Rational Rolls Out Developer Tools

Rational Software Corp. made a slew of announcements at its user conference this week, adding new products in several areas and solidifying its line of application development tools for the enterprise.

At its conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Rational announced new quality assurance technology for developers with a new version of Rational Test RealTime and two new products, Rational PurifyPlus RealTime and Rational PurifyPlus for Linux.

Targeting developers of software products and embedded systems, the new version of Rational Test RealTime includes expanded debugging features for C, C++ and Ada developers and introduces new language support for Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) and J2SE (Java 2 Platform Standard Edition). These proactive debugging capabilities within Rational Test RealTime allow developers to test, debug and fix their own code in less time than it takes to do it manually, the company said.

Rational officials said that for the Java 2 Platform, the Cupertino, Calif., company has also integrated Rational Test RealTime with JUnit, an open-source Java testing framework. This integration allows developers to automatically generate JUnit-like test classes from code by using a wizard built into Rational Test RealTime.

Rational PurifyPlus RealTime provides cross-platform runtime analysis capabilities, which include memory, performance and thread profiling, code coverage analysis, and runtime tracing, the company said.

And to help Linux developers produce faster, more reliable code, Rational introduced Rational PurifyPlus for Linux, a runtime analysis solution for Linux developers. The product offers runtime analysis capabilities, including memory, performance and thread profiling, code coverage analysis, and runtime tracing for software running on a Linux host, the company said. Rational PurifyPlus for Linux expands Rationals host-based runtime analysis solution currently provided by Rational PurifyPlus for Windows and Rational PurifyPlus for Unix. Rational PurifyPlus for Linux supports C, C++ and J2SE.

Rational PurifyPlus for Linux v2002 Release 2 starts at $1,995 per user license, Rational PurifyPlus RealTime v2002 Release 2 starts at $2,495 per node-locked license, and Rational Test RealTime v2002 Release 2 starts at $5,495 per node-locked license.

Rational also announced the integration of Rational Test RealTime, Rationals complete solution for testing and analyzing embedded, real-time and networked systems, with the Texas Instruments Code Composer Studio, TIs integrated development environment for digital signal processing platforms.

In addition, Rational announced an expansion of its "Extended Development Experience" program by expanding its Rational XDE Professional platform with support for Microsoft Visual Basic .Net and ASP.Net.

Part of the new products is its "assisted modeling" feature, which enables developers to model their application using native Microsoft Visual Basic .Net or ASP.Net terms and concepts. A developer can drag a language construct from the tool bar onto a UML (Universal Modeling Language) class, and Rational XDE Professional will automatically generate the correct UML syntax for that construct. This automation helps developers realize the power of visual design and development with only a basic knowledge of UML. Assisted modeling technology uniquely helps developers learn the UML naturally by enabling them to think "in code" and generate UML.

Rational XDE start at $1,595 per user license.

Meanwhile, Rational announced it has collaborated with CommerceQuest Inc. to develop the MQTester for Rational, a new automated performance-testing solution that speeds the development of higher-quality IBM WebSphere MQ-based business and Web services applications.

In addition, Rational and Object Mentor Inc. announced the introduction of RUP (Rational Unified Process) guidance for XP (Extreme Programming) through the RUP Plug-In for XP.

The new plug-in enables developers to write better code faster by providing workflows, guidelines and other resources that offer lightweight best practices designed for developers needs.

The RUP Plug-In for XP is a joint development project by Rational and Object Mentor. The RUP Plug-In for XP jump-starts development for small and medium-sized teams with an out-of-the-box set of practices, road maps and activities that help developers focus on their core mission: generating high-quality, executable code, the company said.

And Rational announced that its enhanced SEED (Software Engineering for Educational Development) program currently reaches more than 20,000 computer science and software engineering students at more than 650 colleges and universities around the world.

Through the SEED program, faculty and students have access to the Rational Developer Network, Rationals Web site that provides targeted software development content and skill-building resources.