The Manufacturing Software Guide

Gunter Gerdenitsch

With a new software technology the computer software, so far rather a specialty, is becoming an everyday commodity you can do yourself. And you SHOULD do it yourself: no one knows better what you want to get out of the computer than you!

Software development, isn't that the metier of a few highly trained specialists, the "inaugurated high priests of the computer"? - Not for applications as you need every day. With a new software technology, "component based software development", also software is going to become a commodity. Make it yourself and you will reap a number of benefits:

1. You get exactly the application software you want - without endless haggling with an external software developer.
2. Your application software will have much more quality and user-friendliness than you could ever get by conventional programming.
3. You save the cost of an external developer.

1st Component Design (http://www.1st-components.com) has developed a product line called "DLG", specialized in user interface (UIF), that is designed for exactly that purpose. DLG is especially useful for UIF-intensive applications, with a large number of user-interface elements and much user interaction. User-interaction - that's the most tricky part of application programming.

This economic development, that's quite natural in history. Starting out as a specialty for a few people. Via to some kind of "high tech" (as computers and software are regarded nowadays). Finally down to an everyday commodity that's open to the average user.

For example, think of the automobile technology. In the beginning, up to around 1900, an automobile was just another fad for those few who could afford it. By 1908 the Ford "Model T" came on the market, and now that technology turned to something even the average user could master. But still, particularly in Europe, automobiles required a good deal of attention, and many automobile owners hired professional drivers ("chauffeurs") to handle their cars. Not before the second half of the 20. century more and more people drove their automobiles themselves. Today, handling a car is just too simple to hire a professional "chauffeur" (except for busses, trucks, etc.)

Odds are that software will walk the same road in the years to come. System and standard software will continue to be programmed conventionally by professional software developers. Application software, however, will more and more be "plugged together" by the users (or their applier organizations) themselves.

Building software in an Application Framework like DLG (also called: 'component based software development') as a 3-step job:

1.Build a framework by combining DLG elements supporting the features you designed for the target application.

2.Make full use of DLG's flexibility to override the DLG defaults. You can do it by coding options in form of keyword parameters..

3.Only application-specific operations are left to be programmed in the conventional way. Additionally, there might be details you want to be handled in a more sophisticated way than by the DLG options. If so, you will need to program a number of callback procedures.
Visit http://www.1st-components.com: There you can download many free sample programs (+ their source code) to see that this can be done in a few code lines only, even for rather complex UIF-elements.

About the Author

Gunter Gerdenitsch, owner of '1st Components Design' (1CD), Universal Software Components for Computer Applications without Programming ( http://www.1st-components.com, mailto:gunter@1st-components.com'). 1st Components Design' is the first company specialized in universal software components that can simply be "plugged together".