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At JavaOne, Embarcadero UML tool runs on WebSphere Developer

At JavaOne in San Francisco, Embarcadero Technologies will unveil a version of its Describe UML design tool that runs within IBM's WebSphere Studio Application Developer. The move is part of a broader trend that sees design tool vendors tightly integrating their front-end modeling tools with popular IDEs.

"Our goal has been embedding the modeling tool within the IDE," said Nate Skinner, product manager, Describe.

The move also places Embarcadero in a more favorable competitive position versus Rational, which has had considerable success offering design tools for IBM's development environment. Moreover, Describe 5.8 now supports reverse-engineering sequence diagrams, reverse engineering for Visual Basic and a Rational Rose Import/Export function using XMI.

Describe arose in October 2000 when Embarcadero combined elements of its database design software with the GD Pro software engineering tool gained when the company purchased Active Software.

"People want to close the gap, and not have a database design over here and a software application designer over there," said Embarcadero's Skinner.

About the Author

Jack Vaughan is former Editor-at-Large at Application Development Trends magazine.