Novell Inc is mobilising the concepts of object-oriented programming in an effort to alleviate the yawning network applications gap. The company has been previewing AppWare, a new software layer in between operating systems and applications that it says is designed to improve the efficiency of network application development by delivering the power of the network while shielding developers from its complexity. The company claims that AppWare will have the same explosive impact on the growth of network applications as operating systems have had for desktop applications and will revolutionise network application development, and greatly increase the number of network applications available for customers. The company says the new layer is intended to address the fact that it is too hard and costly to write applications that take advantage of the networks now in place, and claims backing from Borland International Inc, Oracle Corp, WordPerfect Corp, Gupta Corp, Easel Corp, and Powersoft Corp. AppWare consists of development tools, enabling technologies, and re-usable software modules. The AppWare Foundation will enable developers to write code using traditional software languages and deliver network applications that are independent of client operating systems, graphical user interfaces, and network services, the company claims, providing an open application programming interface that will shield the complexity of the network. The AppWare Bus and AppWare Loadable Modules will offer an assembly-line model for re-using prefabricated software modules to build reliable, powerful applications in record time – without writing line-by-line code. An AppWare Bus is intended to improve applications development efficiency by giving standard access to pre-built services. Much like the NetWare Client Shell is to NetWare, the AppWare Bus is the enabling technology of the AppWare Loadable Modules. There will be a Visual AppBuilder tool to enable users and developers to link AppWare Modules for new custom applications. These modules will include telephony, imaging, multimedia, video and other objects. And AppWare will be open to third parties to create loadable modules and implement their own versions of the visual application-building tool. The company has learned from customers that today’s custom desktop applications have a life span that is only about 20% as long as their custom mainframe predecessors, while taking 50% more time to create, and claimed that one of the Big Six accounting firms that needed a custom time sheet application, cut development cost and time to $100,000 and six weeks from a projected $1m to $2m and 12 to 18 months by using the pre-release AppWare. AppWare developer release will be out in October with full launch next year. No pricing yet.
