Providence, Rhode Island-based Cadre Technologies Inc has shifted emphasis from front-end software engineering with its latest software launch – Ensemble. A tool-set for C programmers automating software development, maintenance and testing, Ensemble is water for the code that’s on fire according to director of product marketing Caine O’Brien, who points out that, while software engineering development revenues have levelled off recently, the maintenance end of the market is still buoyant. We still believe in structured methodologies, says O’Brien, but the fact remains that 80% of software developers have not taken them up. The tool-set, which Cadre claims is the first integrated product covering maintenance, test and re-use of existing software, includes six modules: system understanding, a reverse engineering tool for complete design recovery of C source programs; function understanding, producing control flow graphs and data and control complexity metrics; the construction module, which automates the building of source code from Ensemble’s design environment; test case generation, automatically building in test cases at function, unit or subsystem level; test verification; and a documentation module. Ensemble ships in August for Sparc systems, with RS/6000, HP 9000 and Digital Equipment Corp versions by the end of the year. Individual modules go from $3,000 to $6,000. The test verification module follows in first quarter 1993. Half the customers will not be software engineering users, reckons O’Brien. Cadre now has a Unix version of its DB Designer database design and re-engineering workbench, and signed with Oracle Corp to offer its users re-engineering support.
