Although Cincom Systems Inc would prefer to wait until there’s a bit more meat on the bone, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company nevertheless feels that there is enough now in place to flesh out some of the details behind its object-oriented Total FrameWork, a suite of application development tools based on products from third party software houses (CI Nos 2,200, 2,196). The company says it plans to integrate the products as a set of services, and synthesise aspects of them under a single point of support. For part of Total FrameWork, Cincom has gone to Austin, Texas-based UniSQL Corp for its object-relational database management technology and to Burlington, Massachusetts-based Easel Corp, in process of being acquired by VMark Software Inc (CI No 2,592), for its development tools. Cincom plans to add the new Easel and UniSQL offerings where it sees fit. Total FrameWork comprises an object-relational database including an object-relational model, multimedia data integration framework, object-oriented SQL, call-level interface and graphical database access and application development tools; and an object-oriented application development technology that comes bundled with Smalltalk class libraries and comprises a series of tools, both general and focused. It is targeted at application developers, and Cincom has settled for Smalltalk because it is available under Windows, OS/2 and Unix. Features include Easel’s Synchronicity, its business object management tool, and Enfin, the SmallTalk and graphical user interface development environment. Cincom says that it will pick a WorkFlow automation technology by August. Prices start from $20,000.
