright future for this favorite AS/400 product. Synon is not See 6.0, Page 18

n this newsletter, you can read article after article that appear to contain all the buzz words of the industry client/server, inheritance, polymorphism, object oriented and many, many more. These are important concepts and represent both the here and now, as well as the future, of computing. Synon is committed to these ideals in the development of Obsydian. However, there are many of you whose first concern at this time is to build AS/400 host-based systems, often incorporating existing applications that continue to give extremely valuable service, without having to enter into the object-oriented future just yet. This is where Synon/2E, tried and tested for nearly 10

the feedback from previous ser conferences are ideal conferences has enabled us to opportunities for amasstriple the number of elective ing useful information, sessions. Sharing their discovering practical examexperiences of ples of what to working with do and why Synon tools will and for formbe presenters ing new ideas. from as far afield This years as Argentina, European User Disney Canada, USA Conference Disneyland Paris offers some and many on October 10 of the best conference facilities European counand 11 at in Europe and gives Synon tries. These Disneyland the opportunity to offer simultaneous translation of sessions will Paris is certain to provide English-language sessions in cover a wide French, German and Spanish. range of subthese opportujects which have been chosen nities, as the most notable to give delegates practical and difference at this years event useful information which can will be the variety of elective be taken back and put to sessions. Both the tremenimmediate advantage in their dous response to our Invitation to Present and See EUC, Page 11

Message From The President

hat happens when a company combines its two most valuable assets? The answer is an exciting three-day International User Conference where more than 600 of our customers and 75 Synon employees in May exchanged ideas and information on technical and managerial topics, shared a few drinks and, in the late evening hours, even developed solutions for several of the worlds most pressing social problems. During the conference, I remember thinking about the awesome array of application development talent that was assembled under one roof and how much value this group created for their collective companies. My entrepreneurial imagination had me speculating on what could be built if all this talent was part of a single organizationso much for dreaming. All around the world, our customers gather in local user groups, country meetings and international user conferences such as the one just held in Orlando or the upcoming conference in Europe (October 10-11, 1996) to exchange information and ideas. Building applications, as we all know, is still very much a mixture of art and science and as such requires continual education and a great deal of experience sharing. One of the strongest assets of the Synon community is the tremendous breadth and depth of skills that have been built over the last 10 years. And, it is the willingness of our customers to share this knowledge with each other and with Synon that makes us the industry leader. While we all spend a great deal of time keeping current on the latest technologies and product function, the more subtle, and hence more difficult, challenge is in

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

understanding how to apply the technology to solve real business problems. This is where you, our customers, excel. You absorb the huge amount of available information and, like all artisans, are able to make the tools create amazing pieces of art. In some ways I am reminded of Michelangelos comment about his famous sculpture of David. He said, David was already in the marble, and I just used my tools to set him free. We are also pursuing many other activities to enhance the development skills of our customers. We have totally revamped Synonyms, our customer newsletter, to include more tips & techniques, more user stories and more detailed updates on current and planned product content all with an international perspective. It is clear to us that the creative use of Synon technology has no geographic boundaries. Use of our electronic support capabilities has significantly expanded over the last year. The customer forums on CompuServe, the fax-back service for technical information, the online Q&A database and electronic software distribution support are now being used by most customers. We are currently working on a much more robust implementation of these and other capabilities using the Internet and our Web site and will soon provide more information on these new services. Again, the goal is a worldwide real-time dialog between our customers and Synon for the single purpose of helping our artisans more easily find their David. Synon is fortunate to have such a large group of loyal customers who are constantly challenging us to be the very best. I urge you to keep the dialogue coming to let us know how we can better support you as together we implement the next generation of applications and new technologies.

IBM

From page 1

NEWS & VIEWS

in the AS/400 marketplace by investing in building this Object Technology Laboratory, said Richard Goldberg, president and CEO of Synon Corp. By collaborating with Synon to build Obsydian class libraries that exploit the best features of the AS/400, IBM is demon-

strating its leadership in helping its customers build the new generation of business-critical client/server applications. Synons Obsydian, IBMs AS/400 and the jointly developed class libraries is a very powerful package the best in the industry. Obsydian is a model-based, fully integrated application development environment

that uses class libraries of reusable business objects to create scalable, business-critical applications. Obsydian is unique in its support for both AS/400-Windows client/server and 5250 terminals. For more information contact Alan Zwiren at Synon Corporation at 415-461-5000 or via the Internet at ajz@synon.com. s

IBM & Synon Partnership Top 10 Questions & Their Answers

Q A

Why did Synon enter into this relationship with IBM? Synon is in the business of developing enterprise strength applications on leading technology platforms. IBMs AS/400 has proven to be a very effective platform for deploying this type of application. Synons past and current success is tied directly to the strength of the AS/400. The success of the AS/400 is a direct result of the abundance and sophistication of available third-party application solutions. Many of these applications were written using Synon technology. As the AS/400 transitions from host-based to server-based computing, there is a need for a new breed of enterprisestrength client/server applications. Synon is working with IBM to promote the development of client/server applications on the AS/400 using Obsydian technology. By cooperating in this initiative, Synon and IBM can accelerate this development. How does this relationship accelerate the development of client/server applications? There are two barriers to creating sophisticated client/server applications. The first is access to advanced technology, and the second is transitioning skills. This initiative addresses both these issues. By developing a robust set of class libraries that enable advanced AS/400 features within Obsydian, developers can quickly and easily incorporate the most advanced services within new applications. To expedite the transition

of skills, Synon and IBM are creating an environment for developers to receive training and work side by side with mentors to assist in the redevelopment of portions of their applications. Once successful, these developers can then return to their organizations armed with the skills and experience necessary to make the transition to client/server.

Q A

How will the lab be staffed? The lab will be staffed with a combination of Synon and IBM resources. In addition, Synon and IBM are looking for experienced partners to participate via an internship program. Many joint Synon-IBM partners have already expressed an interest in participating as interns. How will this initiative benefit IBM? This initiative benefits IBM by accelerating the creation of client/server applications that run on the AS/400. The abundance of client/server solutions has a positive impact on the sale of AS/400 technology. How will this initiative benefit Synon? This initiative demonstrates the importance of developing client/server applications for AS/400 technology. By partnering with Synon, it is clear that IBM believes Obsydian is a tool capable of developing enterprise-strength client/server applications for the AS/400. What is the industrys reaction to this announcement? The reaction has been quite positive; InformationWeek, Midrange Computing and Gartner Group have already responded quite favorably, and we anticipate further supportive reviews from the AS/400 press, analysts and marketplace. s

Q A

Who is eligible to participate in this initiative? The lab is focusing on training software vendors who currently have solutions developed in 3GLs (RPG and COBOL) running on the AS/400 and are interested in developing client/server applications using Obsydian technology. How can software developers take advantage of this initiative? Candidates interested in participating in this lab should contact either Sally Krusing at IBM at 507-253-5506 (skrusing@vnet.ibm.com) or Alan Zwiren at Synon at 415-4615000 (ajz@synon.com). When will this initiative be launched? Current plans call for establishing the lab in July 1996. Synon and IBM hope to begin developing the first class library shortly thereafter. In addition, the first jump-start training is scheduled to begin in September. Where will the lab be located? The lab will be located in Rochester, Minnesota, at IBMs AS/400 facilities.

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Richard Goldberg President & CEO Synon Corp.

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Synon Professional Services Names New Regional Director

Synon Names New VP of Marketing

ON TECHNOLOGY

NEWS & VIEWS NEWS & VIEWS

he Professional Services Division of Synon Corporation announced on June 1st the appointment of Michael S. Lines as Regional Director. In this role, he will be responsible for building and expanding the staff and market for Synon Services in the Dallas region of the U.S. Michael is a seasoned manager and leader with an extensive consulting background and a track record of successful project and program implementation. He has successfully led a wide range of IT projects and organizations spanning many industries including banking, securities, insurance and telecommunications. Mike is a renaissance employee just the kind of executive a quickly growing company like Synon Professional Services needs to keep headed in the right direction. Not only is he a fantastic manager and project director, but he has the diverse technical background to back it up. He sees the services industry from all angles, says Bill Yeack, Synon vice president of services. Prior to joining Synon, Lines managed the systems integration activities for the Communications Division of Tandem Computers. Lines also brings a broad range of experience from an IS and general management consulting firm he co-founded, as well as from IT and project management positions held worldwide. He is now drawing on his 21 years of experience in the industry to publish a book about project management, focusing on crisis projects and project turnarounds. s

ynon is pleased to announce the appointm e n t o f Simon Haigh a s Vice President of Marketing. Haigh will be responsible for worldwide marketing strategies and programs, product marketing, and business development, with a particular focus on supporting the North American sales channel with marketing and lead generation programs. Haigh was formerly the IT Director for Contred, the

holding company for the Goodyear and Tredcor companies in South Africa. Prior to his current job, Haigh was with Synon from 1985 to 1991. As Managing Director of Europe, based in Synons London offices, he was a major contributor to the growth of Synon. He was also the managing director for Synons Asia Pacific operations based in Sydney, Australia. He brings with him a proven track record and demonstrated marketing leadership. Simons knowledge of Synon and our customers is

remarkable, said Richard Goldberg, president and CEO of Synon Corp. His knowledge is derived from being both an employee of Synons for over five years and from being a customer of Synons for as long, using our Synon/2E and Synon/Financials products at Contred. Simon brings a wealth of experience and front-line insight to his new position with Synon. Simon will work out of Synons Larkspur, California, worldwide headquarters and report to president and CEO Goldberg. s

By Simon Williams Chief Technology Officer Synon Corporation

Making Sense of the Internet

New Director of Marketing Communications for Synon Europe

o build on Synon Europes continued success, the company has appointed Kursha Woodgate to the newly created role, Director of Marketing Communications. Kursha is no stranger to Synonshe has worked closely with the marketing team in Europe for over three years as Account Director at Synons European Public Relations firm, Argyll. With a strong background in communications, Kursha joins Synon at a strategic time for the company. Commenting on her appointment, Synon Europe President Duncan Moore said, At a time when we are expanding into new, highly

competitive markets, it is essential that we communicate the Synon message clearly and effectively. We are delighted that Kursha has joined us to drive forward our marketing communications activity in Europe. As a senior practitioner in one of the UKs leading specialist hi-tech PR companies, Kurshas experience of the IT market spans a broad range of sectors and companies, including market leaders such as Toshiba, Bay Networks and OKI. In addition, Kursha brings a truly international flavour to

the European marketing teamshe is fluent in French, Spanish, Italian and can pass the time of day in Portuguese! Kursha said of her new role, I have worked with many IT organizations to build effective communications strategies. Synon makes a refreshing changea company that is a true market leader, delivers robust products and provides added value to customers. All we need now is to make sure that the world knows about it! Kursha will work alongside Martin Wallis, Director of Product Marketing, to develop co-ordinated marketing plans across Europe. s

Synon Strengthens European Team With New General Managers For Italy, France

y n o n Europe has strengthened its senior management team with the arrival of new General Rossano Ziveri Managers to head direct operations in Italy and France. Rossano Ziveri has taken over at Synon Italia in Milan. Formerly sales director of the software engineering division of one of Italys largest software houses, Rossanos experience of the Italian software market spans more than

ten years in senior management roles. He has been responsible for the marketing, sales and support of object-oriented application development tools. Married with three children, Rossano is a native of Milan. Commenting on his appointment, he said, The opportunity of managing the growth of Synons leading development tool, Obsydian, was too good to miss. At Synon France, based in Paris, Lionel Marguet has joined as the new General Manager. Lionel joined Synon from one of the most success-

ful development tool vendors in France, where he was sales director. During his 15 years in the IT industry, Lionel has developed a broad range of skills and experience in the international software market. In his previous roles, Lionel has been a driving force behind significant growth, both in terms of revenue and expansion into new markets. Synon Europe President, Duncan Moore, commented With Rossano and Lionel on board, the Synon Europe team is stronger than ever. We look forward to a successful 1996. s

rom its relatively humble beginnings in the academic world, the Internet has become the hottest property the IT industry has ever seen. The Internet is a giant computer network comprising over 8 million computers, and supporting over 23 million individual users. Internet clients and servers both share a common languagethe Internet Protocol, or IP which allows them to communicate. The Internet affords its users access to a variety of services. Telnet allows a client to establish a mainframe-type dumb terminal session on a server across the Internet. Electronic mail allows the 40 million people who have an email address to exchange messages and files. About 14,000 Newsgroups allow people to confer on just about every conceivable topic of human interest. File Transfer Protocol allows users to transfer files from servers onto their clients to manipulate locally. Gopher, the forerunner of the World Wide Web, allowed users to browse for resources using menus. But in many peoples minds, the Internet is now synonymous with its most highly visible service: the World Wide Web, or the Web for short. Based on technology developed in 1991 at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, the Web has rapidly transformed the Internet from an arcane, academically-oriented computer network into the newest form of See Technology, Page 14

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

OUTBOUND

Synons 1996 International User Conference: An International Success!!

uild On What You Know was the theme of this years annual User Conference held in Orlando, Florida, May 2-4, 1996. Attendees were able to do just that with opportunities to build on their product knowledge, technical knowledge, education, networking and all other areas of learning about the world of Synon. With nearly 700 attendees and 20 countries represented this truly was an international event. Synons most successful conference yet! Highlights The three day conference highlighted two keynote speakers, two speakers chosen as the best from the 1995 Synon European Conference in London, over 100 educational elective sessions, a hands-on product demonstration room, Obsydian labs, one-two-and-three day workshops, a vendor How bout those Synon96 T-shirts EXPO, Special Interest Groups, several panel discussions, a Synon Executive Panel Q&A session, and several networking events where attendees met with their peers from around the world as well as Synon e m p l o y e e s i n c l u d i n g Development and Product Support staff.

Education Elective Sessions & Panel Discussions

Educational Sessions Elective educational sessions were offered on all S y n o n p r o d u c t s . Tracks were Trends & Directions, Working W i t h S y n o n / 2 E To o l s , Wo r k i n g With Obsydian, Management and Methods and Synon Product Overview and Demonstration. Sessions, held in class room settings, were presented by experienced Synon users from around the world and Synon employees. Attendees were able to gain the best Synon education for their education dollar at this years conference. Fun Activities In addition to all of the education available at Synon96, attendees had the opportunity to have some fun too. The Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening gave everyone the chance to say hello to old friends and to meet some new ones. The Vendor Expo Reception, sponsored by Microsoft, concluded with prizes given away via drawings by each of the vendor booths. Giveaways ranged from software to T-shirts to a bomber jacket. On Friday evening, Synon hosted a Baja Beach party Bash for everyone, located around the fabulous pool at the Omni Rosen hotel. This special event had games, entertainment, food, drink, music and entertainment for all. The event gave everyone a chance to unwind after a few days of taking in all of the technical information offered in the elective sessions.

Welcome Reception Networking Opportunities with Synon users from around the world!

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

Attendees entered to the sounds of world beat music.

erg, Synons Richard Goldb CEO President &

User Bob Ahern, Chairman, Advisory Board Group

Top Speakers Selected. Theyre off to Euro-Disney, Paris! Competition was tough this year. The job of selecting the top two speakers at the Synon 1996 User Conference was not an easy job. With two winners to select, the User Group Advisory Board met their challenge with attendee evaluation results in hand. Overall the results were unanimous. The top two speakers at Synon96 were Diane Kilcoyne of BMW Canada and Joseph Kaczmarek of Impact Software Systems Inc. Winners have been invited to speak at the European User Conference in October, all expenses paid. Dianes presentation Function Design for Maintainability: Do it right the first time was in the Working With Synon Tools Track.

Opening General Session Build on What You Know

Simon Williams, Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Not only was her session popular and well attended, comments such as "Excellent speaker, good knowledge", "Very enthusiastic, good handouts", "Super job", and "Best presentation of the conference" kept coming up over and over again in the comment section of the evaluation cards. Just about everyone who attended Dianes session rated her as the best speaker. Joes presentation Designing a Largescale Obsydian Application in the Working With Obsydian Track received the second highest ratings of the conference sessions. He received some outstanding comments as well, such as, "Excellent," "Excellent work example," "Very effective presentation," "Excellent session, honest, informative, best yet," with the same word (excellent) used over and over again. Congratulations to the winners!

SYNON/EXPO Entrance was free to all conference attendees

OUTBOUND OUTBOUND

Hands On Product Demo Room, Obsydian Labs & Education Workshops

EXPO Reception sponsored by Microsoft

Friday Luncheon Keynote

Prize Winners Attendees who completed their evaluation cards were eligible for a drawing at the Closing General Session on Saturday afternoon. Prizes and winners were: A FREE 1997 User Conference Registration Debbie daSilva, DPIC Companies A FREE 1997 User Conference RegistrationAlvar Cubaro Pardo, Mantis (Costa Rica) A FREE Enterprise NT Training ClassDarrell McDonald, Management Systems Inc. A FREE Architectural Review of Transitioning to ENTJoanne Johnson, Weidenhammer Systems Group A FREE Florida Gift Basket Kathleen Miller, Premark Tupperware A FREE Florida Gift BasketRon Gehler, Board of Pensions, ELCA Congratulations the winners!! to all of

Danny Cox Accelerationist Dannys message was from experience, not theory. This past supersonic test-pilot became a sales leader, reaching an 800% production increase. Dannys humor helped everyone relate to his message.

Lots of Fun, Too! The Baja Beach Party Bash was a great place to unwind after soaking up so much technical information

Synon96 Proceedings Available on CD-ROM

Nearly 100 Sessions Available to Synon Customers

All in all, the conference was declared a GREAT SUCCESS!!

From Synon and the User Conference Staff, thank you See you in San Diego, the site of SYNON 97!

n the interest of the environm e n t , S y n o n 9 6 introduced its first-ever Conference Proceedings on CD-ROM. The CD contains almost all of the breakout session presentations from each of the tracks at the three-day

conference, and eliminated a massive use of paper. Additional Synon96 CD-ROMs are available now for a cost of $99.00 US each. If you were not able to attend the conference, you can still have the presentation handouts. Presentations are in Microsoft PowerPoint format. To order your CD, call Synon at 415-461-5000 and provide your Customer Number. Quantities are limited so dont wait to place your order. s

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

OUTBOUND

Synon Makes A Splash

Wave After Wave of Attendees Visit Synon At Key Industry Events
by Amy Ballou Synon Corp. Michael, with his lovely assistant, Elizabeth, demonstrated how: Recipes were like application models and that, without a recipe, a chef could make a big mess, just like an application designer could code himself or herself into a corner. Ingredients were like lowlevel business objects. Any chef, regardless of how skilled or illustrious, could purchase and use the same basic ingredients, but that Chef Michael uses prefabricated cake layers that he himself bakes to quickly build quality and good taste into his creations. Cakes of various size and shapes could be made from the same ingredients, a good depiction of application scalability. With the audience nodding in agreement that baking a cake was indeed very much like building an application, Elizabeth passed around cupcakes and glasses of milk to her guests, asking innocently if they have Got Obsydian? Microsoft TechEd, April 1518 Microsoft TechEd is held once annually in the U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan and South America. It is a large show, attracting 7,000 attendees in the U.S. and a similar number in Europe, held to educate corporate users about the suite of Microsoft products (a la COMMON in the AS/400 world). Synon, new to this market with the announcement of our Obsydian for Microsoft NT/BackOffice product being developed jointly with Microsoft, decided to attend the show in Los Angeles and take a look at this emerging market for Obsydian. To attract folks to our booth, we decided to give away T-shirts commemorating our Microsoft relationship (they had the press release announcing it emblazoned on the back) and a Marin mountain bike, illustrating the location of our world headquarters smack dab in the center of Marin County, California, the mountain-biking capital of the world. Anticipating a rather sedate appearance due to our relative obscurity in this market (our Microsoft announcement was only made on March 6), we were caught off guard and nearly trampled to an early death by the rush of attendees into our modest stand. Yes, it was the t-shirt; yes, it was the Marin mountain bike; and, yes, it was Obsydian itself, offering salvation to the many, many shops attempting to code by hand large-scale client/server applications for Windows NT/BackOffice in C++. All in all, a very strong first showing for Synon and Obsydian in this important new market. Microsoft TechEd, Nice, June 1316 Ditto. s

hat do San Francisco, Los Angeles and Nice have in common? Not much at all except the recent hosting of three highly successful Synon events: our presence at COMMON Spring 96, Microsoft TechEd and TechEd-Europe.

COMMON Spring 1996, April 1520 Synon show pers o n n e l w e r e overwhelmed when Chef Michael (pronounced me shel), the worldrenowned Parisian food artiste, showed up in the Synon booth to demonstrate how baking a cake and building an application actually s h a r e m u c h i n common ( u n f o r t u n a t e l y , t h e pun was intended). With r e c i p e b o o k , ingredients and yummylooking cakes of various shapes and sizes in tow, Chef

Congratulations To The 35 Founding Members Of The Million Line Code Club!

A
SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

warm welcome to the thirty five founding members of the Synon Million Line Code Club. The application form for member-

ship to this most exclusive of clubs was announced in the last issue of Synonyms. We are delighted that so many companies from around the world

took the time and trouble to add up all the lines of code and submit applications. Members will receive an elegant plaque for their offices

and a personal MLCC card which will entitle them to special privileges at Synon events. If you are interested in more details, please see the

application form in this issue and see if your Synon-built applications total more than a million lines of generated code! s

pecial presentations were made to Synon Million Line Code Club members at the ICS Synon/2 Customer Conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands on June 19. Jos van der Have from Spaarbeleg is being presented with flowers by Caroline Van Howe (top). 2nd Meindert Meijer of IZA is being presented with flowers by Caroline Van Howe (bottom).

Letters To The Editor

IBM Announces Continued Availability of PL/1 Editor: This letter from Steve Ladwig to Rich Goldberg clarifies the status of PL/1. Rumors of PL/1's imminent demise were discussed on the IBM AS/400 CompuServe forum. This concerned a number of Synon/2E customers as Synon/2E itself is written in PL/1. Customers raised the issue with Synon via the Synon CompuServe forum. This response from IBM clearly supporting PL/1 and future availability is now posted on the Synon CompuServe forum: IBM did announce in June 1995 that PL/I is available as a PRPQ in V3R6 on the AS/400 RISC machines. As is true for each announce package, the normal terms and conditions associated with a PRPQ were also announced. It was stated that the PRPQ would be withdrawn from marketing on September 30, 1996 and that the service discontinuance date is March 31, 1997. Similarly, for the AS/400 CISC boxes, PL/I is also available as a full License Program Product (LPP) in Version 3 Release 1 of the OS/400. Marketing and service support dates are stated to be the same as the OS/400 product. IBMs present plan is to continue supporting the PRPQ on the RISC and LLP on CISC machines in future releases of the OS/400 system. This would extend availability dates for both marketing and service support. IBMs plan is to ensure that applications generated by the AS/400 PL/I compiler will continue to execute on future releases of OS/400; however, IBM does not plan to enhance the PL/I compiler with new functionality. AS/400 is proud to be a business partner of SYNON, and we look forward to serving the business and computing needs of our mutual customers. Yours truly, Steven D. Ladwig Vice President AS/400 Development IBM Rochester Million Line Code Club Responses Flood In I saw the announcement for the Synon Million Line Code Club in the recent issue of Synonyms. I was intrigued, since we built a rather large Synon application called OASIS. We take reusability VERY seriously at

Cadre Computer Resources, and we were able to keep the line count for Version 1.0 of OASIS down to 6,481,085. OASIS is a complete business solution for long-term care pharmacies. If you are interested in numbers, here is the Version 1.0 synopsis: 3,633 programs generated by Synon 2,222 screens 529 physical files 2,124 logical views 11,609 database fields 2 languages (yes, languages. OASIS sports its own page description language for medical records and other specialized print and a communications script language that handles Async, SNA & FTP. Both languages were created in the OASIS model using Synon.) 8,578 functions As you can see, OASIS is a rather comprehensive system. You might be further interested to know that at the peak of the programming effort, 15 developers were involved. Actual programming took a little more than one year. The project was a two year project overall, but when we started in September of 1993, we started with a completely blank sheet of paper. We spent the first year working with users from all parts of the U.S. to develop our

requirements listing. Also of interest, since going live, we have found 280 bugs in the system. Although that might sound like quite a few bugs, it really isnt. Compared with standard metrics for hand-coded applications, our bug rate was 115 times lower than industry averages! The bottom line is that without Synon we could not have built OASIS in the time we did. We would have had far more bugs, and OASIS would have cost so much that it would not have been feasible to build it. If you ever get a chance to visit Cincinnati, you have an open invitation to stop in and see us. We would love to show off OASIS, our staff and the downtown Cincinnati skyline (and the chili!). Steven W. Snider Asst. Vice President Research & Development Cadre Computer Resources Editor: Thanks to Cadre Computer Research for sharing their experiences. This is one of the many letters we had in response to the MLCC article loudly endorsing Synon/2E. We hope that you enjoy reading about Release 6.0 and the plans to make Synon/2E ever better!

RPG Die-Hard Re-evaluates Position I know I don't qualify for your club, although I have been a fan of yours for years, but on reading your article I decided to calculate how many lines of RPG/COBOL I have written/generated over the years (and aren't there a lot?) and it comes to the grand total of 998,327, over half of these being with Synon/2. I am hoping to be off working in Lisbon later in the year, so it looks like I might make the million before the end of the year. By the way, did you know that Caroline Van Howe lends itself to lots of interesting anagrams, none of which I will append here for fear of offending you, but you might want to make it a competitionfirst prize, dinner with CvH in Chinatown! Eh? Keep on having fun. Kristin Bradbury, BSc CEng MBCS ARCS Editor: Thanks for the email, Kristin you know what they say "if you can't beat them, join them"maybe now's the time!

INBOUND INBOUND

Letters to the editor should be emailed to cvh@synon.com, or faxed to 415-461-2171.

Upcoming Synon Australia Events

Synon Europe Education Schedule

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

For additional information contact Matthew Schramko at Synon Sydney at 61-2-876-5300, or email schramm@synon.com

For additional information contact Dorothy Arundel at Synon Europe (Hammersmith) at 0171-748-7847, or email arunded@synon.com

NEWS & VIEWS

Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice Will Fully Support Microsoft BackOffice 2.0
First Toolset to Automatically Generate Designed for Microsoft BackOffice Logo-Compliant Applications with Support for ISAPI
San Jose, Calif.April 30, 1996At Spring Internet World 96, today Synon Corporation announced that the company will embed full support for Microsoft BackOffice 2.0, a suite of applications for Windows NT Server, into its forthcoming application development environment, Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice. Obsydian is a model-based, fully integrated application development environment that uses reusable business objects to create scalable, business-critical applications. In a development agreement announced March 6, Microsoft Corp. and Synon Corp. stated that they are working jointly to deliver Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice, the only toolset capable of automatic delivery of native Microsoft BackOffice-based applications that also qualify for the Designed for Microsoft BackOffice Logo and are OLE exploitative. Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice is uniquely designed to provide ISVs and corporate clients with the ability to develop applications that are compatible and integrated with Microsoft BackOffice, said Rich Tong, general manager, desktop and business systems division at Microsoft Corp. This provides excellent opportunities for Windows NT Server in the enterprise arena. Microsoft BackOffice 2.0 represents a solid platform for building scalable business applications, said Richard Goldberg, president and CEO of Synon Corporation. As a second-generation platform, it provides a unique foundation for solving contemporary business problems, particularly in the area of client/server and Intranet technology. Obsydian to Generate Applications for Microsoft BackOffice 2.0 Obsydian generates applications that fully exploit the functional capabilities of each component of the Microsoft BackOffice 2.0 integrated family of server software. Obsydian server applications: are 32-bit MFC MSVC++ applications that run as services are installable via Microsoft Systems Management Server automatically generate middleware based on Microsoft RPC use the Windows NT Server unified logon to enforce security integrate with Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. are extensible via Internet Server API (ISAPI) Obsydian to Generate ActiveX Servers By using Obsydians large-scale business objects, application developers can easily use ActiveX technologies to create server applications that use ISAPI to bring business applications to the Internet. Obsydian applications can therefore be implemented as client/server applications or Internet/Intranet applications without changes to the underlying design. s

Call For NT Beta!

e are now looking for 25 high quality, enthusiastic, high profile, talkative, Windows NT friendly, customers to join the Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice beta program. The benefits to you in participating in our beta program are as follows: 1. Early copies of the Windows NT/ BackOffice generator 2. Reviews and profiles in the press 3. Contact with leading industry analysts 4. High visibility with Microsoft -worldwide 5. Profiling at Windows NT industry events like COMDEX 6. Strong relationship with Windows NT/BackOffice development team at Synon Corp. 7. Official Obsydian for Windows NT/BackOffice Lava Lamps -- as seen in the Lava Lounge (http://www.synon.com) 8. (Web) Site visit by William H. Gates III 9. Windows NT and Microsoft BackOffice software We are looking forward to working very closely with all of our Beta sites throughput the world to produce some great BackOffice applications! For more information contact Wasim Ahmad via email at wasima@synon.com, by phone, 415-461-5000, or check the Beta page in the Lava Lounge (http://www.synon.com) .

BORN Information Systems Group & Synon Complete J.D. EdwardsTo-Synon Bridge
Enhanced Bridge Makes Synon/2E Tools Compatible with J.D. Edwards Release 7 Database
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USAMay 1, 1996Synon Corporation, an application development tools leader, and BORN Information Services Group, a leading IT consulting firm, today announced the availability of the J.D. Edwards/Synon Bridge for J.D. Edwards Release 7. The bridge allows Synons popular Synon/2E tool to work with J.D. Edwards premier suite of business applications. The revised bridge prodSee BORN, Page 9

New Synon Business Unit Formed To Develop and Market Applications

Financial Applications Target Entire Spectrum of Enterprises
SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users Budgeting and Management Reporting. The applications have been developed using Synons technology and are available in both AS/400 native and client/server versions. An open database architecture allows straightforward interfacing to other application systems. We were able to start with a clean slate and use our extensive application development experience to design a set of financial modules based on high-level business constructs, said Larry Caretsky, vice president and general manager of Synons Application Business Division. Input from several customers in vertical industries helped us deliver a set of functions which completely meet the requirements of a See SMA, Page 15

IBM Incorporates NetSofts NS/Router into AS/400 Client Access

by Jason Likens NetSoft Inc. into future versions of Client Access products. With IBMs inclusion of o u r r o u t e r t e c h n o l o g y, NetSoft is firmly cemented as an industry leader in Windows-based client/server environment. NS/Router is the foundation for providing desktop users a communications path between their PCs and host AS/400 server, while exposing a defined interface for third party developers. IBM chose NS/Router because of its Windows-based drag and drop simplicity, wide connectivity link support, and its implementation as a Virtual Device Driver (VxD) which saves real mode memory and improves Windows reliability and performance. By working with IBM, were leveraging the knowledge base of both companies to build a high-performance communications platform, See NetSoft, Page 15

Larkspur, Calif. April 15, 1996Synon Corporation today announced the formation of a new standalone business unit to manage its Synon Model Applications suite. The first set of Synon/Financials applications have already been installed in over 75 customer sites worldwide. Synon/Financials is a functionally rich, integrated financial accounting system which includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, General Ledger,

ell, if you havent heard yet, NetSoft has done it again. NetSoft has signed a deal with IBM to include NetSofts NS/Router in the AS/400 Client Access family of products. This is the most significant NetSoft affiliate announcement to date among firms who have agreed to bundle NetSofts APPC communications engine into their respective communications products for PC-to-AS/400 connectivity. The agreement between IBM and NetSoft provides for incorporation of both 16- and 32-bit versions of NS/Router

Windows-to-AS/400 SNA technology, said Isaac (Zak) Kong, NetSofts president. NS/Router, a component of NetSofts full featured package NS/Midrange Client Services, aids Obsydian developers and end users in the implementation of a true

Obsydian Customer Survey

By Mike Crowley Synon Corp. (Chicago) tomer satisfaction, completed applications, applications in production, hardware and software configurations, and a range of other fun topics. These statistics will help us at Synon to do a better job of tracking customer activity and satisfaction levels. I plan to call each customer every four months or so to keep our records up to date. So when you pick up your phone and hear Synon calling please spend a couple of minutes answering my questions and I promise to listen to any questions, comments and/or concerns you may have. To contact me, please call Synons Chicago office at 1-708-495-7400 or email mrc@synon.com. s

ON SERVICE

have been given the pleasant task of calling our North American Obsydian customers to chat about their Obsydian projects. This will be an ongoing activity of mine to contact each Obsydian customer and gather statistics about their cus-

By Bill Yeack Vice President of North American Services Synon Corporation

Zwiren Nominated to COMMON Board

technical speakers at this years Spring COMMON in San Francisco. This tradition has continued with the nomination of Alan Zwiren, of Synon, to the Board of Directors. Alan is responsible for North American Strategic Relations at Synon primarily focusing on Channel Programs and the Synon-IBM relationship. His career in the IBM midrange marketplace began 18 years ago programming on the IBM System/34 and since has held a variety of technical, consulting and management positions. In 1988 while consulting to IBM Rochester, Alan supported the roll-out of the AS/400 as a part of the Rochester System Support Center. Elections are being held amongst COMMON members in August. s

COMMON North America is the premier IBM midrange user group. Synon has a long and proud history of involvement, fielding over 30

BORN

From page 3

uct marks the first in a series of updates that BORN and Synon will create for upcoming J.D. Edwards (JDE) releases. The two companies ongoing cooperative efforts offer J.D. Edwards customers using Synon/2E the assurance of upward compatibility JDE products and Synon/2E. Rick Born, chief executive officer of BORN, said, We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Synon in producing a tool that will allow the J.D. Edwards application suite and the Synon/2E toolset to work together. We believe that J.D. Edwards offers an exceptional suite of business applications, and we believe that Synon offers the best AS/400 CASE tool on the market today. The JDE to Synon/2E Bridge is an excellent example of model-based development in action, said Richard Goldberg, president and CEO of Synon Corporation. The new Synon/2E model directly incorporates files from the J.D. Edwards applications. This enables customers to extend the functionality of the J.D. Edwards products

and smoothly integrates it with their many Synon/2Ebuilt applications. The J.D. Edwards/Synon Bridge BORN designed the bridge by retrieving more than 80 files from the J.D. Edwards Release 7 Database and merging these files into a data model for Synon/2E. This model forms the foundation of the JDE/Synon Bridge and is enhanced by additional Synon functions that accommodate several of J.D. Edwards unique design features. The bridge allows Synon/2E to assign special new JDE field types, model JDE file relations, access JDE editing and look-up routines and provide dynamic access to the JDE data dictionary. Beyond the more than 80 files provided in the foundation model, a virtually unlimited number of J.D. Edwards (or non-J.D. Edwards) files can be built into the model with a revised assimilation process. About BORN Information Services Group BORN Information Services

Group is one of the most successful and fastest growing group IT consulting firms nationwide. Headquartered in the Minneapolis area, the firm provides a broad portfolio of services and has established a national business partnership with J.D. Edwards to provide clients with custom-designed solutions. BORN was founded in August 1990 and today employs more than 300 people. The company is currently ranked 18th on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing, privately held companies in the United States and is an industry leader in customer satisfaction and employee retention. BORN can be reached by visiting its home page at http://www.born.com. 1996 Requirements & Special Introductory Packaging Synon/2E 5.0 or higher J.D. Edwards Release 7 Database Five days of implementation support service Available directly from Synon Available in the U.S. only at this time. s

any client/server projects exemplify how good technology can be sunk by poor implementation. Touted as the best thing to happen in information technology during the early 90s, some disappointed customers and members of the media are quick to sound the death knell for client/server. (For example, a recent InformationWeek cover story asked Client/Server: Can It Be Saved?) While the death of client/server has been greatly exaggerated, the coverage it receives shows there are a lot of companies out there taking good technology and failing to mold it to meet the customers needs. In this first part in a series of columns about client/server projects and how to make them work, I am focusing on what causes them to fail. Planning, Communication and Complexity Planning, communication and complexity are the trio of factors that can cause a project to exceed a customers wildest expectations or prove to be a customers worst nightmare. All these factors must be kept in mind throughout a projects lifecycle. Many projects are doomed from the beginning. Thats because many project managers forget that the keys to the beginning are found at the end the end user to be more exact. Lack of user input just slightly surpassed incomplete requirements and specification in a recent report about project failure. War Stories Other reasons for project failure include changing

requirements and technological incompetence. Some projects take so long to finish they are obsolete by rollout! One factor in project delays is technological incompetence, but I know one case where managerial incompetence hampered the abilities of the client/server programmers. A project for an Australian utility was fraught with problems. Internal interviews found that one problem was literal barriers between the client developers and the server development team. They were on separate floors of a building, had no formal contact, and each team was developing and designing without knowing what the other was doing. Once plans were exchanged, they found significant incompatibilities. In this case, the teams were not able to be technologically competent because they were separated. New management quickly took care of that. Complicated and Costly Client/server does exactly what it was meant to do unlock information that was trapped in host machines and make it available for everyday use.

NEWS & VIEWS NEWS & VIEWS

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

For every 100 projects that start, there are 94 restartsOn the success side, the average is only 16.2 percent for software projects that are completed on time and on budget.
Standish Group, Charting the Seas of Technology

This decentralization empowers employees but is costing companies big bucks three to six times more than sticking to host-based mainframe computing, according to one Gartner Group estimate. Software tools are expensive, and system integration firms dont live up to their titles. This is why some people see client/server moving See Service, Page 14

Leaseplan Case Study: Meeting Objectives With Obsydian

n a highly competitive market, Windsor-based Lease Plan is a winner. Over the last few years, Lease Plan has become one of the top five vehicle leasing and fleet management companies in the UK. This is a market in which over 70 percent of the vehicle leasing market is held by a raft of small companies, and only the top 30 percent is managed by larger companies such as Lease Plan. The company includes large organizations such as British Gas, BUPA, Proctor & Gamble and Storehouse among its customers. Part of being competitive means being fast on your feet and looking for new services and products to meet customers needs, said Phil Parker, IT director with Lease Plan. One of the major differentiating factors between Lease Plan and its competitors is its Open Calculation approach to customer service. Customers who lease fleets of vehicles have most to gain from the Open Calculation approach which provides them with details of all costs associated with their fleet vehicles. Exceptional costs can be identified, and customers can monitor their fleet operations very closely. At the end of the contract, the Actual Costs of running the fleet are compared to Estimated Costs, and under Open Calculation, any savings are returned to the customer, while any downside or shortfall is absorbed by Lease Plan. Open Calculation is supported by the companys core business system which runs on the IBM AS/400. It includes a database of customer details and requirements, terms and conditions, service agreements, service history, drivers and garage and supplier details: everything required to professionally manage a vehicle fleet. A number of other systems interface with the core system; some of these are also AS/400-based, while others are PC-based. They include an

Accident Management System, a Daily Rental System and a Used Car Marketing System. To support the continued growth of the company and the need for new services and products, Lease Plan needed a new systems development environment. We wanted the ability to enhance our systems quickly, with ease of maintenance a key requirement. The wish to deliver client/server was also important in our choice of a development tool, said Brian Quy, project manager. Although our team includes good designers and good developers, good tools are crucial.

al world and object orientation, said Parker. We have used Synon/2Es model-based Information Engineering approach very successfully, and Obsydian combines this with the software reuse principles of object orientation. This practical approach meant that Lease Plan could keep its existing RPG programs and skills base and even build on them. Retraining was minimal, as Obsydian wraps itself around the complexities of C++ and puts OO concepts into an understandable form. It is an evolution rather than a revolution. Pilot Project Lease Plans Daily Rental Service, where the company rents vehicles on behalf of its customers on a short-term basis, had been growing rapidly. A system module which could interface to the central information system, reduce the amount of paperwork and provide very fast over the telephone reservation service was needed. Lease Plan chose this project as the pilot for Obsydian. However, soon after the team started work on the Daily Rental Service, business demands increased the urgency for the project to be completed. As an indication, two years ago it handled only 400 rentals per day, and now the number is up to 700 per day, resulting in about 20,000 incoming invoice transactions. Lease Plan expects further growth this year. The decision was made to use the pilot study in a live environment as quickly as possible due to the rapid growth in this business area, and in March, the Daily Rental system went live. Single Interface One of our main tasks was to provide an interface between the existing core database and the other systems which would use the data, including the new Daily Rental system, said Quy. We wanted a single interface

Azur Technology Dedicates First Object Library to Obsydian

New French Company Brings Over 300 Reusable Obsydian Objects to Market
Ecully, FranceApril 22, 1996Azur Technology, created by Jean-Louis Sadokh and Marc Freichet, both specialists in client/server and object-oriented technology, commenced activity at the beginning of 1996 in Lyon, France. The organizations mission is to bring its experience to new Information Technology system technologies (Internet, g r o u p w a r e , w o r k f l o w, client/server and objects). Its products are aimed particularly at corporate systems management and software and service companies. Given the skill and experience of its staff, its activity in 1996 concentrated in the area of business objects for client/server. In this capacity, Azur Technology offers a number of reusable components (object libraries). The first object library dedicated to Synons Obsydian comprises more than 300 reusable objects which can be integrated immediately into ongoing development work. It covers several themes including objects which, among other things, permit: the integration of Microsoft Office (MS-Word, MS-Excel) into applications. which would give all our systems, including PC and LAN software, similar access to the core business system. Obsydians multimodeling capability was used to build this multiplatform interface. The modeling approach has reduced maintenance costs and increased productivity. Providing a single interface has also simplified the job of managing the whole resource. Rapid Development One of the claims of object technology is that it increases productivity so that projects can be developed more quickly. This was one of the the automatic dispatch and reception of documents and messages by internet, fax, Lotus Notes and MSExchange the integration of graphic objects (graphs, browsers, etc.) into applications. These objects bring real value to development teams as it enables them to integrate functions requested by users without the need to master the technology used. Integration can be done very rapidly, thanks to the power of reusability and the simplicity of implementing objects. Benefits for companies who use Azur Technology Object Libraries (ATOL) are: Objects available immediately Accurate and evolutionary objects Acquisition costs ten times less than the cost of in-house development of these same objects Azur Technology intends to market ATOL in Europe and internationally via the Internet. Customers include La Suisse Assurances, T.I. Informatique, EPCI, CG2A, AIA Corp. and Deloitte & Touche. For further information, please contact the company at Novacite Delta 40, avenue Guy de Collongue 69130 Ecully, France, Telephone: (33) 72.20.22.55 Fax (33) 72.20.22.58, email:101666,212@compuserve.com. s characteristics which had impressed Lease Plan, and, with the urgency of the pilot project, this claim was tested. Rapid application development was one of the many things that attracted us to object technology, and not only that, we can reuse much of the functionality written for this system in similar types of future applications and deliver them quickly, too. Obsydian provides a library of 500+ high-level business objects including, for example, a bill of goods. Unlike other tools which rely See Lease Plan, Page 22

INTERNATIONAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Open Calculation is unique to Lease Plan. It is central to our philosophy and our IT system.
Their core system is written in RPG for the AS/400, but Lease Plan wanted the opportunity to develop systems for other platforms all in the same development environment. Object technology offered the ability to share and reuse designs across multiple platforms, as well as the promise of increased productivity. Object Technology True object technology requires programmers to take a new approach to programming and learn a whole new vocabulary. It is considered by some to still be at the bleeding edge of technology, with some early casualties to tell the tale. Lease Plan chose Obsydian because it avoids these pitfalls. To us, Obsydian bridges the gap between the relation-

10

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

IBM Represents Synon in Germany

New Distributor On Board in Deutschland

Upcoming European Events

FRANCE Client Server Show Paris ..........................September 1516

EUC

From page 1

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

BMs wholly-owned services company, CGI Informatik GmbH, has taken over the sales, support and services activities of Synons German operations. With over 430 staff members and eight branch offices covering all major cities in Germany, Synon customers enjoy the highest levels of service and support from our newest European distributor. CGI is an international organization in its own right, with offices across Europe and North America. Annual revenues for the group exceeded $424 million in 1995, with Germany accounting for 12 percent. The company specializes in AS/400 and RS/6000 systems and has already developed a substantial consultancy business around Synon/2E and Obsydian. Commenting on the new relationship, Uwe Schoeter, manager of CGIs midrange business, said, Synons products are powerful and robust, as might be expected from a company with an industrial strength pedigree stretching back over a decade. We are delighted to have partnered with a market leader and a world class company. Duncan Moore, Synon Europe president, added, CGI brings a wealth of expertise and experience in the software and services industry into the Synon fold. I have every confidence that with CGI as our distributor in Germany, Synon customers will benefit tremendously. s

work environments. Synon invites you to the 1996 European User Conference so that you may learn from the experience of others and share your own experiences with your fellow professionals. Call +44 181748-7848 for more details. Conference Information 10th-11th October 1996 Paris Convention Centre, Disneyland Paris, France More than 30 educational elective sessions Panel discussion sessions with Synon developers Hands-on demonstration area Hands-on, two-hour Obsydian test drives in lab setting Networking with Synon staff Networking with your peers and colleagues from around Europe and the world Simultaneous translation Keynote Speaker Synons founder and Chief Technical Officer, Simon Williams, will be the featured keynote speaker in the opening session on Thursday morning. Complimentary Welcome Reception All registered attendees and their partners are invited to the Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening. Speaker Awards The top two customer speakers, chosen by evaluation forms and the conference committee, will be invited to attend the 1997 International User Conference in San Diego. Product Demonstrations The Demo Room provides hands-on facilities for a walkthrough of Obsydian and the Synon/2 family of products, with Synon personnel available to assist you with your questions and queries. Obsydian Test Drive Check out the features and functions of the latest version of Obsydian in our two-hour, hands-on test drive.

Conference Special Event The Special Event will be held on Thursday evening and is open to both delegates and partners/families. Spouse/Family Activities Partners and families are welcome attend to the European Conference but are requested not to attend the conference sessions, breaks or meals. There is a wide range of sights to see and things to do outside the conference, and details are available on request. Simultaneous Translation For the first time, simultaneous translation of English-language sessions will be offered in French, German and Spanish for all conference sessions. Registration Information Who May Attend The European User Conference is open to all Synon customers worldwide. Conference Fee The conference fee covers all conference sessions, demonstrations, test-drives, conference materials, refreshment breaks and lunches and the Welcome Reception. The Conference Dinner is also included for delegates, with a supplement payable for partners and children. Accommodations are not included. Elective Sessions This year we have a range of presentations with speakers from around Europe and North and South America. The presentations cover Synon product information, tips and techniques and clients own product experiences. Here is a selection of the presentations that you will see at the conference: Management & Methods Obsydian & the Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) Model Transitioning from Synon/2E to Obsydian Quality Control in an Obsydian Environment Faster & Faster Development! How Do We Solve the Quality Control Bottleneck? Migration from Synon/2E

to Obsydian Object Oriented Development: A Practical Approach Using Obsydian Turning Host Developers into Object Technicians Building Vendor Application Software using Obsydian

Systemes et Applications Paris ..........................October 24 Galaxie Exhibition Paris ..........................November 1822 Contact: Yamina Perrot, Synon France, at +33 1 4367 2200 ITALY Obsydian Seminars Torino.........................September 24 Padova.......................September 26 Milano........................October 2 Roma.........................October 3 Firenze.......................October 9 Bologna......................October 10 SMAU Exhibition Milano........................October 1822 Italian User Conference (with Microsoft) Milano........................November 14 For additional information contact Rossano Ziveri, Synon Italia, at +392-6671-3070 SPAIN SIMO Exhibition with Microsoft Madrid .......................Nov 5-10 Contact: Jorge Quincke, OTS, at +34 1 5790 0100 UK Windows NT Exhibition London.................................October 2-4 Contact: Marie Murphy, Synon Europe, at +44-181 748 7848 Please see the Synon Web page for latest event details under EUROPEAN EVENTS

Working with Obsydian Obsydian Development Environment for Multiple Developers, Multiple Projects and Multiple Class Libraries Bringing your Business Data to the Internet How to Create Effective Reuseable Objects with Obsydian Developing a Software Package with Obsydian Interfacing Obsydian & Microsoft Office ObsydianTarget Technologies ObsydianTool Enhancements & Architectural Directions Migration Tips and Tricks Working with Synon/2E Combine the Power of Synon/2E and AS/400 Synon/2E Time Warp! Super-Charging your Applications with Virtuals Making the Most of Synon/2E Release 5.0 & 5.1 Facilities Building Quality Applications through Software Metrics R U A Y2 Guru? Synon/2E Release 6.0 and Beyond Synon/2E & DB2/400 Further Information For complete conference information, please contact +44 181-748-7848 and ask for the European Conference Desk, or send an email message to euroconf@synon.com. Additional details will be posted on Synons World Wi d e We b S i t e a t www.synon.com and in Synons CompuServe forum as they become available. s

ICS Promotes Obsydian in the Netherlands

11

1996 Disney

CS Projekten, BV in the Netherlands has been granted the status of Authorized Promoter of Obsydian (APO) in the Dutch market. A long standing dis-

tributor of Synon/2E, ICS is now in a position to introduce Obsydian to existing Synon/2E customers considering moving to a new environment. s

SLUGs

Synon Local User Groups (SLUGs)

For those readers interested in joining a local Synon Users Group, please contact the following group closest to your area:

NORTH AMERICA
Synon User Group of Arizona Contact: Errol Ryland Midrange Systems Solutions Phone: (602) 257-1201 x 105 Location: Phoenix, Bi-monthly Boston Synon User Group Contact: Edie Folger CommercialWare, Division of ASA International Phone: (508) 626-2600 ext. 222 British Columbia Synon Users Group Contact: Rob Hitchens Richer & Associates Systems Group Suite 211 - 3030 Lincoln Coquitlam, BC V3B 6B4 Phone: (604) 944-8022 Fax: (604) 944-5958 Great Lakes Synon Users Group Covering Illinois and Indiana Contact: Jeff Horvitz Protege Systems Phone: (708) 995-1530 Great Plains Users Group of Synon Lincoln, Nebraska Contact: Mike Ashley National Arbor Day Foundation Phone: (402)474-5655 Interstate Synon Users Group Charlotte, North Carolina Contact: Dean Hoyle Phone: (704) 866-3070 Iowa Users Group Contact: Judy Simmons Phone: (515) 281-0070 Location: Des Moines Obsydian Users Group of Los Angeles Contact: Gary Phillips Rose Information Management Phone: 310-285-6768 Synon Users Group Of Los Angeles Contact: Gary Phillips Rose Information Management Phone: 310-285-6768 Michigan Synon Users Group Contact: Mike Barron Duncan Mgmt. Systems Phone: (616) 382-0506 Mid-American Synon Users Group Contact: Bradley Skelton Phone: (316) 291-2602 Location: Kansas City, Mo Mid-South Synon Users Group Contact: Bob Ahern Management Systems Inc. Phone: 901-683-1158 Location: Memphis, TN Missouri Synon Users Group Contact: Jerry Soke Phone: (913) 677-8800 Location: St. Louis North Carolina Synon Users Group Durham, North Carolina Contact: James Barr Neumenon Phone: (919) 544-5211 North Texas Synon Users Group Dallas, Texas Contact: John Parish Sumner & Parish Phone: (214) 238-2442

North Central Synon Users Group Minneapolis, Minnesota Contact: John Ghostly American Medical Systems Phone: (612) 930-6160 Northwest Synon Users Group Seattle, Washington Contact: Brenda Reedy Sedgwick Payne Co. Phone: (206) 621-2450 North Florida Synon Users Group Orlando, Florida Contact: David George, President Universal Studios Phone: (407) 363-8126 Ohio Synon Users Group Contact: Debbie Atkins Consolidated Stores Phone: (614) 278-6540 Oregon Synon Users Group Portland, Oregon Contact: Nick McDaniel Foss Maritime Company Phone: (503) 286-0631 Pennsylvania Synon Users Group Eastern Pennsylvania President: Gregory Inns Impact Software Phone: (610) 758-8503 x205 Salt Lake City Synon Users Group Contact: Rich Talen Health Benefits America Phone: (801) 288-6453 South Florida Synon Users Group Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Contact: David Flannery (Interim) Synon, Inc. Phone: (770) 618-7980 Southern Texas Synon Users Group Contact: Terry Brown Hollywood Marine Phone: (713) 868-1661 Toronto Synon Users Group Contact: Chuck Quigley CCL Phone: (416) 740-7400 ext. 180 Fax: (416) 746-8073 1677 Wilson Ave. Downsview, Ontario Virginia Synon Users Group Contact: Mark Davis Heilig-Meyers Co. Phone: (804) 359-9171 2235 Staples Mill Road Richmond, Virginia 23230

Germany CENTRAL Michael Wachsmuth Stihl KG Robert-Bosch-Strae 13 Dieburg 64807 Germany Tel: +49 6071 2040 Germany NORTH Gnter Last A C Toepfer International Ferdinandstrae 12 Hamburg 20095 Germany Tel: +49 40 30130 Germany WEST Herr Szafranski LUW Software GmbH Planetenfeldstrae 108 Dortmund 44379 Germany Tel: +49 231 96103002 Switzerland Guido Peduzzi ICR Informatik AG Grundstrasse 16 Rotkreuz CH-6343 Switzerland Tel: +41-4264 5484 United Kingdom Taz Poullais AHS Emstar PLC Elizabeth House 56-60 London Road Staines, Middlesex TW18 4BQ UK Tel: +44-1784 458431 For countries without an independant User Group, please contact your local Synon office or distributor: Central & Eastern Europe Leo Lusicic AD Consulting Medvedova 28 Ljubljana 61000 Slovenia Tel: +386 61 132315 Fax: +386 61 1323296 Denmark Steen Skovgaard Errpege IBS A/S Radhustorvet 6 Farum DK-3520 Denmark Tel: +45 4499 1311 Fax: +45 4499 2995 Finland Mauri Kaski IBS Tietolinkki Oy Saimaankatu 64 Lahti 5410 Finland Tel: +358 18 589 2250 Fax: +358 18 589 2299 Greece Fotis Sakellaris Basis Ltd 12 Mesogion Avenue Athens 11527 Greece Tel: +30 1 7488781 Fax: +30 1 778 6837 Israel Jacob Vind Liraz Systems Ltd 5 Hatzoref Street Holon 58856 Israel Tel: +972 3 557 3434 Fax: +972 3 559 6587

Italy Giovanna Rizzo Synon Italia V. le Lunigiana 40 Milano 20125 Italy Tel: +39 2 6671 3070 Fax: +39 2 6698 1668 Netherlands Martin van Dongen Synobsys Cypresbaan 18 2908 LT Capelle aan den IJssel Netherlands Tel: +31-10 458 5532 Norway Terje Ulsten IBS Norge Oli Deviks Vei 2 Oslo 0666 Norway Tel: +47 22 723730 Fax: +47 22 723733 Portugal Jovito Mendes Lusodata Rua Da Quinta Da Nora No 5 - Lojas BC, Carnaxide Linda-A-Velha 2795 Portugal Tel: +351 1 417 3567 Fax: +351 1 417 3009 South Africa Debbie Dixon Davies & Esseiva PO Box 2319 Rivonia 2128 South Africa Tel: +27 11 803 9591/2 Fax: +27 11 803 7411 Spain Julia Uro OTS Paseo de la Castellana, 149 Edifico Gorbea 2 Madrid 28046 Spain Tel: +34 1 579 0100 Fax: +34 1 579 6609 Sweden Christer Alhstedt IBS Sverige Molndalsvagen 77 Goteborg S-412 63 Sweden Tel: +46 31 7033000 Fax: +46 31 406012 Turkey Omer Celiker STEP Kisikli Tramvay Caddesi 3 Altunizade, Istanbul 81190 Turkey Tel: +90 216 3410230 Fax: +90 216 3418643 United Arab Emirates Dilip Das Afcomp PO Box 152 Dubai UAE Tel: +971 4 234 374 Fax: +971 4 235 878

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

Belgium Marc Boonen Beheerman Auto Industrieweg 3 Bornem 2880 Belgium Tel: +32-3 890 9050 France Didier Rondel Banque Rivaud 12 Rue Notre Dame des Victoires France Tel: +33 1 4455 2656

12

IMPACT Software Builds Diversified Business on Obsydian

by Hellena Smejda WordsWorth International two years ago, he knew this was a tool he had to have. What he didnt know was how it would transform his business. Two years later, Obsydian has become the root for several new branches of his 11-year old technology practice. Today, IMPACT Software, Inc., based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has expanded beyond its traditional software development consulting practice into technology transfer, packaged software development and software distribution. No Stranger to Tools Kaczmarek was not a stranger to the power of programmer productivity tools. In the late 1980s, his firm had built its own COBOL generator to speed development and eliminate the tedium of repetitious, mindnumbing coding. In 1992, much of the firms work was with RPG/400, and IMPACT switched to Synon/2E. The AS/400 CASE system helped IMPACT outbid the competition in terms of price and development time. On one project, we knew our competitors bid $125,000 and our estimate was $25,000. We could do the whole thing for one-fifth the price, he recalled. So, when Kaczmarek heard Simon Williams presentation on Obsydian, he recognized the potential for even higher productivity gains. What we had seen Synon/2E do for us with RPG, we saw Obsydian doing for us with C++. Its an order of magnitude higher in abstraction, and would allow us to work at the highest levels when developing applications rather than the low levels. We had seen the kind of things that happen when you develop applications in Microsoft Visual Basic and Powersofts PowerBuilder. You have to write a lot of code. Obsydian looked like a way to eliminate most of the redundant coding if we planned out our inheritance properly. I knew right away that this was the way to develop large-scale Windows applications. And when we heard there was an AS/400 character-based generator forthcoming, that was like icing on the cake! To get an early start with Obsydian, Kaczmarek signed on to the beta program. The Power of Abstract Thought After completing initial training, he began to work with Obsydian and quickly learned that leveraging its power took a new way of thinking. We took some of our Synon/2E applications and tried to see how we could fit them within an Obsydian structure. It became apparent that we had to rethink these applications in a slightly different way. The way you work in Synon/2E is a very traditional structured design approach. You do your analysis, you design the database, you do some prototyping and you reiterate the prototyping cycle to complete your application, he explained. In Obsydian, there is an added layer of work. In order to really leverage what the tool has to offer, you need to perform an abstraction exercise first. For example, if youre building a manufacturing system, with Synon/2E youd have purchase orders, manufacturing orders, maintenance orders, repair orders and return orders, etc. Each could be designed almost independently of each other. In Obsydian, I would see that there is a lot of commonality among these types of orders, and that they are candidates for an abstract object or series of abstract objects. So I would go through the exercise of creating high levels of abstract objects from which to inherit. For example, I would find all the structure and all the behavior that is common to all those order types and create an object called order. Each of the orders would inherit the essential characSee Impact, Page 17

CHANNEL NEWS CHANNEL NEWS

W
Developing Business Objects for The Rock
By Ramon Chen & Alan Jay Zwiren Synon Corp.

hen Joe Kaczmarek first saw Obsydian at the Synon user conference

Code-Named ALCATRAZ
and higher quality greatly reduce the overall cost of development. Obsydian comes with a core set of class libraries. These class libraries were developed through working partnerships with groups of customers and software vendors, blending together the very best technology skills and business knowledge. The result is a robust set of prebuilt, expandable objects which encapsulate the structure and behavior of real-life business applications. The Obsydian class libraries now offer over 500 objects for: Business & Design Application Frameworks Technology Enablement thousands of prebuilt components. Alcatraz is designed to capture, identify and provide Obsydian users access to this rich resource. The program is designed to highlight Obsydian class libraries developed by third parties. Developers building applications in Obsydian will be able to tour Alcatraz by browsing Synons web page. A guide will make finding objects within these libraries effortless, accelerating Obsydian development by escaping the need to development sophisticated objects from scratch. The key to identifying these libraries will be an Obsydian logo. This logo, which is currently being designed, will be prominently displayed on all vendor-built libraries. Developers who are interested in participating in this program should contact either Ramon Chen or Alan Zwiren at 415-461-5000. Watch for Alcatraz. There will be no escaping it! s

lcatraz is the infamous prison island, hewn from solid rock, in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. It is also the code name for the Obsydian third-party class library initiative. This initiative, which will be officially announced and named on September 1, 1996, is designed to promote the development of third-party Obsydian class libraries. A class library is a collection of prebuilt abstract objects that are reusable to expedite the development of applications. Speed is only one of the many benefits realized by reusing existing components. Prebuilt components also come pretested; this ensures the components are of the highest quality. Finally, faster development

There are a growing number of third-party vendors creating Obsydian class libraries and frameworks. These innovative organizations have recognized the demand for class libraries and have already introduced

Shipping Obsydian Class Libraries

number of companies have already developed class libraries and frameworks for Obsydian. Azur Technology (33-7220-2255) has developed integration libraries for the integration of Office Packages (Word, Excel) and graphic objects (graphs, browsers, etc.) into applications. They also have libraries providing automatic dispatch and reception of documents and messages by Internet, Fax, Lotus Notes and Exchange. A unique feature provided with these class libraries are wizards which guide developers on the use of the objects. Synobsys (31-10-458-5532) has developed class libraries for accessing and managing AS/400 system-level objects such as user spaces. These can be combined to provide very comprehensive access to native AS/400 system facilities. Impact Software Systems (1-610-758-8503) has announced a series of abstract object class

libraries that extend the functionality of Obsydian's base classes and provide additional abstract business objects. One of these class libraries is an abstract object called Extended Audit Entity that extends the inheritable record stamp capabilities of Obsydian's Audited Entity to include the workstation and User Ids of the users changing an application's data files. Phoenix Business Solutions (1-217-344-5424) is offering the BOTs Base Objects Library, the first of several Business Object Templates class libraries that provide reusable operational frameworks. The BOTs class libraries are specialized Obsydian objects organized into logical classes that represent common business objects used by the majority of information systems. ProSys Group (1-708-922-9000) has announced ProSys-FirstWave Abstract 1/0, a group of business system patterns that bring standards, common entity specifications, specific behaviors and application frameworks to the Obsydian developer.

13

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

Service

from page 9

jects. But the time has come to look beyond the technolo-

more toward the simpler network centric world of Intranets (InformationWeek, April 8, 1996). New technology and new IS attitudes may supplant client/server one day, but for now it is what we need to work with. When providing a client/server solution, we need to reduce the risk for our customers. Our Obsydian software already makes it less costly and complex, but we need to look beyond that. Making Service More Than a Buzz Word Obsydian is a wonderful product for client/server pro-

Communication leads to better planning. Better planning leads to smoother p ro j e c t lifecycles. And smoother lifecycles lead to delighted customers.
gy and out toward serving the customer.

Many customers come to us now seeking an Obsydian solution to their business problems. We need to make sure that we not only give them a solution, but that we give them the right solution. Synon Professional Services sends proposal teams out not just to try to sell another solution, but to listen to the customers and make sure we understand their needs. We let the customer communicate to us then we communicate our understanding backall before the first page of the technical white paper or p r o p o s a l i s written. We need not only to provide a solution, we need to manage its implementation

and help the customer take over the reins. Solution management includes identifying if third party elements are needed, whether a business process might need a little tweaking and many other smaller factors that can be the little stumbling blocks that lead to a projects failure. So go out there; talk to the end-users. Make sure you have a clear statement and understanding of the requirements. Pull together a competent, hardworking team. And always remember: planning, communication and complexity. The next column will focus on factors of a successful client/server project. s

Recommended Reading
Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications by Grady Booch, published by Benjamin Cummings, ISBN 0-8053-5340-2. This is a comprehensive and enjoyable text, with a great sense of humor. Anyone who still believes that a powerful AD tool is a failure unless you can master it in three days should read Chapter One on Complexity. Simon Williams Chief Technology Officer Synon Corp. London

Technology

from page 3

14

worldwide mass communication. The web comprises web sites, each of which in turn comprises a number of web pages, each of which is an electronic document containing text, images and multimedia. Web pages are created using Hypertext Mark-Up Language, or HTML, which has become a crossplatform standard. Each page has a unique address called a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL, which allows it to be accessed from any Internet client; and each site has a home page, which is like the cover, preface and contents of a book rolled into one. Web pages contain hypertext links, which point to other web pages on web sites throughout the world. In 1993, at the University of Illinois, Marc Andreessen developed Mosaic, a multimedia web browser which allowed users without any specialized knowledge to browse web pages easily and quickly. Andreessen went on to develop Netscape, the dominant web browser in use today. The ability to browse web pages, following hypertext links from one site to another, crossing corporate, national and cultural boundaries in seconds, has given rise to the new leisure pastime of surfing the Web, and

has created very high levels of public awareness for the Internet. Web pages developed using HTML can be visually very attractive, but they are still analogous to dumb terminals, with few of the bells and whistles that GUI users expect. To overcome this, in 1995, Sun Microsystems came up with a new language called Java, which was based on work originally done around the needs of interactive TV set-top boxes, and thus tailored for network use. Java allows developers to write small programs, or applets, which can be embedded in web pages. When a user clicks on a Java applet, the code is downloaded from the server and executed interpretively by a piece of software called a virtual machine that is part of the web browser. Java has strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side, like HTML, it is a cross-platform language, so a Java applet can run under any operating system that supports a browser which has the Java virtual machine capability. It also offers some immunity from viruses, because applets are isolated from the computer itself by the virtual machine, and so can only do what the virtual machine allows them to. On the minus side, the need to

remain compatible across platforms precludes the use of many of the features of the host operating system within which the browser is running. Also, Java executes interpretively, so performance is a concern. Microsofts answer to the problem which Java solves is called ActiveX. ActiveX is a lightweight, web-aware version of its OLE technology that is used to create active controls that can be embedded in web pages in the same way as Java applets. For committed Microsoft users, ActiveX is a very promising technology, because it leverages the substantial infrastructure that Microsoft has already developed around OLE, and it is not constrained by the need to run across platforms. Oracles Larry Ellison is the major proponent of the Network Computer, or NC, a diskless Internet access device with a $500 price tag. Ellison claims that sales of NCs will overtake PCs by the end of the century; and Oracle, IBM, Apple, Netscape and Sun have come together to create a standard for NCs. But users readiness to give up their PCs in favor of NCs is not yet proven, and also the initiative has been perceived partly as a reaction to Microsofts dominance. The evolution of the NC promises to be a fascinat-

ing story in its own right. The most recent Internet development is the Intranet, which is simply a miniInternet comprising web sites using the same technology as the Internet itself, but for private rather than public use. Intranets offer an interesting alternative to standard LANs for companies that want to leverage their investment in Internet skills and technology. The Internet has reset the technical agenda of almost every hardware and software company in the world. Judging by current commentary, you could easily persuade yourself that the Internet will fundamentally alter the way major sectors of industry, commerce and government operate, and render others obsolete. When every organization can use its web site to publish its own virtual brochure and stock its own data warehouse, when intelligent software agents can scour the Web on behalf of consumers for the best possible deals, then do human agents and intermediaries of all types become redundant? And what does the future hold for music and video stores if their products can be downloaded electronically straight into the home? The Internet and Java have also galvanized the software industry by reducing the cost of entry. Fueled by Internet-

related opportunities, venture capital investment in software firms increased by 57 percent in 1995, and over 1,000 new software companies have been founded in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, industrystrength Internet applications are emerging. Federal Express customers track more than 13,000 packages a day via the Internet. Wells Fargo has announced plans to let its customers transfer funds and pay bills online. AT&T plans to let its credit card customers check balances and pay them online. Not everything is plain sailing: some potential users are reluctant to commit critical applications to the Internet because of worries about security. There is also a concern about bandwidth, and whether the dramatic rise in Internet traffic is being matched by investment in new capacity. But given the momentum that has been created behind the Internet, there is no question that these problems will be overcome. In the five years since the creation of the World Wide Web, the Internet has laid the foundation for a change in the computing landscape as fundamental as that caused by the PC. Without question, it will play a major role in all of our professional lives. Use it, study it, discuss it, criticize it. And, if you value your career, dont ignore it! s

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

North American SLUG Update

by Caroline Van Howe Welcome new groups Its been a busy time at the SLUG Hotlinea record number of new SLUGs have been formed over the last few months. We are pleased to welcome new groups in Iowa, New York and Florida. We have also just received word that a new group will be formed in the New Orleans area. Welcome to all the new SLUGs!! Orlando SLUG SIG At the recent International User Conference, a Special Interest Group on SLUGs was held. This was jointly hosted by Joanne Johnson and Caroline Van Howe. Joanne is the Synon National Advisory Board SLUG Liaison

and Caroline is the Synon Corporation SLUG Liaison. A number of important issues were raised and discussed. Everyone found it useful to share experiences about what worked, and what didnt work , on a number of topics: membership drives; setting agendas; frequency and timing of meetings; location of meetings. It was also useful for the newer members to hear from experienced members about how to set up and organize a SLUG from sending out the initial invitations to relaxing after a successful meeting. Thanks to all who attended. SLUG Contact Details One of the issues highlighted at the SIG in Orlando was the inaccuracy of the SLUG contact information as published in Synonyms and on the Synon web site. All SLUGs

received a SLUG contact pack with a SLUG Contact Update Form, Meeting Schedule and a request for a short biography of each group. Many thanks for all the prompt responses. The newly published list in this issue of Synonyms will also be applied to the SLUG web site details. Introducing SNUGs Were proud to introduce Synon User Groups from other parts of the world: Synon National User Groups (SNUGs). There are a number of SNUGshere is a synopsis of a recent meeting. Synon/2 Customer Meeting, Rotterdam, the Netherlands - June 19th There was a recent meeting in Rotterdam, July 19th of over 60 Synon/2 customers from the Netherlands and Belgium. The meeting was organized

and hosted by the local Synon distributor , ICS Projecten b.v.. There were three presentations: 1. Bruno Smit, Director, spoke about the ICS organization and their appointment as an Authorized Promoter of Obsydian. Pim de Koning , Synon Product Manager at ICS, spoke amusingly about on the past 12 years of local, world wide and, of course, Synon news. 3. Caroline Van Howe, Synon/2 Product Manager from Synon Corporation, talked at length on the Synon/2 - Release 6.0 and Beyond. A special presentation of flowers and congratulations was also made to two Synon Million Line Code Club Founder Members who were present at the meeting: Mr. Jos van der Have from Spaarbeleg N.V. and Mr. Meidert Meijer from IZA. s

NetSoft

From page 4

SMA

From page 4

broad spectrum of enterprises. The system targets companies of all sizes and also fits the international marketplace where multicurrency and multilanguage support is required. We currently have systems up and running in 12 countries, and our customers are extremely pleased with the products functionality, flexibility and performance. Each Synon/Financials application includes a model the high-level design repository which is the Synon equivalent of source code. Using Synons advanced development tools, each

application can be tailored and extended far more efficiently than with traditional packages. The model concept gives Synon applications the time and cost benefits of offthe-shelf products matched with the flexibility of custombuilt applications. In addition, the systems architecture, which includes a high degree of automated functions, shared default parameters and a centralized file structure results in a quick, low-cost implementation. Synon/Financials is a quality suite of software products and a major component of our corporate systems strategy into the next century, said John Casey, group financial controller, MSAS Cargo International. Our

users have been extremely impressed with its breadth of functionality. It is superior to all other major accounting packages we reviewed. In time, we will have as many as 30 installations worldwide. Synon/Financials offered us a state-of-the-art application with the added benefits of Synon technology to adapt the system to our exact requirements, said Colin Stuart, financial controller, Baxter Healthcare, New Zealand. As well as offering the latest technology, Synon/Financials gave us a fully integrated system in every sense of the word, allowing us to access information when and how we needed. The Synon/Financials program and its integrated menu

system incorporates multiple levels of security. The system automatically maintains, independently of the AS/400 journalling facilities, an audit trail detailing any changes made in the database. Commitment control within transaction processing is used to ensure that ledgers can never be partially updated or a transaction partially processed. Dated copies of records are kept so that a complete history of changes is available and future changes can be scheduled. Synon/Financials is priced from $33,500 to $350,000 (U.S.) per license. s

Recommended Reading
Inside ODBC by Kyle Geiger, Microsoft Press. This book is well-written and explains all the ODBC concepts clearly. Mark Knowles Senior Software Developer Synon, Inc., Larkspur, CA I picked up a book several years ago that I recommend. It deals with the fundamentals of software automation such as what is it? and what is it good for? The book is called The Three R's of Software Automation: Re-Engineering, Repository and Reusability, by Carma McClure, published by Prentice Hall. Pete Isaakson Application Consultant Synon, Inc., Atlanta, GA

New White Paper!

lease call 1-800-94SYNON to order a copy of a comprehensive 36-page white paper, Conversion of a Synon/2E Generated Application to OS/400 V3R6. You may also download this paper from the Synon Web Site at http://www.synon.com. s

indicated Al Konopka, director of marketing at NetSoft. Our objective is to ensure that connecting from Windows-based desktops to the AS/400 can be accomplished via any method the customer may require, and to further establish the AS/400 as the premier open client/server computing environment. Both the 16- and 32-bit versions of NS/Router will include the CPI-C 2.0 subset support and support for IBMs Discover process. The 16-bit version will also provide Note Operator Facility (NOF) application program interfaces and DOS reflector services. Additionally future transports will be added to the already broad link support provided in the NetSoft router. Using NetSoft products as the communications engine between the PC and host, Obsydian developers can incorporate object-oriented technology to deliver next generation client/server applications. End users benefit with the Obsydian runtime application and NetSoft Midrange Client Services. Users can retrieve, group, manipulate and display host data in a wide variety of Obsydian graphical formats for strategic information management. In this environment, NetSofts software acts as a communications and transfer mechanism for accessing AS/400 database files, while Obsydian provides the development, query and reporting platform. For a limited time, Obsydian version 2.0 developers are able to take advantage of free copies of NetSofts 16- and 32-bit NS/Midrange Bundle products through a coupon offer that ships with Obsydian. For more information contact NetSoft at 1-800-3523270, 714-753-0800 or http//www.nsrouter.com. s

15

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

TECH SUPPORT & EDUCATION

Synon Technical Support USA

New Faces, New Names, Never Ending Challenges
by Abigail Pockney Synon Inc. and made her debut on the online services. Christine Haynes (better known to many customers by her maiden name, Christine Grainger) is now the manager of the Online Services group. Members of the CompuServe forum have cyber-met with Christine already. One immediate priority for Christine is

ynon Technical Support welcomed two new managers recently. Nadeen Sakowski joins us as Manager, Level 2. Located in Larkspur, Nadeen is responsible for the U.S. team that works with Development to get customer incidentsa polite word for (gasp!) bugsreported,

Christine Haynes to update and relaunch Synons popular Q&A database. Future plans include maximizing our use of electronic access, such as continual updating of Synons web site, transferring our BBS services to the Net and building an outbound information highway for product update information and issues. Christine has been with Synon for six years, working in Development, Professional Services and most recently Marketing. Although these names and faces are not so new, the talented group of people who work as ongoing advocates

Nadeen Sakowski prioritized and fixed by the development team. This group also coordinates and runs the beta test programs, and acts as second level support to many other Synon Support groups. Nadeen has been working in Support and Development management for about nine years. As soon as she started at Synon, she took on customer contact and follow-through of hot issues

for all the Canadian, U.S. and Latin American customers are Tameena Brown and her team at the Product Service Center (PSC) in Dallas, Texas. Most of the North American customers have spoken to the hardy souls who work on our front-line phones and work on follow- through with the escalation team. So far this year, we have averaged about 80 service requests each day coming into the PSC these can be in the form of telephone calls, fax requests, email or CompuServe calls. There is some seasonal fluctuation to the call load early in the year is always heavy, as many customers start work with new projects and products. We usually look forward to August and December when (surprise, surprise) vacations lead to a drop in volume. The only problem is, we also need to take some time off! A high-level overview of our workflow is shown in

Figure 1. With many service requests coming in each day, we rely on systems to monitor and prioritize the work flow. We have set internal targets for measuring our success. The front-line teams track their progress to see what percentage of Original Calls Handled (OCH) they maintain each week and month. Not surprisingly, with years of experience and databases for Synon/2E, our OCH rate (55 to 70 percent) is significantly better than our rate on Obsydian, but this gives us targets for improvement. A high OCH rate is crucial for customer satisfaction if we answer the phone when it rings, and complete the answers during that first call, customers get a level of service that works for them. If a call cannot be completed during the original contact, we forward it to the escalation team. At this point,

Figure 1. Technical Support Workflow Overview

it is assigned a priority, based on its importance to the customer. The call shows up on an electronic queue, which continues to sort and reprioritize. A call that comes in with low priority will have its priority bumped up over time, to ensure that it does not get left too long. The escalation teams pull calls from the queue and contact the customers to follow through. On the days that the queue is entirely cleared down to zero (admittedly few and, sadly, far between), the team celebrates by asking their manager to come out and dance a jig on their desks. If a call turns out to be a product issue, we write it up, assign it a new development priority and forward it to Development as a fix request. Our Level 2 team works closely with Development to ensure that program fixes are scheduled and prioritized to give greatest possible benefit to the customer base. All in all, we have plenty to keep us occupied. Those of us at the Synon International User Conference in Orlando this year really enjoyed the opportunity to meet some customers face to face after years of phone contact. In future issues of Synonyms, well zoom in and feature the people who make up our support teams around the world. s

North America Education 3rd Quarter Schedule

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

16

Impact

From page 13

teristics common to all orders and then be specialized for specific types. No More Techno-Jargon As Kaczmarek used Obsydian, he noticed that he was naming objects in English terminology. This was more important than semantics: it reinforced the development of understandable software. In C++, we have what I call the growing mound of techno-jargon. Lets say I base one of my C++ objects on Microsoft C++ objects, and lets say the C++ object is AllocMemTemp. I might call mine AllocMemTemp2. In Obsydian, all objects have English names: UserMaintained Entity, Audited Entity,.etc The power of suggestion instantly puts you into the English language mindset. Then you name things in English instead of techno-jargon. The impact on end-users is amazing: they can actually understand the system you are building for them. Technology Transfer IMPACT Softwares first Obsydian customer was referred by Synon. Lincoln Investments Planning (Wyncote, Pa.) had been looking at tools, and when they saw Obsydian they knew it was right. They were shocked for days that a tool like this could even exist, Kaczmarek remembered. They were excited about its potential and concerned that it was a new tool, but management agreed to go ahead anyway. Lincoln chose to work with IMPACT not only for its Obsydian expertise but also because of its experience in large-scale, long-term project management. We essentially were in the technology transfer business with them, Kaczmarek said. We did education and training and on-site mentoring. At first wed be there two or three times a week. As they got going, we were there less. IMPACT Software has a formalized training methodology which combines theory with practice. This a la carte program allows organizations

to choose the level of education and mentoring most appropriate to their developers expertise and their projects urgency. The core program consists of three full weeks of education, interspersed with pilot projects. The first week of training covers basic principles of object orientation.

and is typically a small piece of a real project with an artificial scope and some artificial ingredients so that it does not get too big. This first part of the technology transfer process generally lasts about three months. For the next three months, IMPACT Software recommends a series of electives, ranging from half a day

IMPACT Software has developed its own training material that focuses very heavily on abstraction and classification theory. After a few days, people have their heads spinning, and its a good time to get into the mechanics of the tool then, Kaczmarek explained. We mix it up so that people dont get too overwhelmed. By the end of the week, they are developing a small application, and they have seen object orientation in action. We then go into what we call a structured pilot. Instead of letting them pick the scope and the nature of the pilot, we have a predefined problem with a predefined solution that they develop. This reinforces everything we covered in week one. The second week of training is a development workshop in which students focus more on the mechanics of the tool, review previous material, cover more theoretical concepts and do another nonproduction pilot which takes about four weeks. The third week of training covers topics like model management and the other more advanced features of Obsydian. IMPACT Software also helps customers put together a production pilot. The pilot lasts about six weeks

to two days of lecture/discussion material. These more advanced topics include: Common business abstractions Application of classification theory Structured abstraction practices Self-recursive structures for business applications Object reusability strategies Change management in the Obsydian environment Using Windows APIs Using VBX controls Advanced abstraction principles for class library development and others But Tech-Tran, as IMPACT Software calls its educational offerings, is not its only Obsydian-based product. IMPACT has also developed and is selling object class libraries to other Obsydian developers. SCOOP Class Libraries IMPACTs Standard Classes for Object Oriented Programming (SCOOP) products are a collection of standard building blocks that automate the most repetitive work. They dramatically reduce the amount of work required to create advanced business applications.

As the illustration below shows, Kaczmarek intends for the SCOOP class libraries to form the basis of his consulting services practice. And in the future, these class libraries can be built into full application frameworks. Currently in beta, the following class libraries will begin shipping this summer. Prices range from $395 for the less complex Extended User Maintained Entity to $50,000 for the more complex Rules Based Entity. With time, SCOOP will encompass more abstract business objects, such as structures (e.g., organization charts, bills of material, charts of account, etc.). For now, the following object class libraries are available for Obsydian developers: Extended Audited Entry: an abstract object set that provides full record stamp capability regardless of the execution environment. It also provides an automated maintenance log with full reporting and inquiry capability. Extended User Maintained Entity: an abstract object set that automatically provides Windows 95 look-andfeel to Windows applications and IBM Common User Access (CUA) look-and-feel to character-based applications. Application Security: a real object set that provides a generalized, granular framework for controlling access to an applications function by user, user class, function and function class. User Extensible Database: an abstract object set that allows the users of an application to add fields to a database table on the fly, without the need to regenerate the database table or its application components. Rules Based Entity: a comprehensive set of real and abstract framework components that provides the rule-based tests and declaratives where maximum processing flexibility is the prime consideration. Allows the

users of an application to specify processing rules without the need for developer intervention. Distributor for CENSYS Recently, IMPACT Software was named a distributor of CENSYS, a comprehensive enterprise distribution system written in Synon/2E by Cantoc Business Systems of Toronto. Were excited because Cantoc just announced that this excellent product will be

Identifying Obsydian Talent

aczmarek looks for people with two critical attributes: problem solving skills and abstraction capability. During the interview, he gives candidates a small problem to solve, then listens to their questions. If its clear that they can ask the right questions, theyre probably good developer candidates for b o t h S y n o n / 2 E and Obsydian, Kaczmarek said. For Obsydian, we also look for abstraction skills. The way we test that is with classification theory. If golf is their passion, I ask how they would classify the game of golf. I ask them to start drawing it out on a piece of paper. If they say, Well, it depends on what we are looking for. If we are treating golf as a game, thats one thing; if we are treating it like a hobby, its something different; and, if we are treating it as a technical exercise, its different, then I know I have a winner. One of the best new guys we found in this area has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics. He eats this stuff up. Its exactly what hes learned in theoretical physics: abstract problem solving. Another discipline that is very good is music, he added. Its very abstract in terms of structure and behavior.

17

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

rewritten in Obsydian, Kaczmarek said. The Future is Obsydian for IMPACT Software Two years into working with Obsydian, Kaczmarek sees a bright future for his business. The way I think we will win in the long term is by having enough abstract development objects and abstract business objects that we can come in on projects with fixed fees and still be cheaper than the competition. I think we can make a lot of money because there is value in these objects that we have created. The buzzword is component-based development, but what were really saying is, Well take IMPACTs abstract development objects, and other business objects from vendor Q, and a couple more business objects from IMPACT, and have the job 80 percent complete. Our work is simply understanding the business and specializing the objects. Thats the practice we intend to build long term, he said. This year, Kaczmarek plans to open an office in the Midwest, and by 1998 he expects to have more than doubled the size of his company, from 20 to 50 people. To recruit talent, he has visited local colleges to invite their best information science students for a marathon Obsydian training. Students will learn in small groups, then be matched up with mentors for hands-on experience. Most of them have had classes in object oriented development and in C++. What they havent had is the application of classification theory to the development of abstract objects. Well introduce them to that, he said. Kaczmarek recognizes the challenges ahead as he expands into new business areas and grows his company. One thing he doesnt worry about, though, is Synon the company. I think Simon Williams [Synon Founder and Chief Technical Officer] is brilliant. He understands what it takes to make powerful developmental tools.

6.0
How to Recognize a Properly Designed Obysidian Application
ook for many layers of abstraction. If I see a real object down here coming through with six, seven, or eight layers of inheritance, then I can say its probably a pretty good object. If, on the other hand, I see an object with tons of action diagramming and only one or two levels of inheritance, I would question the correctness of the object design as it relates to Obsydians real strengths. The other thing that I look for is objects designed for reusability. I try to look at the object and see if I can abstract it even further so it can be universally reusable. Joe Kaczmarek

From page 1

around. External Design and Prototyping We start with an upfront prototyping and design phase whereby customer-driven requirements are translated into a visual demonstration of what the new feature will look like. Each new feature is the responsibility of one of our developers. He or she will produce a prototype and a design spec and justify it, particularly in terms of usability, to coworkers in formal meetings. Once we are happy internally, these external designs and prototypes will be demonstrated to those cus-

the type of company to walk away from success! This article will discuss: The continuing drive for quality within the Synon/2E product line The commitment to getting new functionality out to you as quickly as possible The methodologies that we are now using within the development department to achieve these ends As well as: How you, the Synon/2E customer, are driving the new functionality we develop How we will enable new technology within the product as it is demanded And: What will be the actual contents of Synon/2E Release 6.0 and beyond What will be the AS/400 prerequisites over the forthcoming releases

to achieve essentially, this is where the desire of the developers to do a quality job is paramount! It is also true that management must provide the support, environment and time for this to be possible! QAIntegration Testing Traditionally, this phase is entered after the coding phase, but I hope that the preceding paragraphs have revealed that the QA people also had some work to do prior to this! One of the institutions within the QA process is a system of quality metrics. During this phase, we record, in detail, the incidents raised

Orders of Magnitude Productivity Improvements

hen we used to do maintenance suites in COBOL, it took us two or three days. When we did them in RPG, we cut that down to 612 hours. In Synon/2E, we got that down to under an hour. In Obsydian, it can be as low as five minutes and as high as 15. Thats one example of the kinds of productivity gains weve experienced. When you look at developing large-scale applications, once you have frameworks available, then the productivity will be in factors of hundreds, not factors of five or 10. Joe Kaczmarek As an individual, he has that nailed. And Synon, as a company, he continued, is very talented at putting together outstanding groups of technically skilled individuals that can work together. Ive always been impressed at the shows with their technical talent and their technical team. Theyre the cream of the crop, in my opinion. s

Probably the single biggest commitment within Synon is achieving quality ,and this is where I will begin. Quality and the Development Process To achieve quality, there must be a number of interlocking considerations. Of primary importance is the desire to make the product better. Within the Synon/2E development department, we have a group of developers, QA staff, documentation specialists and product builders who are strong product advocates who strive to make Synon/2E better and better. Over half of the department have been Synon/2E developers from outside the company who, when given the chance to get involved with its future, have jumped at the chance and often moved many thousands of miles to do so. This shows a high degree of commitment! Other, more scientific, techniques are also being used. A walk through the development cycle that we now apply to functional improvements will indicate the concern that we have to get things right the first time

Synon/2E Development Cycle tomers who have agreed to be Development Partners (more on this later). We usually revisit some of the design based on the feedback of development partners. Internal Design At this point, we go into the technical phase of internal design. This phase describes the nuts and bolts of the new functionality in sufficient detail so that it can be coded. Another important part of this phase is for development and QA to work together and produce both unit and integration test plans. A series of walk throughs of both design and testing documents help ensure the quality of this phase. Coding At this stage, coding should be relatively easy(!?). However, the developer is responsible for ensuring that the new functionality passes the agreed-upon unit test plan prior to handing the code over for initial QA testing. These sentences are easy to write but perhaps a little more difficult and the time taken to both test for, and fix, these problems. Already we are finding this information invaluable in terms of our ability to plan and predict when the product will be at a sufficiently high quality level to move to the next level of testing. QA System Testing, Both Manual and Automated We have been using automated testing within the QA department for some time now and are starting to really appreciate its benefits. We are redeveloping a full system test for the product, and much of this will be mechanized using an automated testing tool, Testpro. This type of procedure is already giving us major benefits most of our testing for the new RISC/400 operating system, for example, is performed using automated scripts allowing much more thorough testing than time and resources would otherwise allow. Much of our QA effort is continued on next page

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

18

going into the production of test scripts for automated testing, and this will be a major thrust for the foreseeable future. However, we will never be able to turn over everything to the computer, and manual effort will also be channelled into producing and utilizing reusable test plans to cover even more of Synon/2E both the current version and new releases. Development Partner Testing When we are satisfied that the product is ready, we then turn it over to the capable hands of our development partners. This is loosely equivalent to the older concept of alpha testing; however, the idea is that these partners will have been much more involved in the design cycle earlier, and so they will in turn have much more knowledge of, and commitment, to the quality of the finished result. Beta Testing Toward the end of the cycle now, the development department will turn the product over to our technical support department who will run the beta program prior to full-scale release. This has been excellently described in an article written by our principal tech support specialist, Jane George, in the previous edition of Synonyms (Ed. NoteSynonyms Spring, 1996, Synon/2E 5.1 Ships to Worldwide Acclaim page 1). Throughout all parts of the QA cycle, our developers work hand in hand with the QA people to ever improve the response time of fixing any problems reported! Development Partners As weve talked through the development cycle, there has been mention of development partners. These development partners are volunteers from you, our customers, to help usessentially with the design and verification portions of the cycle. However, a commitment to being a development partner does not come easily. The agreement between us will commit you to both time a minimum of 2-3 weeks here

in sunny Marin County, California (well, at least in the summer months!) together with travel and hotel expenses. But there is a plus tooyou will be able to work hand in hand with the developers, give us your input person to person and thereby directly affect the future of the product you work with day by day. In the testing phase, you will be able to see and learn the new functionality at work very early and be able to use that experience in the design of your systems. For more information, or to apply for this program, please contact me either by phone at 415-461-5000 ext. 2004 or by email at dsh@synon.com. What Will Be in Future Releases? Later in the article, the next release will be covered in more detail. However, in general, there will be three thrusts to new releases in the future new functionality, technology enablement and functional area reviews. New functionality will cover areas which are new to the product and specifically help either the programmer or end user with new facilities Technology enablement is in many respects similar to above but specifically covers new opportunities given to us because of new facilities in the operating systems, e.g., V3R1/V3R6 referential integrity, stored procedures, triggers, etc. Synon is already meeting promises to fully enable all products to run on the V3R6 operating system and will continue to keep up with improvements and enhancements from IBM. Functional area reviews, for example, in Release 5.1, where we revisited both arrays and date/time as individual projects in order to ensure that they performed as documented. This is additional to the maintenance department work which is continually resolving priority customer incidents. Future releases will continue this philosophy of ensuring that the existing product works to specification. Targeted areas for the next release will include reviews of PRTFIL/PRTOBJ and EDTTRN/DSPTRN, amongst

others. What Is Our Approach To PTFs? Just as we want to get new functionality out to you as quickly as possible, we want to get fixes out also. Now that Release 5.1 has gone to general availability, we will make available cumulative PTF tapes on a 6-8 week cycle. This will include all incidents fixed to date and will contain only objects that have changed since the last baseline this usually being the last release, e.g., Release 5.1. The incidents fixed will be published on CompuServe and on our web page on the Internet. At that point, you can decide whether to order the latest tape. It is important to note that fixes will only be made to the latest released version of the product. How Did We Decide What To Do? The following list of enhancements has been filtered from a large number of sources: Formal user-based poll of requirements Focus groups Formal and informal discussion, e.g., round tables at user conferences Analysis of incident tracking system Letters from customers and Synon employees CompuServe forums Analysis of technology trends on the AS/400 Internal prioritization (voting) The Modular Approach Release 5.0 was probably the biggest release since Synon/2E was first released. It involved major changes to the product to enable new functionality such as list-based processing, Change Management (CM) enablement and impact analysis. Release 5.1, at the same time as providing significant new functionality, consolidated a lot of the existing features, including code rewrites of some areas (e.g., arrays) and quality reviews in others (e.g., date/time). Prior to general availability in mid-March 1996, many customers took advantage of new features by taking intermediate PTF tapes and being

involved in a very full beta program (in terms of both number of participants and comprehensiveness of pending release!) In other words, we have released new functionality on a phased approach to get new features to the customer more quickly. This is the approach that we will be continuing to take (where possible) through releases 5.2, 5.3, 6.0 and beyond. There are pros and cons to this it is better for the customer to get new functionality quickly, and it is also makes for better control of a project to work with smaller, contained tasks. The cons are related to the extra pressure on QA and the added complexity of the beta and general release cycles. To better identify the modules internally, we will be using code names. What better way to describe Synon/2E releases than by using the names of heavenly bodies: Release Andromeda Centaurus Columba Hercules Orion Taurus Version TR5.2 R5.3 R6.0* R6.0* R6.0* R6.0* Size Minor Minor Major Major Major Major

focus groups for Release 7.0 early next year keep an eye out for the announcements! Synon/2 Product Family The major thrusts of development will be in the Synon/2E base product and the Synon/CM products; we will continue to ensure full compatibility with Gateway/SR, Synon/PE and Synon/RW. Please note that the enhancements as described below may actually appear in different modules as further design work is completed!

Andromeda (Release 5.2)

Enhancements in the use of SQL: SQL Naming. Extended SQL naming support (Long names for fields and tables) Separate View and Index Creation. Allow the designer to specify whether or not a view and/or an index is required for an access path. Reduced SELECTs. Suppression of SELECTs prior to UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERTs. Row-Level Locking. Allow the designer to specify what lock capability to use when updating rows. NOTs vs. ORs. Allow the designer to determine the form of the SQL clause which implements positioner capability. Direct Table Access. Allow the designer to specify that the data access will utilize a table instead of a view. Change Management Enhancements: Ability to Synchronize Objects across Models. Some difficulties have been experienced in the area of renaming Synon/2E model objects, specifically retaining such changes across models via YCPYMDLOBJ. This new program allows such changes to be resynchronized.

* All these modules will be part of the overall Release 6.0 Schedules & Prerequisites While at this time, no firm timetable has been published, it is likely that we will issue individual modules on a 6- to 9-month schedule, depending, of course, on the contents. We are expecting that the new V3R1/V3R6 technology enablement features will be available in the Orion module of Release 6.0, although existing releases will run at V3R1 and V3R6 without the new OS/400-specific features. OS/400 Prerequisites Minimum OS V2R2 V2R3 V3R1/V3R6 Release Andromeda Centaurus Columba Hercules Orion Taurus

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

Future Releases Before long we will need to start looking beyond Release 6.0 and so we will be arranging continued on next page

19

Centaurus (Release 5.3)

CRTOBJ, for example. Extra Processing after Header DBF Update in EDTTRN. In the EDTTRN function type, there is no user point to allow developers to do extra processing after the Header DBF update but before the COMIT. This user point will make Header processing similar to that of the Detail which has such a user point. Again, this change will allow additional processing to be performed without having to adjust standard functions. Prevalidation Loop in Edit File. There is often a need to process subfile records in EDTFIL prior to validation of the data. A new user point contained within a prepass of changed subfile records would allow developers to validate and perform calculations with more control. Select Record Subfile Control. In the SELRCD function type, there is no user point which allows the developer to initialize the subfile control fields. The CTL context is available in the load subfile record user point, but if there are no records in the subfile, this user point will not be processed. Using the initialize program user point is also not possible, as all subfile control fields are initialized after it is invoked. All other subfile function types have a USER: Initialize subfile control user point in the action diagram. So this change will make all subfile functions consistent. Confirm = N. Edit functions provide user points which allow processing to be conducted when the end-user confirms the database update, but none of them allow processing if the update is not confirmed. A new user point will be provided which will be invoked if N is keyed to the confirm prompt. Errors in Prototypes. Some work will be done on tidying up the default action diagrams so that they more accurately reflect the processing in the generated program. Lower Level I/O Actions.

SYNON/2E

Change Management Enhancements: Promotion of Delete Requests. This will provide the capability to checkout model objects prior to the deletion of those objects. Promotion of Conditions. This will allow individual conditions to be promoted separately from their associated field. Assimilated File Support. There will be improvements to the way assimilated files are promoted. Manuals on CD-ROM. All manuals, technical bulletins, white papers, etc., will be provided on CD-ROM. This allows an advanced searching capability in addition to easy sharing of manuals over a network.

This will provide for a much greater control of record I/O than is currently possible. For example, more efficient batch programs will be possible eliminating multiple record reads prior to an update. More AD PGM Context Fields. More program variables will be made accessible to the developer, e.g., an end-of-file variable will be introduced and access will be available to the display function screen title. Local Variables. This will be an extension of the work field concept that will allow work fields to be contained within an internal function, i.e., not generally accessible to the whole program. Null Contexts. Internal functions are often written with Output parameters specified which are not required everytime the function is called. The Null context will allow these unused parameters to be easily ignored. Functionality: Reload Subfile to Current Page. This facility will allow greater control over the way subfiles are reloaded, i.e., the subfile will not automatically be reloaded back to the beginning of the file. Performance: Introduction of Reusable Subroutines. This long awaited feature will help the performance of both the generators and running programs. As an aside, it will also help to facilitate a future implementation of ILE. Review of Performance (Part 1) Review of Reporting (Part 1)

Columba (Release 6.0)

Power User: More User Points. We have many examples of requests for more user points. If your favorite is not present in the following list, please send me an email and Ill see if it can be included. Examples of these additional user points would provide user processing for: F4 Prompting. Currently, there is no user point specifically provided to allow developers to gain control when F4 is keyed. This omission makes it very difficult to provide F4 prompting for screen function fields. The objective with this change is to provide two user points, preand post-F4 Processing, around every F4 promptable screen. Extra Processing after DBF Update in EDTRCD. In the EDTRCD function type, there is no user point to allow developers to do extra processing after DBF update but before the COMIT. This user point will make EDTRCD processing similar to that possible in EDTFIL and EDTTRN both of which provide such a user point. This change will allow additional processing to be performed without the need to place it inside a modified

Hercules
Power User: Action Diagram Debugger. The new debugger display will have the same look and feel as the AD editor. Users will be able to zoom into specific parts of the action diagram with the user points

20

window, and there will be access to the Services panel. Users will be able to set breakpoints, conditionally or unconditionally, with or without skip values for each field to be displayed. Action diagram constructs which correspond with statements of a program in debug will be distinguished by color/attribute from other constructs. When executing the program the color attribute will change to show the current action diagram construct, i.e., the construct corresponding with the program statement at which the program has stopped. New function keys and subfile selection options will be provided in the AD editor to instigate the new debug facilities. These and some additional ones will be available in the AD debugger to control the debugging of the running application. Where appropriate, function keys will be cursor sensitive. The selection of program variables for display or change will be action diagram context sensitive, i.e., users will only be able to see fields from contexts relevant to that point in the action diagram. There is, however, nothing to stop them from adding their own breakpoints from the command line. It will be possible to add additional external functions into debug processing. This facility will not be limited to the standard generator types, i.e., it will be possible to include user programs. It will be possible to step through an action diagram, one construct at a time. Action diagram blocks will automatically be stepped into; however, external calls will, by default, be stepped over. The user can choose to step into external functions using an additional function key. A go command key is used to resume normal program

flow until the next breakpoint is encountered. It is likely that there will be some customizable features for the individual user that will be stored in the model profile. One such facility will be full screen mode option for both the AD editor and the AD debugger display panels. Various pictures are available of the prototypes for this!

Action Diagram Improvements. As part of the work needed for the AD Debugger, the AD editor will also be modified. At this same, time there will be enhancements to the editor, e.g.: Option and function keys displayed on screen, together with a new fullscreen display mode A new built-in function, *EXIT FUNCTION, which will allow branching to the end of internal functions in a controlled way An overhaul of Find Services Improvements to the AD display for PRTFIL/PRTOBJ Function Te m p l a t e s . Developers will be able to copy a single function or a suite of functions which interact with each other to a target file. The copy process will examine all functions internally referenced by the primary function and correctly modify them to the target file. It will be possible for a site to code shop-specific standards, and the function templates will then allow these standards to be automatically applied to all new functions. Functionality: Reviews of F4 Prompting, Performance (ongoing) and Reporting (ongoing) Print File Enhancements. These enhancements will go hand in hand with the general quality review of this area. Report Footer on Each Page. Allow a footer to be printed on each page of the report. Empty Report Control. Allow processing if no data is to be printed either locally (for a PRTOBJ) or globally (for a PRTFIL) within a report. See Hercules, Page 25

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

OBSYDIAN

The Obsydian Development Process

Time-box development also helps us be responsive to emerging customer needs. For example, focus groups held in May indicated that remote generation was the single biggest productivity improvement we could provide, now that customers were creating larger and larger applications. By quickly adjusting the NGORO plan, we will be able to get this feature off the drawing board into customers hands by late July. The quick turnaround that results from time-box development also helps in responsiveness to bugs. At any one point in time, there are usually three releases in progress at the same time: one is having its plan finalized, one is being developed, and another is in final testing on its way out the door. This gives us three different opportunities to deliver a fix. If the problem is judged severe enough, we can hold the release on its way out while we make the emergency correction. Obviously, we do this rarely only after judging that most customers would be better served by a delay. As many of our readers are likely aware, last-minute changes pose the greatest risk to release quality! More normally, if the problem is important, it can be worked into the coding that is in progress; otherwise, for greatest efficiency it can become part of the release that is being planned. There is one disadvantage to frequent, predictable releases. Because applications are generated in C++, taking a new release will almost always force a rebuild. This is natural in the world of Windows development, but an uncomfortable overhead for those used to RPG and COBOL generation on the AS/400. Several things should help mitigate the impact. First, not all releases are mandatory. Consequently, you can skip a release if it doesnt have features you need immediately. Second, applications generated from different Obsydian releases can coexist happily on the same end-user PC. So, if you take a new release, you only need to rebuild applications where you are exploiting its content. Finally, we expect that the remote build capability in NGORO will relieve pressure by allowing the rebuild to be done in the background on a different PC. While all of these things help, we will continue listening closely for your opinions. Release Chronology Next, Ill briefly summarize the chronology of a release. Focus groups results from Marketing are merged with Development estimates and Technical Support input to create a feature plan. At the same time, Support and Development meet regularly to prioritize bugs and place small enhancements into different releases. (As an aside, we make no distinction between a bug and an enhancement. Items that take significant effort and consequently must be scheduled are known as features. Smaller items that fit into blocks of time reserved for responding to bugs are known as calls.) Specifications and prototypes are developed for all features. These are presented to our Development Partners for review whenever practical. After signoff, the code is cut. Each release has a code cutoff that is the red letter day for all the engineers. After code cutoff, quality assurance runs regression tests and basic tests of new features. Usually, after a period of three weeks or so, they make the release available to the Development Partners for Alpha testing. Alpha testing and final QA run concurrently for another month, at which point there is a formal quality review. Also in parallel, our National Language team works with our non-English speaking distributors to incorporate translations into the product class libraries. Presuming the release passes its review (most have, but not all), the release goes to early shipment. A couple dozen customers are shipped world-wide. This is done See Development, Page 22

Staying Focused
exchange of ideas between the attendees themselves. All in all, the focus groups are of tremendous value to both Synon and attendees alike. Visionary Insight Simon Williams, Synons founder and chief technology officer, sits in on many of the focus groups, taking time out of his busy schedule to listen to customers suggestions and to enlighten participants by giving his perspectives on Obsydians inception and his vision for the products future direction. Having spent several years creating Obsydian, I get great pleasure from listening to people who use it every day to build real applications. always Our focus groups provide valuable

By Keith Jaeger Synon Inc.

By Ramon Chen Synon, Inc.

eveloping software as ambitious as Obsydian is a never-ending challenge. As software developers, we face the usual tensions between quality, timely delivery, responsiveness to customer needs, and additional power and features in the product. Over the past couple of years, weve learned many lessons. I thought it would be interesting to spell out our current philosophies, and to let you know the different ways possible to participate in the process. Volcano, Anyone? The first thing to get used to is that every release is codenamed after a volcano. The release known as 2.1 in the field is called LASSEN internally. The remaining releases for this year are called NGORO, RAINIER, and TAMBORA. To keep the chronology straight, they are named in alphabetical order. We use code names so we can plan and develop releases long before Marketing determines the official integer number. Time-Boxed Development In 1996, weve established the pattern of issuing releases every 8-10 weeks. This is called time-boxed development, and it offers a number of advantages. Features are planned to fit into these short-time frames; if they dont fit, they will be broken into phases and introduced over several releases. From a project management point of view, bite-sized chunks are more predictable to deliver and more efficient as well. An old AT&T project management study concluded that time-boxed development in increments of three months or less actually produces more software over time than larger releases prone to more integration concerns and general uncertainty.

21

ith Obsydian, Synon entered the extremely competitive market of PC software development tools a market whose pace of change often outstrips that of a traditional AS/400 development environment. In order to remain competitive, Synon must stay focused to ensure that valuable development efforts are going into those features and tasks that benefit existing customers and contribute to Obsydians competitive edge. In a drive to provide existing customers with a mechanism of feedback unmatched in the industry today, we are conducting focus groups around the world. These focus groups afford you the opportunity to express your opinions, requirements and desires by providing direct input to the Obsydian development process. Representing Synon are key members of Obsydian Development and Marketing teams. One of the things that make these focus groups so unique is the fact that they not only help influence the long-term strategic direction of the product, but they allow Synon to take requests and inject them into the immediate development cycle, resulting in almost unheard of feature-to-market delivery time-frames. Such requests contribute to the evolution of an Obsydian Volcano. (See The Obsydian Development Process on this page for more information about Volcanos.) The focus groups are a bidirectional exchange of ideas and issues; attendees learn about Synons latest release plans and design details, while Synon absorbs and benefits from the experience and knowledge of our customers. An outstanding by-product of the focus groups is the constant

insights and welcome new perspectives on how we should develop and enhance Obsydian to better meet our customers needs. Simon Willams

Dates and Locations We have conducted 10 focus groups in the U.S. and Europe and more are planned:
US

Dallas, TX .............................April 1 Orlando, FL ...........................April 29 New York, NY .......................May 6

Europe

London, U.K..........................May 29,30, and June 6 Paris, France .........................June 3 Gothenburg, Sweden..............June 4 Frankfurt, Germany................June 5 Milan, Italy ...........................June 7 Product Enhancement Questionnaire The 1996 Product Enhancement Questionnaire is a 15-page document covering all aspects of the tool ranging from the development environment to the generated deployed applications. This questionnaire is sent to all focus group participants and provides a solid basis for discussion of ideas and issues. The questionnaire is also See Focus, Page 22

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

Development

From page 21

because it is impossible for us to test and maintain all the hardware/software environments found around the world in our Larkspur lab. Customers on the early shipment list sport a variety of configurations. Many also have urgent need for some release component. During this period, we sit by the telephone and keep our fingers crossed. In HOOD (2.01), the early release period passed peacefully, while in LASSEN a couple of problems were identified and corrected before General Availability. At this point, the software is made Generally Available. The date of General Availability varies around the world, as each geography has its own considerations for product support and ship-

ment. We aggressively work to keep any time lags around the world to a minimum. The cycle is now complete, and the next release is already well down the path itselfprobably within days of code completion. A Call to Customers Participate! I hope that this article has highlighted our need for customers to participate in the development process. First, we need as many customers as possible to participate in focus groups. It is through focus groups that the strategic direction of the product is determined. Second, we need Development Partners. We want to have a dozen customers who we work with consistently as a new release is planned and delivered. The

Development Partners review prototypes and specifications. They are also counted on to do alpha testing. Alpha testing is by definition throw away and its purpose is to provide feedback on the usefulness of the feature as it has been implemented. In return for this serious time commitment, the Development Partners have strong say in guiding the implementation of the product. Finally, we need customers for early shipment. These customers need only make the commitment to quickly take a new release out of the box and put it to use. There are no expected test cases or ancillary paperwork. If you are interested in any of these programs, please let use know. You can either contact your local Synon office or distributor, or email me kej@synon.com. s function requests at the very lowest level. The day-long focus groups also spend time discussing and dissecting the categories, enabling participants to provide Synon with the benefit of their experience and opinions as to how these areas should be improved. Synon/2 Focus In case you were wondering, the Synon/2 product development team has already spent the better part of a year gathering and collating the feedback and requirements for R6.0 and beyond. They are busy implementing those enhancements into the product. However, because the Synon/2 team is already looking beyond those enhancements, they will be holding focus groups in 1997 to garner more suggestions and requests from you. Continued Focus Synon continues to blaze the trail with Obsydian, providing features and functions through focus groups and other mechanisms of customer feedback, such as requests received through technical support. The focus groups are events which take place year-round. Participation is encouraged no matter what your experience level with Obsydian; we are truly interested in your opinions and experiences. If you are

Lease Plan

From page 11

Focus

From page 16

Top 20 (Combined) 1. Improve generation, build and compilation facilities 2. Provide Action Diagram debugging capabilities 3. Improve model management capabilities 4. Improve impact analysis facilities 5. Reduce learning curve 6. Improve documentation 7. Add more tutorials and worked examples 8. Improve change management facilities 9. Provide prototyping facilities 10. Provide testing facilities 11. Improve Panel Editor 12. Improve shipped class libraries 13. Improve GUI functionality in the generated apps 14. Improve Action Diagram Editor 15. Improve printing capabilities (end-user reports) 16. Provide generated application deployment capabilities 17. Synon/2 migration 18. Improve Model Editor 19. Improve Diagrammer 20. Improve technical support & online services Of course, these are very broad categories. In order to get to the specifics, the questionnaire drills down to very fine details giving the capability of specifying feature

available on request for those unable to attend the focus groups. A key part of the questionnaire allows participants to allocate 100 votes among areas of Obsydian which they would most like to see improved. Coming into Focus To date, the tabulated feedback points to the following as top focus categories: Top 5 in U.S. 1. Improve generation, build and compilation facilities 2. Improve model management capabilities 3 Reduce learning curve 4. Improve change management facilities 5. Improve impact analysis facilities Top 5 in Europe 1. Provide Action Diagram debugging capabilities 2. Improve generation, build and compilation facilities 3. Improve impact analysis facilities 4. Improve model management capabilities 5. Add more tutorials and worked examples

on highly granular object libraries that present developers with the problem of linking large numbers of small objects, Obsydian provides much larger, ready-made objects enabling systems to be created far more quickly. Even though the objects themselves are much larger, inheritance means that developers can still tailor these objects to meet specific business requirements. Because systems are built from preexisting objects without the extensive code cutting typical of more traditional development languages, the traditional division between business analyst and programmer is eroded. Using Obsydian, objects model realworld processes. This switches the emphasis from coding to analysis and modeling and brings greater focus on addressing real business requirements. All development work for the Daily Rental Service was conducted on PCs. The AS/400, with its DB2/400 corporate database, was chosen as the live environment, with PCs running Microsoft Windows displaying the user interface. The scalability inherent in Obsydian through application partitioning was proved when the server portion of the application was transferred to the AS/400 without problems. We were very impressed with this aspect of Obsydian. It means that we can be confident of developing more systems in this way. Lease Plans goal is to be recognized as the best provider of vehicle management solutions, and this means incorporating best practice into the business. Object technology was seen as a means to help achieve this end. Best practice requires consistent application of rules to business processes and object orientations inheritance feature can be an ideal tool to build these processes into the company. As standards are in one place, they interested in a scheduled focus group, or feel that your local user group would like to host a focus group, please contact me

only have to be maintained in one place so maintenance is kept to an absolute minimum, says Quy. Because Obsydian generates user interface as well as host components, its inheritance functionality could also be used to set the standard for GUI screen design. As a result, all applications have the same look-and-feel so that users need less training and are better at using the system, as well as feeling more comfortable with it. Business Benefits Since the Daily Rental Service went live, business between Lease Plan and EuroDollar, Lease Plans preferred suppliers of rental vehicles, has already benefited and continues to grow. Instead of filling out forms manually, EuroDollar now accesses Lease Plans customer details online, including information about any discounts or special rate entitlements. Via an EDI link, EuroDollar provides Lease Plan with invoices which include complete customer and contract information. This is much more efficient than the previous manual form-filling method, said one user. It is quicker and eliminates mistakes. It also means we have a lot less paper going through the office. The Daily Rental Service is helping Lease Plan to provide the best customer service in its sector. In such a competitive market, the IT department must be able to respond extremely quickly to demands from the business to support new products and services. With further development of our object-oriented infrastructure, we will be able to respond to demands at short notice. As such, the business unit has high and growing confidence in us and recognizes the key role we have within the business, said Parker. Based on their experience with Obsydian, Lease Plan is confident that object orientation is the way forward and the technology for the future. s at rwc@synon.com, or contact your local Synon representative. Thank you for helping us stay focused! s

22

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

FAQs about Netsoft from Synon Customers

Netsoft Responds to Frequently Asked Questions About its Products in Use at AS/400 Sites

PRODUCT REVIEW

Synon, Inc.s Obsydian

A model for application development.
By Janet M. Fraser

Q A

What version of AS/400 Client Access will include NS/Router and when will it be available? IBM plans on including the Windows 95 (32-bit) version of NS/Router for AS/400 Access in their next version of AS/400 Client Access, with a target general availability of this summer. IBM also licensed and intends to deliver the Windows 3.X (16-bit) NS/Router in a future release. Contact IBM for official production release dates. NetSoft has been shipping a 32-bit version of NS/Midrange Bundle for AS/400 Access which supports Windows 95 and Windows NT. Are the API interfaces in NS/Router for AS/400 Access the same in AS/400 Client Access as the version shipped with NetSoft and other affiliates? A. Yes. NS/Router for AS/400 Access has been migrated from the enhanced Windows API structure of EHNAPPC.DLL to a 32-bit implementation. Entry point names for 32-bit function calls are prefaced with E32*.DLL. For NS/Router this would be E32APPC.DLL. All function calls under this API entry point name remain the same, so migration of applications only need to change the DLL entry point name from EHN*.DLL to E32*.DLL and all function calls within the code remain the same.

hile significant enhancements have been made in creating less expensive, more powerful hardware, progress in software development methodology has been less noticeable. One relatively new toolObsydianprovides an application development environment that accelerates the development of client/server applications. Obsydian is a model-based application development toolset that utilizes class libraries of reusable business objects. Combining the data modeling and design abstraction benefits of information engineering with the reuse functionality of object orientation, Obsydian creates what is called object engineering. This process improves the quality and productivity of software development with rapid construction of software through the reuse and refinement of prefabricated components.

How the Engine Works A key element of Obsydian is its class library, an expandable source of reusable objects that provides the developer with a rich class library. This class library contains the best of both technical and business application object abstractions to use in building strategic applications. Obsydians 500 plus prebuilt, large-scale objects include reusable business objects representing patterns commonly found in commercial applications. Reusable application frameworks for standard application functionality, such as calendaring and security, are included. Obsydian generates efficient, high volume transaction processing applications. For client/server environments, Obsydian allows the partitioning of applications across one or more platforms best suited to perform the task. For all environments, the tool generates standards-based source code (RPG for the AS/400, C++ for UNIX and for the workstation environments, including Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT). The Sporty AS/400 5250 Model Obsydian for AS/400 5250 offers productivity for the development of 5250 applications through the use of business objects and graphical development while also

enabling the applications to rapidly meet future client/server requirements. Existing native AS/400 applications can be easily integrated with Obsydian generated applications. Developers are able to define a native AS/400 program in Obsydian, including its name and call parameters. Once defined, it can be called from within any action diagram as if it was created by Obsydian. The products full-function panel design editor for character-based terminals provides complete access to native AS/400 panel functions. The panel design editor provides a WYSIWYG interface for designing 5250 screens. Graphical panel designers make it easy to prototype and design 5250 panels by providing dragand-drop design capabilities, the ability to scale and size the design windows, character-based positioning, and full support for formats, fields, and controls. Obsydian for AS/400 5250 supports enhanced subfile support functions through use of group controls. It includes the ability to hide, show, or otherwise set the appearance and behavior of subfile record elements; remove records from a subfile without reloading the subfile; and append subfile records while processing the subfile. The Obsydian Action Diagram editor provides oper-

ations equivalent to each of the native RPG database 1/0 operations (READ, READP, READEQ, CHAIN). While the Obsydian Class Libraries provide standard 1/0 routines, the developer can optimize them for performance. Kick the Tires Shipped in December 1995, Obsydian 2.0 includes design tool enhancements, an expanded set of business object class libraries, and new application generation capabilities. Users can now develop standalone PC LAN applications or AS/400 applications for either Microsoft Windows clients or 5250 terminals. Other highlights of Version 2.0 are ODBC application generation facilities; a new Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) run-time environment; graphical user interface (GUI) design enhancements; and expanded national languages, including double-byte character support for Japanese end-user applications. s Janet M. Fraser is the editorial manager of Midrange Computing. She can be reached by email at fraser@as400.com. This is article is reprinted with permission from the June 1996 issue of Midrange Computing published by Fleming Enterprises, Carlsbad, CA. All rights reserved. To subscribe, call 1-619-931-8615 or 1-800-477-5665.

OBSYDIAN OBSYDIAN
Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

Q A

Are there any additional function calls supported in NS/Router for AS/400 Access to take advantage of Windows 32-bit features? Yes. Three additional function calls have been added to NS/Router for See NetSoft Q&A, Page 25

23

SYNON/2E TECHNICAL TIPS

Having Fun With Synon/2E

Product Showcased at International User Conference
By Jane C. George Principal Technical Support Specialist Synon, Inc.

SYNON/2E and OS/400 V3R6 FAQ

Synon/2E, do I follow the instructions for First Time Installation or the Upgrading an Existing Installation chapter? Excellent question! Even though the release level is the same, follow the steps for Upgrading an Existing Installation. This chapter includes more comprehensive steps for established Synon/2E installations. In particular, if you store the Synon/1E data objects in your Synon/1E library (Y1SY), you must execute Step #2 prior to upgrading your system to RISC. For example, execute the YMOVY1DTA command to move your S1E data objects from Y1SY into a TEMPLIB. Save the TEMPLIB along with your other Synon/2E models and generation libraries. After installing the RISC version of S1E/S2E, Step #7 in the PostLoad Activities section will instruct you to move the objects from TEMPLIB back into Y1SY. I am installing Synon/2E on a second AS/400 system which has a RISC processor (V3R6). I have received the product tape from Synon. On my CISC system, I have customized some of the Synon-supplied programs. How do I install everything on my new RISC system? Install the Synon/2E products from the tape(s). Follow the instructions for First Time Installation. Remember to edit the appropriate subsystems to add the Synon/1E Pre-compile Routing Entry. Next, check your custom programs on the CISC system. Use the IBM DSPPGM command to ensure that they are observable. If they are, you can move them to your RISC system. If not, you must recompile them to reinstate observability before migrating them to RISC. You may compile them on either system. Can I install the Synon/2E RISC version on my V3R1 (or lower) system before I upgrade to

A
By Jane C. George Principal Technical Support Specialist Synon, Inc.

V3R6? No. The Synon/2E RISC version requires OS/400 V3R6. Within our product, we use programs that are non-observable. Synon migrated the programs to RISC at our Larkspur lab; then removed observability before creating product tapes. I am not upgrading to V3R6, but my end-users are upgrading to V3R6. What do I need to do? All objects that are restored from CISC to RISC or RISC to CISC must be observable to the operating system. To determine if all your programs are observable, use either the IBM DSPPGM command or the utility described in Synons White Paper Conversion of a Synon/2E Generated Application to V3R6. Only program objects are affected by this restriction. All other AS/400 objects can move between systems without needing any additional conversion. I noticed that several Synon-supplied runtime support programs are not observable. How do I migrate them along with my application? This question has several answers! Pick the answer that best matches your situation. If you dont find your situation listed, please send me an email and I will answer your specific question. #1: You are using Synon/2E R5.0 or below on a CISC system and are moving only your applications to RISC not the S2E product or model: a) Order the Synon/2E Application Runtime Objects for V2R2 through V3R6 O_Y2GENOBJ. b) Replace each nonobservable object in your runtime environment with the observable object from O_Y2GENOBJ. See special note below. #2: You are using Synon/2E R5.1 PTF 1390 on a CISC system and moving only your applications to RISC not the

S2E product or your model: a) Order the latest version of Synon/2E R5.1. All runtime objects are shipped with observability starting with R5.1 PTF 1410. b) Install the latest version of R5.1 PTF 1410 or above c) Execute YDUPAPPOBJ and YCVTCNDVAL to update your runtime library. #3: You are using Synon/2E R5.0 PTF 1204 on a RISC system and are moving only your applications back to CISC systems : a) Order the Synon/2E Application Runtime Objects for V2R2 through V3R6 O_Y2GENOBJ. b) Replace each nonobservable object in your runtime environment with the observable object from O_Y2GENOBJ. See Special Note below. #4: You are using Synon/2E R5.1 PTF 1390 on a RISC system and moving only your applications back to CISC systems: a) Order the latest version of Synon/2E R5.1. All runtime objects are shipped with observability starting with R5.1 PTF 1410. b) Install the latest version of R5.1 PTF 1410 or above. c) Execute YDUPAPPOBJ and YCVTCNDVAL to update your runtime library. Special note: There are five Synon programs that support the prompting and processing of Condition Values. They are xxCFPMR, xxRTCNDR, xxRVCNR, xxVLLSR and xxVLLWR. The xx prefix for these objects is controlled by model value YVLSPFX. When replacing your nonobservable programs with the observable programs from O_Y2GENOBJ, rename the new programs to match your naming convention. The template programs in O_Y2GENOBJ are shipped with the default prefix Y2 Use the IBM Create Duplicate Object (CRTDUPOBJ) command to create your new programs with your prefix.

ynon Technical Support sponsored a booth at the Synon Expo this year that was THE place to be! Not only did we have the deluxe luggage tag laminator and free give-aways, we also held a contest so our Synon/2E customers could share their favorite commands. The first entry was faxed by Greenib Car b.v. (Hyundai), and the rest is history: YWRK@ALLCommon thought in the subconscious when buying a lottery ticket YINCKBBVLTWhy Increase Keyboard Voltage? Goes along with YEXCUSR! YASKYSubmitted by Synon/2E user related to Jean-Paul Sartre YOHYCANTISubmitted Synon/2E user related to Judy Garland YNOTGOHOMEWhen the project seems like it will never end... YNOTWhen all else fails YMELORDUsually happens at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday before a three-day weekend YNOINSTHeard when opening your latest shipment to find no install instructions YEXCEODExecuted when the End Of Day isnt coming soon enough YCDERPGUsed by Synon salespeople worldwide YCDEUsed by Synon developers worldwide YAMISTUPIDNo comment YCVTDOCBRNVulcan mind-meld method of merging documentation into ones brain YRTVDLTOBJNeeded after confirming that last delete object in error YDOWHATIMNVerbally spoken to the computer after hitting the wrong key YORYERSYYZThis is a toughie. Hint: start at the end of the command YABADABADOMy personal favorite! Fred Flintstone would be proud! s by

esponse to IBMs new OS/400 V3R6 RISC processor systems has been overwhelming! Synon Product Support has been answering many questions regarding V3R6 and the Synon/2E products. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) and their answers:

Q A

Q A

I am upgrading from CISC to RISC. Some of the program objects in the Synon libraries are not observable. How do I migrate the Synon product libraries? Synon has separate product libraries for RISC systems. The migration to RISC objects has already been done at our Larkspur lab. Order the RISC versions of your Synon/2E products from Synon or your local Synon distributor. I am using Synon/2E Release 5.0 on my CISC AS/400. I have also received several standalone fix libraries for Release 5.0. When I upgrade to RISC, should I order Release 5.0 or Release 5.1? Synon has two versions of Synon/2E available for RISC: R5.0 PTF 1204 and R5.1 PTF 1410. The Release 5.0 standalone fix libraries are not available in RISC format, but the fixes are included and integrated into the Release 5.1 product. In your situation, you should order Synon/2E Release 5.1 for RISC. I am upgrading my CISC AS/400 to a RISC processor. I am going to use the same release of Synon/2E under RISC as I am using under CISC. When I install the RISC version of

Q A

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

24

See FAQ, Page 25

FAQ

From page 23

Q A

I am upgrading to RISC OS/400 V3R6, but my end-users are still on V3R1 and below. What do I need to do? All programs moving from RISC to CISC must be observable. In addition, each CISC AS/400 must have specific IBM PTFs installed. These IBM PTFs allow the RSTLIB and RSTOBJ to convert RISC program objects into CISC program objects. The IBM PTFs are: V2R3 SF26147 V3R0.5 SF26145 V3R1 SF26146 As always, contact your IBM representative for the most up-to-date information on IBM PTFs.

program object onto a CISC AS/400 can only be accomplished during the restore command. This will affect the length of time it takes to restore your applications onto a CISC system, and it also ties up your tape drive for a longer period of time. Contact your IBM representative for the most up-to-date information on this topic.

g) Optionally, execute YDUPAPPOBJ. This step depends on your specific runtime environment.

Hercules

From page 20

Q A

Q A

When moving program objects from a CISC AS/400 to a RISC AS/400, I am able to execute the conversion process AFTER the restore. Can I do the same thing when moving my RISC program objects to a CISC AS/400? As of this article, the conversion of a RISC

I am using S2E R5.0. I want to order S2E R5.1 for RISC. Do I have to upgrade my model to R5.1 on my CISC system before I upgrade my AS/400 to RISC? No; that is not a requirement. You might execute the steps as follows: a) Save your model and generation libraries onto tape. b) Upgrade your system to RISC. c) Install Synon/2E R5.1 for RISC. d) Restore your model and generation libraries. e) Execute YAPYMDLCHG to upgrade your 5.0 model to 5.1. f) Execute YCVTCNDVAL to populate your generation library with the new Condition Values programs.

What reading materials do you recommend? From IBM, order Guide to Success on the Road to RISC: Your PowerPC as Road Map. From Synon, order Conversion of a Synon/2E Generated Application to V3R6. Both contain additional reading reference suggestions. I still have questions! Where can I turn for more information? For Synon/2E related topics, contact your local Product Support Center. For IBM topics, IBM has an extensive fax-back service. In North America, dial 1-800426-4329. Both IBM and Synon post information on the World Wide Web. And Synons CompuServe Forum (GO SYNON) is another way to ask questions of fellow Synon users. And, of course, I try to answer my email as quickly as possible jcg@synon.com. Heres hoping your migration to RISC is smooth and uneventful! s

QUIT, Report End Option. To print total formats for a PRTFIL/PRTOBJ when the function is ended by the *QUIT built-in function. Elimination of 13 PRTOBJ Restriction. increase the limit to 80 embedded PRTOBJ functions. User Source for Device File DDS. This will allow developers to incorporate arbitrary DDS keywords into the device design of print or displaybased functions. Keywords will be definable at file, format or field level.

the details have yet to be designed. I look forward to input from the development partners in this area.

SYNON/2E SYNON/2E

Taurus
Power User: SBMJOB Built-in Functions. The facility will provide the ability to add a CALL to an external function in an action diagram, which will be executed by a SBMJOB. The definition of this SBMJOB CALL should be similar to that of the existing IAF. In addition to the standard CALL definition, extra parameters will be required that define keywords on the SBMJOB command (JOB, JOBQ, JOBD, etc.), with these being defaulted as much as possible. In addition to the ease of use features, this will also mean that submitted jobs will be fully integrated into the impact analysis facilities within Synon/2E. Functionality: F23, F24 Support. The F23 key (for options) and F24 key (for command keys) will allow the user to toggle through 24 lines of option text. Control of Confirm Prompt. Users are able to specify a Confirm prompt only at the external function level. Thus, if add, change and delete are selected for a given program, the confirm prompt applies in all three cases. This enhancement is designed to provide designers with closer control. For example, you can specify prompt for delete, but not for create or change. Enhancement to EDTFIL. This will allow records to be created when in change mode.

Q A

Orion
Functionality: Review of EDTTRN/DSPTRN Control of Validation Sequence. This will enable the order in which screen fields are validated within generated functions to be defined, and solve any current problems with the default validation sequence. Display More to Subfile End. This would enable Moreor + to be the denoting more records. Performance: Review of Null Suppression V3R1/V3R6 Enablement Update Signify facility either symbol subfile

NetSoft Q&A

From page 15

Q A

AS/400 Access to support multithreading and multitasking. NetSoft will soon be offering a NS/Router API Technical Reference for the E32APPC.DLL API. Please refer to this document for additional information.

Can I run my 16-bit developed Obsydian application with the 32-bit NS/Router? Yes. NetSoft has added 16-bit thunking capabilities so that 16-bit applications can run without modification in Windows 95 and Windows NT over NS/Router for AS/400 Access. This thunking allows 16-bit EHNAPPC.DLL calls to be processed through the 32-bit router transparently to the users. How can I get an evaluation of the 32-bit communications products? IBM currently has a beta version of AS/400 Client Access for Windows 95 which can be accessed at http://www.nsrouter.com. Contact NetSoft at (714) 7530800 for obtaining its own version of NS/Router for AS/400 Access. s

Synon In The Press

May Midrange Computings Showcase, IMPACTs Class Libraries Extend Obsydians Reach

Midrange Computings Showcase, Augmented Obsydian Arrives on the Market Information Week, AS/400 ADAPTS The Post-Bulletin (Rochester, MN daily newspaper), IBM, software maker opening library for computer codes
June Midrange Computings Showcase, Synon Uses Customers Business Knowledge to Build Business-level Class Libraries

Technology

Q A

Is there any technical documentation to aid developers with 32-bit programming? Yes. NetSoft provides within the installed NS/Router for AS/400 Access product a directory with sample source code, header files and library files. The path for accessing this information is C:\NETSOFT\ELITE\TOOLS\ AS400.

Q A

Referential Integrity. The declarative referential integrity provided by DB2/400 can be utilized to provide the designer with an alternative to the procedural RI currently available through Synon/2E. Triggers/Stored Procedures. A full interface will be developed to allow use of these DB2/400 facilities. ILE. ILE will be supported but

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

Performance: Control of Share Open Data Path. This enhancement will allow developers to take advantage of existing open data paths in their application to avoid unnecessary overhead at run time. s

MIDRANGE Systems, IBM, Synon JumpStart OO Lab NEWS/400, Client/Server Data Warehouse Developer Seminar NEWS/400, New Synon Business Unit Offers Financial Apps NEWS/400, Spring COMMON Showcases Hot Technologies

Visit Synon on the World-Wide Web

http://www.synon.com

25

OBSYDIAN TECHNICAL TIPS

Obsydian Tips and Techniques

Tip #2
Right click on the edit line in the action diagrammer to display and pick from a list of operators (Figure 2).

Tip #5
Use the Object Properties Panel to display all inherited and explicitly defined triples for an object. This panel will allow you to determine which triples are needed and which triples should be overridden. For example, if you change the parameter list for the default List attributes.Get sequential object and then inherit from that object, the easiest place to see the inherited triples in the child objects is on this panel (see Figure 4).

Edited by: Wasim Ahmad and Adrian Slade, Synon, Inc.

m very glad to share with you this new set of Technical Tips. In this edition of Synonyms, the tips were contributed by Rich Staas and Joe Kaczmarek of IMPACT Software Systems and also Nicholas Mavroeidis from BasisSynons distributor in Greeceso this is truly an international set of tricks and techniques. Look out for more tips and techniques in the upcoming Lava Lounge hosted on our web site at http://www.synon.com. Wasim Ahmad

to the parent entity changes later in development, the parameters will inherit the change without having to visit the function.. If the called function has a panel that displays multiple records, create a region at the top of the panel and drag the Key attributes view from the Object browser into the region in order to display the restrictor parameters. Then add a line in the action diagram to Set New region = Restrictor in the Initialization edit point of the action diagram. Again, if the key changes

will automatically be added to the Environment variable. The Enviroment variable will appear in every action diagram.

Tip #12
Avoid modifying the List Attributes.Get sequential and List.Attributes.Process some instances. Inherit from these objects and then specialize the inherited objects only. Multiple Get sequentials and Process some instances will be needed when developing an application. Create new functions that inherit from these objects and scope them to the view that they use. Use a naming convention that allows you to identify the function type when it is called from another action diagram. Placing a suffix on the function name with a threeletter acronym that identifies the function type can be very useful when reading the action diagram for a function calling this function; in this example (Figure 8), PSI for Process some instances, is detailed. The remainder of the name should describe what the function does (this is called Semantic Data Modeling naming each object as descriptively as possible).

Figure 2

Tip #3
In-line editing is possible within the action diagrammer by selecting a statement or condition and pressing the insert key. Obsydian will then validate the new entry and either accept it or return it to its original state if a syntax error is detected.

Figure 4 To access the Object Properties panel, select the object from the Object browser and right click to display a menu. Select Object and then Object Properties from the pop-up menu. later in development, the panel will inherit the change and no maintenance to the functions parameters, action diagram or panel are necessary.

Tip #1
Default parameter mapping can be accomplished by adding variables under the formal parameter variables on the right side of the call dialog box. In this example (Figure 1), if there were a formal parameter for restrictor, then the fields within the variable Restrictor would be mapped to the formal parameter Restrictor. Also, the fields within the variable Previous Values will be mapped to the formal parameter Positioner, and the fields within the variable Base will be mapped to the formal parameter Input. Default parameter mapping is very useful when building abstract business objects or when satisfying lengthy parameter lists with fields from one or two variables.

Tip #4
Use the Inheritance Path browser (Figure 3) to track an objects inheritance chain. To access the Inheritance Path browser, select the object from the Object browser and right click to display a menu. Select Object and then Inheritance Path from the

Tip #9
You can jump to the action diagramming code for any subroutine by double clicking on the Go Sub statement in the action diagram or by double clicking on the subroutine name in the action diagram palette.

Tip #6
All Attributes.Get one instance is similar to a RTVOBJ that restricts to the entire key and outputs all attributes (it will retrieve one record). To retrieve a group of records based on a major key, use the List Attributes.Process some instances, which will perform the functionality as RTVOBJ with a partial key. Restrictor and Positioner parameters can be defined for this function.

Tip #13
Modify the default panel properties (i.e., Font, Style) for the entire panel by clicking on an area of the panel not populated by an object and changing the panel properties (Figure 9). Be sure to click Refresh to apply the modifications to the panel; otherwise, your changes will not be visible until your next visit to the panel.

Tip #10
Select objects on the panel editor and right click to display quick editing options (Figure 7). (i.e., Editing Text for objects or Event Mapping for buttons)

SYNONYMS The Official Newsletter for Synon Users

Figure 3 pop-up menu. The chain is displayed from lowest to highest level of inheritance. The objects can be exploded similar to the Object browser to display their components.

Tip #7
To restrict a List instances user interface to one or multiple keys, you must add the input VWfor Restrictor triples to the List instance user interface function as well as the Get sequential that is being used (see Figures 5 & 6).

Tip #11
Any field beginning with *

Tip #8
Use the Key attributes view for input parameters (input VW) when restricting a function to a key instead of the input FLD triple. This is a more abstract way to define parameters. Then, if the key

Figure 5

26

Figure 1

Figure 6

Tip #14
Modify all single record dis-

play panels by editing the Standard functions. Dialog layout panel. Modify the

tions. List instances user interface (Figure 10). Modify the standard report layout by editing the Standard functions.Print tabular report report layout.

Tip #15
Here is a description of a template entity that the Obsydian Class Libraries do not have, but I found it to be useful. The difference from the R e a l attibutes.

Figure 10 standard grid panels by editing the Standard funcFigure 7

C h a n g e instance is that it does not need the Previous values and, if in the New values, we supply Fields with Empty value (e.g., *blank), then it uses for these Fields their values from the View (DataBase). So, we are able to pass New values only for some fields of the View. Also, in case we need to write Empty values in the Database, we can add some code in the edit points. s

OBSYDIAN TECHNICAL TIPS OBSYDIAN TECHNICAL TIPS

Figure 8

Figure 9 MODEL EDITOR ENTRIES Entity with Blind Change is a OBASE/Business entity view Real attributes Entity with Blind Change.Real attributes function Blind Change instance Entity with Blind Change.Real attributes.Blind Change instance type Internal input view Entity with Blind Change.Real attributes ...for OBASE/New values local OBASE/Instance valid ...for OBase/Base calls Entity with Blind Change.Real attributes.Change row variable OBASE/New values ...as Input variable OBASE/Base ...as Local language WinC

ACTION DIAGRAM Function Entity with Blind Change.Real attributes.Blind Change instance Seq Description Comment Copyright NMDS 1996 Comment Update selected instance. Seq Modification History Comment Date By Description 06-Mar-1996 NMDS Edit Point 0 Description Seq Initialisation Set Environment<*Returning status> = <*Returning status.*Successful> Edit Point 0 Initialisation Seq Execution Fetch EQ New values Set Environment<*Returning status> =Environment<*View status> Case When Environment<*View status> == <*View status.*Error> Edit Point 0 Position operation failed When Environment<*View status> == <*View status.*Instance locked> Edit Point 0 Instance locked When Environment<*View status> == <*View status.*Instance not found> Edit Point 0 Instance not found Otherwise Set Base<Instance valid> = <Instance valid.*Yes> +For Each Field View +If FLD default VAL ++If Empty ++Set Value FLD default VAL +++Define Field: OBASE/Field name +For Each Field New values +++Set Value To Current Field:OBASE/Field name ++If Empty ++Cast From View, Field:OBASE/Field name +++Undefine Field: OBASE/Field name Edit Point 0 Process before change If Base<Instance valid> == <Instance valid.*Yes> Call Entity with Blind Change.Real attributes.Change row Case When Environment<*Call status> == <*Call status.*Normal> Case When Environment<*Returned status> == <*Returned status.*Successful> Edit Point 0 Instance changed Otherwise Set Environment<*Returning status> = Environment<*Returned status> Edit Point 0 Instance change not valid Otherwise Set Environment<*Returning status> = Environment<*Call status> Edit Point 0 Function call failed Seq Termination Edit Point 0 Termination Return Edit Point 0 Additional subroutines -

27

Spring 1996 Volume 6, Number 2

Synon World-wide Offices and Distributors

Synon World-wide Headquarters 1100 Larkspur Landing Circle Larkspur, California 94939 U.S.A. 415-461-5000 Fax: 415-461-2171

U.S. Product Service Center Tel: 214-401-4011 or Tel: 800-934-4453 NORTH AMERICAN OFFICES ATLANTA Branch Tel: 770-618-7980 CHICAGO Branch Tel: 708-495-7400 DALLAS Branch Tel: 214-401-4010 LOS ANGELES Branch Tel: 714-833-7103 NEW JERSEY Branch Tel: 908-303-7349 NEW YORK Branch Tel: 914-332-4200 SAN FRANCISCO Branch Tel: 415-461-8815 SEATTLE Branch Tel: 206-223-1404 SYNON CANADA LTD. TORONTO Tel: 905-803-9700 SYNON LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN Synon Latin American Operations Tel: 415-461-5000 SYNON EUROPE ENGLAND Islington Tel: +44-171-226-5164 Hammersmith Tel: +44-171-748-7848 FRANCE Paris Tel: +33-1-4637-2200 Lyon Tel: +33-1-7219-1061 ITALY Milano Tel: +392-6671-3070

SYNON ASIA PACIFIC AUSTRALIA Sydney Tel: +612-876-5300 Melbourne Tel: +613-9820-8300 JAPAN Tokyo Tel: +81-3-5473-7451 HONG KONG Tel: +852-2587-9322 DISTRIBUTORS LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN ARGENTINA Sistemas Logical, S.A. Buenos Aires Tel: +54-1-374-1326 BRAZIL Precision Data Processing, LTDA. Sao Paulo Tel: +55-11-828-9237 or 822-2708/820-2641 CHILE IBM De Chile, S.A. Santiago Tel: +56-2-633-4400 COLOMBIA Estrategias & Sistemas, CIA. LTDA. Santa Fe de Bogota Tel: +57-1-236-1696 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Santo Domingo Tel: 1-809-541-4298 ECUADOR Tecnologia Avanzada Guayaquil Tel: +593-4-28-6799 HONDURAS Hert Business Software Tegucigalpa Tel.: +504-39-3674/3670 MEXICO Soporte Tecnico Interactivo Colonia Roma Tel.: +525-574-5098

PERU Applisys, S.A. Lima Tel.: +51-14-34-1618/36-3951 PUERTO RICO Sylogic, Corp. Santurce Tel.: 1-809-724-8776 EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA AUSTRIA CGI Informatik GmbH Vienna +43 1 712 9575-0 BELGIUM Horizon Consulting Bruxelles Tel: +32 2 772 6800 CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE AD Consulting d.o.o. Ljubljana Tel: +386-61-132-2315 DENMARK Errpege IBS A/S Farum Tel: +45 4499-1311 FINLAND Tietolinkki Oy Lahti Tel: +358 18 589 2250 GERMANY CGI Informatik GmbH Langenfeld +49 2173 908 254 GREECE Basis Ltd Athens Tel: +30 1 7488781/5 ISRAEL Liraz Systems Ltd Holon Tel: +972-3-557-3434 NETHERLANDS ICS Projekten BV Capelle aan den IJssel Tel: +31 10 458 1665 Synobsys Capelle aan den IJssel +31 10 458 5532

NORWAY IBS Norge OSLO Tel: +47-22-723-730 PORTUGAL Lusodata Lisbon Tel: +351-1-417-3567 SOUTH AFRICA Davies & Esseiva Cape Town Tel: +27-24-852-5808 SPAIN OTS Madrid Tel: +34 1 5790100 SWEDEN IBS Stockholm Stockholm Tel: +46-8-627-2300 IBS Sverige AB Goteborg Tel: +46 31 7033030 SWITZERLAND OPUS Informatic AG Luzern Tel: +41 41 360 48 77 TURKEY S.T.E.P. Istanbul Tel: +90 216 3410230 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Afcomp Dubai Tel: +971-4-234-374 ASIA/PACIFIC RIM CHINA CSSL Ltd. Beijing Tel: +8610-849-2578 CSSL Ltd. Guangzhou Tel: +862-0331-1197 CSSL Ltd. Shanghai Tel: +8621-329-1228 HONG KONG CSSL Ltd. (Hong Kong Office) Tel: +852-2806-1622/5880

INDIA Systems & Software Bombay Tel: +91-22-832-5803 Penafour Software & Exports Madras Tel: +91-44-483-3067 INDONESIA PT CCSL Indonesia Jakarta Tel: +62-21-570-3460 KOREA IBM Korea Seoul Tel: +822-781-6483 Korea Business Consulting Company Seoul Tel: +82-2-784-9750 Systems Korea Co. Ltd Yeongdeungpo-Gu Tel: +82-2-785-2181 MALAYSIA CSSL Ltd. (M) SDN BHD Kuala Lumpur Tel: +60-3-262-3429 PHILIPPINES AYALA Systems Technology, Inc. Manila Tel: +63-2-813-2494 SINGAPORE CSSL Pte Ltd. Tel: +65 221 3296 Toppan Management Systems (S) pte Ltd. Tel: +65-227-0566 TAIWAN Ken Systems Int Corp Taipei Tel: +886-2-515-6186 THAILAND CSSL Ltd. Bangkok Tel: +662-2-260-7248/52 Please see Synons WorldWide Web site for a complete listing of Office and Distributor addresses.

SYNONYMS
Summer 1996Vol. 6, No. 3

Synon Corporation 1100 Larkspur Landing Circle Larkspur, CA 94939 U.S.A. Tel (415) 461-5000 Fax (415) 461-2171 Web Site: http://www.synon.com
Editors: Amy Ballou (ajb@synon.com) Caroline Van Howe (cvh@synon.com) Sylvia Ahern (ska@synon.com) Graphic Designer: Bill Harada (wkh@synon.com)
Reader Submissions & Comments: Please send all submissions and/or comments to Amy Ballou, Synon Corporation, 1100 Larkspur Landing Circle, Larkspur, CA 94939 USA, FAX 1415-461-2171 or email ajb@synon.com. You may also communicate directly with Synon staff at the Internet email addresses listed above. To subscribe to Synonyms, please email your subscription request to Amy Ballou at Synon in Larkspur, CA, USA: ajb@synon.com; fax the enclosed subscription form to 1-415-461-2171; or, fill out the subscriber form located on the Synon Web Site: http://www.synon.com. 1996 Synon Corporation. All rights reserved. Synon is a registered trademark and Obsydian is a trademark of Synon Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows & Visual Basic are registered trademarks and NT & BackOffice are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other product and company names herein are the property of their respective owners. Printed in the U.S.A.

Synon European Headquarters Elsinore House 77 Fulham Palace Road London W6 8JA England Tel: +44-181-748-7848 Fax: +44-181-748-2060

Synon Asia/Pacific Headquarters Suite A, Level 316-18 Bridge Street Epping, New South Wales Australia 2121 Tel: +61-2-876-5300 Fax: +61-2-876-3938

Welcome to the Lava Lounge!

1100 Larkspur Landing Circle Larkspur, CA 94939 Tel: 415-461-5000 Fax: 415-461-2171 WWW: http://www.synon.com

Printed on recycled paper.

W
PRE-SORTED BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID SANTA ROSA, CA PERMIT # 191

elcome to the Lava Lounge, a brand new area on Synons World Wide Web devoted to Obsydian application development. Over the next couple of months we hope to bring you news, views, multimedia, presentations, white papers, links to resources and exciting interviews with key developers and business partners. Over time this area will develop as a resource for Obsydian developers and companies doing application develop-

ment with the Obsydian toolset. The most important content that we wish to place on these pages is YOU! The hosts of the Lava Lounge are Ramon Chen and Wasim AhmadProduct Managers for Obsydian based in Larkspur, CA and we welcome feedback from you on what content you would like to see on this part of the Web. The Obsydian Lava Lounge is materializing in July 1996. s