Taligent, Inc. had a dual purpose in mind when choosing SNiFF+ as one of the development tools for the Taligent application environment, CommonPoint, a completely object-oriented software development environment designed to dramatically improve productivity and enhance the innovation of software developers.
First, SNiFF+ gives Taligent engineers the freedom to use the most appropriate compilers, debuggers and editing tools available. Second, it offers independent software developers an integrated object-oriented programming environment that can greatly improve productivity when developing application software for the Taligent system. Taligent recently licensed SNiFF+, a product of TakeFive Software GmbH, and is distributing it to a select group of its early adopter customers.
Taligent, the independent software company owned by Apple Computer, Inc., Hewlett Packard, and IBM Corporation, is using several hundred IBM AIX systems and IBM's core build tools, including the XLC compiler and the IBM Linker, to develop its application frameworks, but it wanted a capable, integrated development environment to improve productivity for Taligent's engineers.
"Our program is a large C++ system and we need tools that can handle it properly," says Doug Brent, vice president of Product Development at Taligent. "C++ tools are still maturing and we have to be careful to choose tools that can deal with large C++ systems accurately. SNiFF+ is up to the task. We started using it about six months ago, and our engineers are quite happy with it."
SNiFF+ is designed to work with a wide assortment of platforms, compilers, debuggers and editing tools -- an important factor at Taligent because it supports engineers and independent software vendors with different programming need and styles. For example, SNiFF+ accommodates the needs of seasoned UNIX developers by integrating UNIX editors like emacs. It also provides its own PC/Macintosh -style program editors, a valued feature for developers working in the UNIX environment for the first time, according to Brent.
For independent software developers, SNiFF+ offers a solution to a common problem. While learning to program in a new environment, developers have to refer back to what often is a large stack of paper documentation. Taligent has used the integrated document viewing capability of SNiFF+ to greatly ease that problem.
"It's important for us to give developers easy access to our system, rather than forcing them to use paper documentation," says Brent. "SNiFF+ reduces the need to sit down with a huge book of program interfaces. Instead, developers can go into the system, point and click on a reference and view the information right on the screen. This is the kind of exploratory programming style that is likely to make our developers more productive more quickly."
"We're providing our developers with a great tool for accessing our frameworks," says Brent. "It stands to reason they're going to be able to develop better applications at a faster rate."
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