GUI tools combine to speed Java migration
- By Will Kilburn
- April 15, 2003
Getting into the Java migration business wasn't something Imperial Software
Technology (IST), Palo Alto, Calif., had planned on. But in the midst of an
industry-wide push to move legacy applications over to Java, the company found
that its 12-year-old X-Designer utility had some new and unexpected uses in that
area.
''We added a capability that allows you to take the user interface from an
existing application, pull it into X-Designer's GUI-builder environment and then
generate code from it,'' said Neil Smyth, director of business development at
IST. ''And we suddenly realized we had a migration solution on our hands.''
Classes provide Java equivalents to toolkit features that are unique to
Motif.
Smyth said the utility allows for the rapid and automated conversion of
legacy C/C++/Motif-based applications to the Java platform by recreating both
the user interface and the needed back-end code. Developers have the option of
maintaining back-end code in familiar C/C++ formats.
Also in the works is a migration solution for companies who want to move
Windows-based applications over to Linux, which, Smyth says, should be out in
six months.
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