Real Software is adding an object-oriented introspection capability to its RealBasic rapid application development tool Tuesday and has set sights on tuning the product for Web development.
Supported on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh, RealBasic gives Visual Basic developers a familiar environment. "It's similar enough to Visual Basic that a Visual Basic developer could switch to RealBasic [very] quickly," said Geoff Perlman, Real Software CEO.
RealBasic is an object-oriented, compiled version of Basic. With RealBasic 2008 Release 1, available Tuesday, an introspection capability allows a program to get information about itself, such as in an object-oriented system with classes. Introspection would allow a program to find out what a class has in terms of properties and methods at runtime. This aids developers by allowing them to write code to make it easier to assess properties. Developers can write code that is more generic.
A software developer using RealBasic, Charles Yeomans, a contractor working for Dakim, said the addition of introspection is "huge."
"Introspection makes it much easier" to do database-related work, Yeomans said. He has used RealBasic to develop applications for Dakim, which makes cognitive fitness solutions, and also has used it to build front-end software for his wife's law firm.
RealBasic's cross-platform capabilities have been beneficial, said Yeomans. He said he can develop on the Macintosh and test on Linux.
RealBasic has been used for building various systems, including vertical market and government applications. Yeomans said the product now is not suitable for Web application development. But Real Software does plan to outfit the product with Web development capabilities.
"Our goal with RealBasic is to allow a Web application [to be developed] in the same way [developers] build a desktop application," using such capabilities as a form generator, said Perlman.
Under Real Software's plan, RealBasic could become a bit more like AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). No timeframe has been set yet for adapting RealBasic to Web development.
RealBasic 2008 Release 1 is being announced at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. The professional version of the product, featuring cross-platform capabilities, costs $500.
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