Huron(ID:7530/)4GL4gl called Huron because Amdahl executives thought that was the Great Lake Toronto was on References: Huron is a comprehensive software package described by Jerry Miller, director of computing services at the University of Manitoba and a Beta site user, as "a programming language and a relational database management system, as well as a transaction processor running on a MVS platform with a complet set of workbench tools to boot." "You can development applications in payroll, inventory and personnel whatever application you want from within the Huron environment," saysw John Gable, manager of mainframe systems for the University of Manitoba. "But it's more than that in the sense that it's also a database engine and it's a full blown transaction processing system, and all that implies, including data integrity and recovery," he adds. Not bad for a one-man project started in 1981 by Helge Knudsen, now vice-president of software development at the Canadian Software Development Centre for Amdahl Canada Ltd. Knudsen was responsible for establishing the facility and headed the Canadian team that created Huron, its first product offering. Huron was so-named because upper management at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based parent company Amdahl Corp. thought the lake bordering on Toronto was called...Huron. Now, 10 years, and $10 million later, Knudsen is known as Mr. Huron to his colleagues and is also credited with founding the Canadian Development Centre, which now employs 75 people and is expected to hire an additional 30 people this year Knudsen was in Scandinavia and unavailable for interview, but John Challinor, manager of communications for Amdahl Canada said: "This product is developed by Canadians, which we're proud of, but more importantly will be marketed worldwide to 22 countries." Currently, Hurson is installed at eight Alpha and Beta sites in Canada and at 40 active sites worldwide. "We're moving to provide a full solution for large system environments and Hurson is just the beginning, because software products take on a life of their own as they evolve," he says. In addition to having its own database, Huron can access data in DB2, IDMS, IMS, VSAM and Model 204 and provides a common interface for everything which makes programming easier, according to Amdahl. To develop an application, there are five or six very rigid states before it can be put into use, according to Miller. These are identified as application requirements, software analysis and design, then a prolonged development stage, testing and integration, then production of the system. A sixth phase could be added if you include any amendments made to an application once being used, he explains. "Traditionally all of the above phases has been handled by more than one product and usually come from different vendors and are unintegrated," Miller says. "The Huron approach was to take all of those phases and functions and move them into one environment into one product. You have a more evolutionary approach to development by working directly with the user designing screens and data flows somewhat on the fly," he adds. The advantages of such an approach are numerous including keeping the user involved throughout the production cycle including in the prototype stages. Also a common look and feel to all the components, regardless if your writing code, designing databases or writing reports every component has a common interface. The result is, Gable say, "an easier system to maintain under the same environment. If your and end-user, programmer or database administrator you're working with the same interface. |