Review of the Year: Application development tools

2002 brought turmoil and consolidation in the application development tools market. But that was a mere foretaste of the major battles between different integrated development environments (IDEs) that will take place next year.

IDE company acquisitions were symptomatic of the widening scope of these environments, which are moving towards controlling the whole development, deployment and maintenance lifecycle.

Much of the action may have been a response to Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net IDE, which threatened to dominate future Windows developments. Others with Windows IDEs needed to differentiate themselves, typically by emphasising cross-platform capabilities.

IBM's Eclipse open source IDE was backed by the formation of Eclipse.org at the end of 2001, and Eclipse 2.0 arrived this year.

But there were mixed fortunes for founder members, among which were IBM, Borland, Rational Software and TogetherSoft.

As the year closes, Borland is busy absorbing TogetherSoft, while IBM tries to swallow Rational, much to its close partner Microsoft's apparent displeasure.

BEA has joined in too with its J2EE developer framework, but its spin-off WebGain lost out.

Another key trend is that rapid uptake of the emerging Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) standard, aimed at automating the conversion of Universal Modelling Language (UML) enterprise models into code.

First out of the MDA block was German company Interactive Objects' ArcStyler. And Rational bought NeuVis, which should give IBM a UML/MDA capability.

Likewise, Borland's swoop on BoldSoft then Starbase will ensure UML/MDA input for its IDEs, while Compuware's MDA-based OptimalJ Java IDE is advancing rapidly.

All eyes are now on Microsoft which could plough its own UML/MDA furrow after the IBM Rational deal. But there was also a new twist in modelling with the arrival of the Business Process Modelling Language version 1.0.

Another trend is IDEs including wireless capabilities in preparation for the take-up of third-generation mobile systems.

A battle looms between mobile phones predominantly using the Symbian operating system and Java language, and PDAs favouring Microsoft PocketPC.

There will be a lot to play for in 2003.