Reposted from an Multi-threaded plex Generations
Darryl_Millington
I started toying with the Eclipse connector for CA 2E many years ago - but never got it off the ground.
I've been fortunate to have worked on a number of High Performance Compute based projects (not at all related to any CA 2E or Plex work!) where I was the consulting architect. I re-architected one to split the processing of a stand alone application across n-tiered infrastructure and use more modern languages and methods of handling application workload.
Last year I was the architect for a mobile application where I had to re-architect it from just smart phone to tablets. I used IntelliJ extensively with Sencha front-end and Java back-end (again not related to any CA 2E or CA Plex work!). Coming back to CA 2E and Plex I quickly realised that the IDEs are the limiting factor in the tools gaining any further growth in users. They are no longer relevant for organisations that need flexibility and integration for their development staff to move with the modern application architecture.
I have roughed out an architecture model that will enable me to exploit the benefits of CA 2E and Plex in the modern application development world. I've even started work on designing a cloud based solution using that architecture which will change the way in which these tools will be perceived in the marketplace and make them very relevant to organisations.
I've done quite a bit of IT Strategy work in the past 10 years - and have even been in the position of mapping out 5 year road-maps to realign IT Strategy with the organisations strategy. If a software application or tool did not fit in with the road-map it would sit out on its own and be a candidate for migration and disposal. For CA 2E and Plex this would mean that the first time CA would be aware of what has happened is when the next annual invoice for maintenance is not paid - which is way too late to find out about customers moving off platform.
The real power in the CA 2E and Plex tools is in the level of abstraction that developers work at and the close integration of components for impact analysis and maintenance effort. From this high level of abstraction the tools are capable of generating, building and deploying solutions for a mix of languages and platforms. Unbeatable - from what I have seen in the market! If we can bring it to a modern development environment using current tools and techniques for the IDE - it will shine again and become relevant within organisations.
My vision is to have a single IDE that supports CA 2E and CA Plex data models stored at the object level in a Git (or similar) repository whereby the developer can choose whether or not to use submit the object for generation using the CA 2E connector, CA Plex connector, or another connector (which someone may develop in the future). The connectors manage the communication to the back-end application build servers where the CA 2E and CA Plex generators take the model details from the Git repository to generate, build and deploy the application objects.
I'll probably start working on this in more detail in about 3 or 6 months time - as I focus on other quick wins that I identified from the conference. I'd be keen to have a more detailed chat with you about this - I may be back in Europe before the end of the year!
Regards,
Darryl