Ameritech’s Applied Data Research Inc in Princeton, New Jersey, claims to have introduced the first program development tool for co-operative processing on IBM Personals, local area networks and mainframes. It enables programmers to modify a program at a Personal on a local net and upload only the changes to the mainframe. This means they can select sections of mainframe programs, bring them down to the micros, and return only the changed code to the host, so avoiding the risk of loss of large data block during transmission. The tool, called Adlib, provides a self-contained development environment for the PC-DOS box or local network. It also supports mainframe environments of ADR’s Roscoe, Vollie and the Librarian, and IBM’s TSO. Adlib is designed to provide editing, library management of source and object code, transparent mainframe access, and remote job submission capabilities. It sets out to ensure program integrity by preventing access, retrieval or editing of a program by more than one user at a time. Programmers can use Adlib’s editor for both program source manipulation and text processing. A text processor, accessible during any editing session, incorporates program specifications directly into the code, allowing users to develop, maintain and enhance programs more efficiently. Programmers can produce memos and other documents with the same editor. Using Adlib’s library management services, ADR claims that programmers can save up to 1,000 versions of a program without storing multiple copies. Adlib frees up Personal disk space while providing extensive auditing, reporting and administrative capabilities. These services can be integrated with ADR/The Librarian on the mainframe or used independently with a single Personal or group of Personals on a local net. By supporting TSO, Adlib programmers can access and download MVS and other OS datasets. This data can be combined with Roscoe, The Librarian programs and PC-DOS resident files. A DOS/VSE user can access data stored in Vollie, The Librarian and PC-DOS. Adlib may be bought independently of ADR mainframe products for a single copy price of $495. Quantity discounts are also available. Adlib runs on an IBM Personal with hard disk, XT, AT, or 3270 Personal and needs 350Kb of available memory for Adlib software. It needs PC-DOS 2.0 up and for local area network operation, it supports IBM’s Token Ring Network and PC Net.
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