MDB Artisan offers an easy tool for exploring and documenting Access databases.
A new and mysterious entrant in the MSI-editing field provides an interesting and useful alternative to Microsoft's Orca editor.
This "code-oriented IDE" provides a lighter-weight alternative to Visual Studio .NET for some .NET development projects.
FinalBuilder provides a complete GUI environment for building all sorts of Windows software. Version 2.0 adds a bunch of new features to an already-impressive product.
ActiveReports offers a solid reporting solution for .NET applications. You may well find it superior to the built-in Crystal Reports.
This cross-platform Mac and PC drawing application is a viable alternative to more expensive programs such as Visio.
Log Explorer turns your SQL Server transaction logs into a powerful tool for browsing and recovering lost data. DBAs will find it an essential tool.
A calculator that you can program in C# and that understands RPN - what more could you ask?
Toufic Boubez has a stellar record in Web services. At IBM, he co-authored UDDI. Later, he founded Layer 7 Technologies which recently released SecureSpan to promote Web services security and integration policy creation. Jack Vaughan met with Boubez over iced tea in Boston's Seaport District.
Pramati Server Version 3.5 provides high performance at a low cost, with features that allow users to run apps
already deployed on Apache HTTP Server, Tomcat and WebLogic Server.
SOA may or may not bring about a reuse nirvana. But whatever happens,
Web services certainly will allow much better connections between apps.
J2EE complexity stemmed the growth of early Java tools. Now, an emerging
breed of simpler offerings aims to give Visual Studio .NET a run for its money
just as the next-generation Microsoft offerings increase complexity.
The software fortress architecture consists of a series of self-contained,
mutually suspicious, marginally cooperating software fortresses interacting
through carefully crafted and meticulously managed treaty relationships.
As developers look to SOAP-oriented Web services to do more, ensuring app quality becomes more difficult. Can test tool advances keep up?
In requirements management, as in most development projects, testing
tends to be the forgotten stepsister.
Mike Gunderloy reviews IBM Rational XDE Developer .NET Edition v2003.06
and DriverStudio 3.0