The computer industry is to see a new war to rival that of the Unix world, reckons French magazine 01 Informatique – and this time the battlefield will be software engineering. Eight months after IBM’s release of its AD/Cycle tool, DEC is set to lay down the gauntlett with an enhancement of its CDD+ repository, the central part of its integrated software engineering environment for VMS and RISC-based Ultrix. Like AD/Cycle, the new repository – name as yet unknown – is essentially a massive encyclopedia designed to store all data elements involved in the development of a corporate information system. Enhancements are expected to include version 5 of DEC’s CDD+ Common Data Dictionary, the Atis – A Tools Integration Standard – object-oriented interface, and an object layer. Unlike AD/Cycle, it will be based on the IRDS Information Resource Dictionary Standard, and will be targeted at scientific and technical applications as well as the commercial ones that AD/Cycle is used for. The trade paper was expecting it this week, but it may be held for next month’s DECworld.
