Aldon and LANSA Offer Joint Development Solution

by Alex Woodie

Aldon Computer Group and LANSA last week jointly announced a new interface that will allow Visual LANSA programmers to manage development projects using Aldon's multiplatform software change management (SCM) system. The new interface, called VLA-Link, connects the Visual LANSA development environment with Aldon Affiniti, an SCM system for developing Web, Windows, Unix, or iSeries applications.

With an increase in multiplatform software development in OS/400 shops, software tool vendors that traditionally have been AS/400- and iSeries-centric are increasingly moving to broaden their offerings to support open platforms. Such is the case with Oak Brook, Illinois, based LANSA and Oakland, California, based ALDON, two software tool vendors that serve different segments of the same midrange market.

In the last year, LANSA and Aldon have dedicated a large part of their research and development efforts to supporting heterogeneous platforms. Earlier this year, for example, Aldon announced new multiplatform capabilities with the release of Affiniti 3.0 (see "Aldon Improves Multiplatform Change Management Tool"). Similarly, LANSA devoted substantial resources to Visual LANSA--its development environment for creating graphical, event-driven applications--with the 9.1 release of its core LANSA technology last winter (see "LANSA 9.1 Targets Windows Functionality").

Now Affiniti can be used to manage Visual LANSA development projects in the same way it can be used to manage RPG, COBOL, Java, C++, Java, Visual Basic, ASNA Visual RPG, and WebSphere development projects on a number of different platforms. VLA-Link allows developers to use the same Java-based Affiniti interface to track, retrieve, control, and distribute Visual LANSA objects in the same way they manage those objects in any other supported environment.

Daniel Magid, president of Aldon, says VLA-Link makes Affiniti more applicable to heterogeneous development projects in predominantly OS/400 shops. "As iSeries developers enhance their applications and incorporate client/server, Windows, and Web environments into their programs, Visual LANSA and Aldon Affiniti can help them develop high-quality applications easily and quickly."

In the last year, ALDON has partnered with other vendors of applications and application development tools to create links similar to the VLA-Link, including partnerships with Business Computer Design Int'l, J.D. Edwards, and ASNA. About a year ago, Aldon partnered with LANSA to create an interface that allows Visual LANSA, LANSA for the Web, and LANSA for iSeries to work with ALDON/CMS, the company's SCM solution for iSeries-only development. LANSA also has partnerships to incorporate Visual LANSA and other LANSA applications with SCM software offerings from SoftLanding Systems and Industrial Strength Software Company.

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