CA Adds Eclipse Support to Mainframe Dev and Test Tools
Looking to make it easier for developers to work on mainframe applications, CA this week has added Eclipse support to three of its dev test tools.
The release is the latest in an effort by CA to modernize its entire suite of mainframe lifecycle management products. Besides IBM, CA is regarded as the leading provider of mainframe systems software, which accounts for half of its $4.2 billion in revenues.
The company announced plans at last fall's annual CA World conference to update its entire suite of mainframe software in an initiative dubbed Mainframe 2.0. CA in May released a GUI-based version of its Mainframe Software Manager, the first deliverable based on that initiative.
This week's launch is intended to bring testers and developers into the mainframe fold. The company's testing and debugging tools, InterTest Batch and CA InterTest for CICS and its abend analysis tool CA SymDump for CICS now all gain the Eclipse-based graphical interfaces.
CA is not the first to offer Eclipse-based support for mainframe development tools—IBM's Rational mainframe tools integrate with Eclipse and Compuware last week launched Xpediter/Eclipse 2.0, its analysis and debugging tool.
Adding GUI-based support is a key requirement for mainframe dev tools as a growing number of developers who work on mainframe applications are aging and nearing retirement, analysts and vendors said. Younger developers are unlikely to be familiar with green-screen programming techniques, said Mark Combs, senior VP and GM of product development for CA's mainframe business unit.
"Most of the technologies they have to work with around managing the infrastructure are even more ugly because they are all about JCL [Job Control Language] and very arcane things that only this cadre of people know about," Combs said in an interview.
"We have added a user interface that is expandable to other companies' products [and IDEs] as well and have created this very slick, Web browser based GUI that is oriented towards different roles in the organization and that enables people to step in very comfortably into the environment"
Despite the fact that the number of mainframe developers is dwindling, Combs said large enterprises are still maintaining and building new applications for big iron.
"This is becoming an important need by large enterprises, many of which have lost experienced mainframe developers due to retirement and layoffs," said IDC analyst Melinda Ballou in an interview.
"The problem is a lot of this stuff wasn't automated, people were just doing it by hand and when they lost their resources, then it was really difficult because no one knew how to do it, Ballou said. "Now they are automating some of these fairly tedious, repetitive types of tanks, and they provide that capability now within the context of Eclipse."
Combs said while adding Eclipse eases developers' entry, it doesn't mean they don't have to learn the mainframe environment. These tools "don’t automatically give them the knowledge of everything that's going on under the covers, that still has to be acquired through education and mentoring and on-the-job training," Combs said. "But at least they don’t have to learn everything about how to touch anything before they can start learning the things they need to do their jobs."
CA intends to add Eclipse and GUI support to more of its mainframe development tools next year, probably at its next annual CA World conference in May, said Aline Gerew, senior vice president of software engineering in CA’s mainframe business unit.
"We are looking at the rest of the product set where we have the application quality and development tool set and providing the Eclipse plug-in," Gerew said.
Mainframe development continues to increase, said Julie Craig, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. "There are definitely new apps being built (and old ones being modified), which is one reason why both IBM and CA are seeking to make it easier to develop on the mainframe," Craig said in an email.
"We are also seeing a significant amount of mainframe code being repurposed, where it is 'wrapped' in Web services so it can be used in standards-based SOA and/or Web Services. Alternatively, it is called from other platforms as part of tiered or composite transactions."