Select Software Tools Ltd, the Cheltenham, Gloucestershire-based software engineering company, has launched a suite of development tools that is integrated with Microsoft Corp’s Object Linking & Embedding technology and Visual Basic. Select Software had announced in August that it was working with Microsoft to develop software engineering tools based on a client-server approach for programmers working in Visual Basic (CI No 2,476) and the Select Perspective is the product of this work. Select Software says its tools take advantage of the rapid application development that can be done in Visual Basic but offers control and scalability across enterprises. By virtue of Object Linking & Embedding, programmers can access Microsoft programs; they can use Word to draw up and design documents or Excel for analysis of how long development and stages of development will take. The object modelling technique used is Rumbaugh & Jacobson’s with a complete life cycle based on rapid application development principles. Object management over a network is achieved using a four-layer architecture that comprises a user interface level, local and corporate levels and a physical level; each level contains software engineering objects such as projects, diagrams and a dictionary, which define the layer’s functionality. The core product in the new suite is Select OMT Professional version 4.0, which offers support for Rumbaugh’s Object Modelling Technique and Jacobson Use Cases; it provides a repository for the model information accessed via Object Linking & Embedding. Other pieces of the suite are Select Report & Document Generator v4.0, designed to synchronise documentation and design information; it generates tailorable Word templates using information from the Select dictionary. Select Object Animator gives a dynamic display of models held within Select OMT Professional and illustrates how messages pass between objects in response to user gene-rated events. Select C++ Generator produces code for Visual C++ and other compilers; it can reverse engineer from existing C++ libraries. Select Schema Generator creates SQL schema based on information held in the storage object model; it supports SQL Server and Oracle databases. Out this month, Select OMT v4.0 costs UKP500, upgrade UKP100; OMT Professional v4.0 is UKP1,000, upgrade from Select OMT UKP550; Select Report & Document Generator v4.0 is UKP300; Select C++ Generator v4.0 is UKP500; Select Object Animator costs v4.0 UKP200; the Schema Generator is v4.0 UKP500.
