RAD Add-Ins Lead the .NET Pack at VSLive!
Graphical development tool vendors are more than ready for the official release of Visual Studio .NET.
by Roger Jennings

VSLive! SF, Day 2, February 13, 2002 — "Visual programming! No code!" tops the charts at VSLive! San Francisco. Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework have just left the official starting gate, but there's no shortage of tools and component vendors staking their claim to a piece of the .NET action. Here's a brief synopsis of four new .NET-integrated graphical code generation and analysis tools that are making their debut at VSLive! this week.

SoftWIRE Technology's graphical programming environment for Visual Studio .NET lets you build apps by combining control blocks ("Icons") and connectors ("Wires") to create data flow diagrams. The design surface is quite similar to Visio's. Icons and Wires contain visual elements and managed code to generate complete applications. SoftWIRE says adding Visual Basic .NET or C# code is optional. There's an SDK for programmers who want to create custom Icons and Lego-style controls designed to introduce your kids to .NET programming. The most intriguing Icon from my perspective is the GPIB (IEEE-488) control for test and measurement applications. (See SoftWIRE 4 in booths 105-107 or on a CD that's included in the Visual Studio .NET Partner Resource Kit).

AppsChannel's Visual Workbench takes a similar graphic approach to generating apps from flow diagrams. Drag-and-drop operations automatically link data to components with "AppsChannels," which also link COM and .NET components. A "Visual Expression Builder" lets you express mathematical or logical operations graphically. A feature I like is AppsChannel's use of XML to define interfaces between objects. AppsChannel offers similar visual programming tools for Microsoft Office members. (AppsChannel, Inc. is in booth 115 and there's a white paper on the blue Partner Resource CD.)

ARTech claims its DeKlarit integrated development tool "allows developers to describe structures and business rules of entities in a declarative way with no programming." DeKlarit integrates database definition and normalization with declarative business rules. If you change your business rules or table structure, DeKlarit makes all required code changes automatically. DeKlarit is targeted at database developers, so I'm anxious to give the product a trial run. (DeKlarit's in Showcase Pod 3; click on the ARTech link on the blue Partner Resource CD to read a white paper.)

CAST's Application Mining Suite (AMS) uses an "AppViewer" to translate code into a graphical application "roadmap" that's stored in an "Application Warehouse." CAS claims AMS "enables fast mastery of any complex, rapidly changing or unfamiliar application by providing automatically application knowledge to IT teams during the phase of development, maintenance or documentation." (CAST, Inc. is in booth 109 and has a PDF file of a brochure and demo on the blue disc. Skip the brochure and so-called demo; go directly to the CAST Web site for more information.)

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool VB coder, but there's much to be said for taking a visual approach to Visual Studio .NET programming. I'm not convinced that typing code is gone for good, but I'm looking forward to giving the products a try for creating data-intensive XML Web services.

About the Author
Roger Jennings, a principal of OakLeaf Systems, is a columnist for FTP's family of Web sites and contributing editor for Visual Studio Magazine, and occasionally attempts un poco Espaņol. His primary interests are client/server and XML/XSLT database applications, and XML Web services. Roger's latest books include Special Edition Using Access 2002 (Que), Special Edition Using Windows 2000 Server (Que), Admin911: Windows 2000 Group Policy (Osborne/McGraw-Hill), and Database Developer's Guide with Visual Basic 6 (Sams). He's now busy writing Visual Basic .NET XML Web Services Developer's Guide (Osborne/McGraw-Hill) for publication in spring 2002. Reach Roger at Roger_Jennings@compuserve.com.