Cognos Software Inc has a new development environment in beta testing for building object-based Windows95 and Windows NT business applications. Called RealObjects, it is intended for business-type developers and comes with what Cognos claims is a hi gh level of automation, including pre-built customizable business templates, common processing behavior and inheritance links and techniques. It will also be offered as an integrated component with its Axiant proprietary language development tool. The Burlington, Massachusetts-based company says it is looking at support for Unix but not until next year. It wants to get things right on Windows NT first, it explains. RealObjects uses Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Mystic River Software Inc’s Visual Basic-like Soft-bridge basic scripting language – also used by the likes of Oracle Corp, Attachmate Corp, Borland International Inc and Hummingbird Communications Ltd – and is targeted at the kind of business user who has only a cursory understanding of Visual Basic. It reckons RealObjects falls between the plethora of tools currently concentrated on the graphical market and those in the user services layer. RealObjects’ differentiator is in the building of application services rather than user services, claims Bob Thompson, director of market development for Cognos. General availability is due at the end of the summer; no prices. A second release, due by the end of the year will include application partitioning.
