Neuron Data Inc has integrated the two Java development tools it acquired earlier this year into its flagship Elements environment and renamed it Elements for Java, which it will launch next week. In February Neuron bought two tools from Microline Software Inc, codenamed Joy and Jewels respectively. Joy, now called Presenter/J, is a graphical user interface builder and Jewels, now renamed Advisor/J, is a tool for implementing business rules. It took a look at the integrated development environment market and decided it was too crowded, and so put its core rules technology at the heart of its product strategy. Neuron started life in the 1980s as an artificial intelligence company, before moving on to Unix GUI technology, and from last year, development tools. Neuron reckons it will be able to produce later this year tools that will enable anybody in a company to write their own rules-based engine – a so-called self-service market – eliminating the need for a knowledge engineer, who interprets business rules and turns them into applications. Elements, which is already available for C and C++, is a rules-driven application framework, comprises a development tool, rules engine and interoperability elements. The basic idea is to separate business rules out of the application logic, and the company wants to let it be known that Elements is a rules-based tool, rather than just-another-Java-development-tool; it’s rules for the masses, said Mark Grice, Neuron’s Rules product manager. Advisor/J, a JavaBean-based applications that takes up just 200k, and enables users to generate business rules, using what the company calls a no GL approach, because of its ease of use. Neuron says the approach is different from rules products that rely on database triggers or SQL statements because they still merge the application logic with the business logic. Neuron is readying an interviewing tool to make rules development easier. The users would answer question set the tool through a wizard. It is likely to beta ion about three months, and ship around the end of the year, probably in version 2 of Elements for Java. Neuron will shortly announce a licensing agreement with start-up Active Software for its information broker technology. It uses the broker to communicate with specific applications, including SAP. Neuron also uses Iona Technologies Ltd’s Orbix Object Request Broker, but says it will license other company’s ORBs in time. Along with elements for Java, next week the company will also announce version 2.1 of Elements for C/C++, which adds configuration and testing tools. It also adds full integration with Neuron’s OOScript cross-platform scripting language. Presenter/J costs $500 per developer for an introductory price. Advisor/J goes for $6,000 per developer. Elements for Java rolls out July 1.
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