Seasoned PROIV developers discuss faster development, easier learning and simplified maintenance
Making the graphic leap
New technology is both exciting and risky. There may be new opportunities to exploit, but managers also have a business to run. The last thing they want to do is rock the boat. In some ways, conservatism and entrepreneurialism are two sides of the same coin.
This was the dilemma that faced PROIV developers when Visually Interactive PROIV (VIP) was introduced. PROIV was a fast and efficient product that they knew well. Would a new graphical environment make them more efficient or would they lose their way in a maze of unproven technology?
Frédéric Boudineau, the Product Manager of French developer Thelys, was just such a sceptic: "To be honest, we weren't sure about VIP at the beginning, so we tested it thoroughly. Now I'm in no doubt that it boosts our productivity; in fact I'm astonished how much we can achieve."
Just one weekend to become a VIP
US reseller, Dexter + Chaney Inc (DCI), took a similarly cautious approach. After several months of trials the development team moved over to VIP full-time.
"VIP is especially helpful to our younger programming staff," says Co-Founder, Mark Dexter. "They're fresh out of university where they've grown up in that kind of object-oriented environment. But that's not to say that older programmers can't benefit too. I picked it up in a weekend – I wasn't an expert, of course – but I knew enough to get by."
Frédéric Boudineau agrees that speed of learning is critical: "VIP proved itself when I took on a new developer. He learned far faster than I expected. He very quickly reached a situation where he could help us."
See your applications from a different point of view
Those who have made the transition to VIP soon discover that it gives them an entirely different perspective on their applications. Companies such as successful British engineering group Sertec now have an even stronger grip on their business.
"VIP gives us more control over the thousands of functions we run," says Sertec's Group Systems Development Manager, Tony White. "It's very good at seeing links between code, and it has some powerful search-and-replace tools. VIP compiles a work list from a search that means we can check the links one by one without missing any. For maintaining large systems such as ours, it's extremely efficient."
DCI's Mark Dexter has seen similar benefits: "The visual element comes into its own when you're dealing with existing applications. VIP gives you several different ways to look at a program – to find out which part of it is doing the piece of work that you're interested in. It eliminates a lot of time-consuming work."
All-embracing development environment
Most of all, VIP is about increasing productivity. If you can do something in PROIV, you can do it faster in VIP.
"We use VIP for all the software that we write in-house," says Sertec's Tony White. "That covers just about everything we do as a business from finance, through manufacturing to customer liaison. We chose it because it's a superior development environment with more functionality and faster development times."
Luke Neethling, the Technical Manager of South African reseller CICS, is convinced that graphical development environments are the way forward.
"We're five months in now," he says, "and programming almost everything through VIP. This is a much more modern environment within which to develop."
For those who are still doubting, he offers this advice: "VIP has features that we couldn't get elsewhere, plus it's a lot easier to train new staff – anyone with experience of Visual Basic or Java will pick it up in no time."
links: www.dexterchaney.com
www.sertec.co.uk
www.thelys.fr
PROIV Developer experiences - PDF
