Following an extensive face lift to keep in line with the times (CI No 3,191), Compuware Corp has announced the availability of Uniface 7.2, now described as a component-based application assembly environment. With its former life as a 4GL development suite firmly in the past, Uniface 7.2 is now aimed at software developers looking to assemble complex and business critical applications from components constructed in a variety of environments, including Java, C ++, Visual Basic and Uniface itself. Compuware says that companies which base an enterprise application development on a single tool risks it becoming outdated very quickly. The latest release of Uniface includes a Component Builder for component assembly, management and analysis, and a Unified Modeling Language-based object repository application programming interface. Included in 7.2 is the Universal Request Broker architecture (CI No 3,191) that supports component interfaces such as Corba, Java, DCOM and JavaBeans, and languages such as C++ and Java. Applications and components can be partitioned over systems from multiple vendors, and integrated with existing applications. Uniface WebEnabler deploys applications across the Internet without having to alter code. Uniface 7.2 is shipping now.
