Oracle UK has finally implemented its computer-aided software engineering tools to the IBM environment with the notable exception of an AS/400 version. Oracle says this is partly because it doesn’t have a database for the AS/400, and that’s largely because IBM did not make the C compiler available to third-party developers when the box was first launched. However, Oracle is unwilling to say when its database will be on the AS/400, which suggests there are technical obstacles, while some sources suggest that the C compiler itself is too slow. As regards the new products, Case*Dictionary V4.1.6, a repository providing access and version control as well utilities for default database design, is now available for MVS, VM, the RS/6000, MS-DOS and OS/2. There will be support for AIX on the PS/2 and RT at the end of the month. Case*Designer, available on the RS/6000 and under OS/2, is a graphical workbench linked to the repository providing multi-window, multi-tasking graphical modelling and manipulation of repository data. Case*Generator is an applications generator driven from the repository information to provide portable applications, and runs on all the systems with the PS/2 AIX and RT versions also coming at the end of the month. Oracle plans to release Case*Bridge and Case*Connect sometime in 1992. The first facilitates batch transfer between the Dictionary and the IBM Repository Manager, and the other provides an on-line interface to Repository Manager. There’s also speculation that a third offering, Case*Project, for overall management of an entire project, which sounds suspiciously AD/Cycle-ish.
