Larkspur, California-based AS/400 shop Synon Corp has won a big fillip for its C++ Obsydian application development toolset from Microsoft Corp, which says it will work with Synon to develop a generator for use on Windows NT that automatically creates BackOffice-enabled applications. Obsydian ships with a set of reusable business class libraries for building client/server applications and brings together object-oriented functionality with model-based business abstractions. Obsydian currently supports application development for AS/400 servers and although a promised Unix implementation is already more than a year late, the lure of the BackOffice base should prove enough for Synon to meet its commitment to have an Obsydian for Windows NT starter kit available in limited quantity within 60 days. Pricing and general availability is unknown. The two companies will also begin work to incorporate Visual Basic and OLE into Obsydian, which it does not currently support. Synon will market the NT- based generator. Obsydian includes a team repository, graphical modeler, business logic and user interface designer for application design, plus class libraries and a choice of one application generator. The AS/400 version costs from $8,750 per seat.
