Application development for distributed environments [Book Reviews]

Abstract

This is the second book in the James Martin/ McGraw-Hill Productivity Series aimed a t information systems professionals and managers. Incidentally , the first book was written by the same author and is called Client/Servei-Computing. The series focuses on current computing technologies in an attempt to meet new challenges that modern organizations face. I was attracted to the book by its title. With hindsight, however, I think that a more appropriate title would be " Dezielopment Issues and Tools in Distributed Systewts. " T h e book provides a comprehensive picture of all the major elements of distributed systems as of early 1993. The author takes a pragmatic approach by concentrating on prevailing technologies, such as relational databases, structured design methods, cliendserver architectures, 4GLs and GUI builders. Dewire also pays due attention to the available standards. Roughly two thirds of the book contains a general discussion of distributed systems; the remaining one third surveys various development tools. Part 1 presents the basic concepts, application development strategies, and components of distributed systems. Part 2 deals with analysis and top-level design, and Part 3 covers the construction of distributed systems (detailed design and implementation). Part 4, called " Operations , " contains a chapter on integration that surveys the important issues of transaction management , , .work management, and distributed computing environments. This section also has a chapter on production that discusses configuration and version control, sharing data, monitoring networks, and security. Part 5 presents commercial application development products for distributed systems: 4GLs, cliendserver tools, and CASE tools. The concluding chapter discusses future trends. Application Development far Distributed Envi-m w " s stresses the importance of distributed, enterprise-wide information technology solutions in modern organizations that need to quickly respond to market changes and modify their business processes. Dewire estimates that 20% of the current distributed applications are mission-critical systems such as transaction-based operational 1%. The remaining 80% are less critical systems, such as information and decision support systems. CASE tools service the first category ; cliendserver development tools and 4GLs service the latter. As the technology matures, the cliendserver tools and CASE tools will merge, and 4GLs will evolve into flexible and efficient tools for cliendserver applications. As I mentioned earlier, the book covers the established distributed computing technologies. Dewire gives a rather careful, though insufficient, treatment to the emerging technologies such as distributed object computing. In fact, Dewire refrains from endorsing …