November, 1995
By Nancy Vincent, COOUG Program Committee
November 14, Developing Distributed Applications With Smalltalk: This month's meeting will feature a presentation by Jim Barton of ParcPlace-Digitalk on "Developing Distributed Applications with Smalltalk". Jim's talk will survey current approaches to distributed applications and then go into detail on two involving Smalltalk: an ORB-based approach highlighting Hewlett-Packard's Distributed Smalltalk, and a WWW-based approach highlighting ParcPlace-Digitalk's Wadsworth initiative.
December 6 Special Event - Jim Rumbaugh: COOUG and the Connecticut Valley Chapter of DAMA are hosting a special "A Morning With James Rumbaugh".
By Tom Walsh
Information Engineering can be viewed as the precursor to Object Management. But the move to objects requires deliberate steps and a redefinition of some key roles, such as Data Administration. This was the message of Larry English, President of Information Impact International, at our September meeting. Mr English is a long-time advocate of Information Resource Management and a working member of several ANSI standards committees. Liberally sprinkling his presentation with comic examples of object concepts, he emphasized that OT provides the best promise for managing a company's data and business knowledge resources.
Mr. English noted that an object model is the composition of Entity-Relationship constructs, Semantic Data modeling practices (generalization, aggregation), and OO capabilities such as inheritance, encapsulation and message passing. For English, the best framework to describe and define the Object Modeling process remains John Zachman's Information Systems Architecture framework, long known and utilized by Information Architects, as "views" or models of an application system across time from scope definition to delivery. The framework represents the What, How and When of a system which translate into a system's Object Types, Object Methods and the business events that drive an object's life cycle.
Mr. English emphasized that the synthesis of data and process in objects requires the integration of Application Developer and Data Architect disciplines and perspectives. Architects can provide an understanding of type structuring and classification. Developers can provide the means for defining and managing behavior. And a pivotal role exists for the Data Administrator whose role expands to incorporate Object Administration. This becomes a critical role as software system delivery increasingly results from component (object) assembly rather than "one-off" development. To achieve the full benefits of OT (such as reuse) the composition of development teams will change and the methods of their communication dramatically redesigned -- where robust repositories, the primary tool of an Object Administrator, will play a critical part in the team's success.
Larry English's presentation was followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A session involving Will Goldring (C.W. Costello & Associates), Mary Gorman (American Management Systems), Stan Slossberg (CIGNA) and Mr. English. Subjects as diverse as design pattern usage and the unification of the various OO methodologies took center stage. Mr. Goldring noted that in migrating from IE to OO one should use an enterprise's Entity-Relationship diagram as an important source but "start fresh" with an object perspective. This opinion was echoed by Ms. Gorman as she stated that analysts "need to look though object glasses when focusing on behavior".
Are you an Object Technology user within the Insurance Community who would be willing to share your experiences for a Case Study?
Cheryl Rocheleau is performing a Vertical Industry Object Technology Case Study program and would like to interview one or more users within the Insurance Industry.
If you are interested please E-Mail Cheryl at rochelea@jagger.omg.org or call her at (508)-820 4300
By Terry McAuliffe
"Food, music, and objects -- those are the essential ingredients for a successful OOPSLA conference", remarked Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, author of Designing Object Oriented Software, at the opening keynote. OOPSLA '95, as many of you know, is the 10th ACM Object Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications conference held this year in Austin Texas from October 14-20. Keynote speakers included Adele Goldberg of ParcPlace, Bertrand Meyer of Eiffel fame, Dave Thomas of OTI Smalltalk, and Richard Helm of the Design Patterns "Gang of Four".
The five day OOPSLA attracted more than 3000 object enthusiasts from around the world, including several from COOUG. Hot topics included patterns, best practices, and rigorous development processes. A typical day of education at OOPSLA led into a 5:00PM beer and barbecue reception at the convention center, followed generally by excursions to Austin's famous Sixth Street.
A highlight of the experience this year was a Tuesday night event sponsored by AFOOT - the Austin Forum on Object Oriented Technology. This user group, more than twice the size of COOUG, put together a dinner meeting at the Austin Coppertank Microbrewery featuring Grady Booch and Jim Rumbaugh on the "Unified Methodology", and introducing Ivar Jacobson as the newest methodologist to join Rational Software.
The evening proceeded in spirited fashion with Grady Booch holding up "3 Amigos" T-Shirts for himself, Rumbaugh, and Jacobson. Grady and Jim proceeded to step through the Unified Methodology, wisecracking back and forth as to who had won or lost on the unification of Booch and OMT concepts. At the conclusion of the presentation Jim Rumbaugh stepped up to the microphone and sang three new object-oriented verses of the Judy Collins/Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides Now" also known as the "cloud song". Definitely a memorable evening.
By Ed Mirek, President
With its November 14th meeting, COOUG, the Connecticut Object Oriented Users' Group, begins its third year of operation.
And it all started with a bus trip - to New York City, on October 5th, 1993. The trip was the brainchild of Sherie Davis of C.W. Costello and Associates, who had become aware of the growing interest in Object Technology among a number of Hartford-area companies. When she learned that Adele Goldberg of ParcPlace was scheduled to make a presentation to a newly-formed New York OO Users' Group, Sherie saw it as an opportunity to get local people together for some experience-sharing and networking on Object Technology. She persuaded her bosses at Costello to host a bus trip to the meeting and she invited representatives from several area companies. Attendees included people from CIGNA, Travelers, Shawmut, Aetna, ITT Hartford, Textron Lycoming, Connecticut Mutual, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Pratt & Whitney, Gerber Scientific, and C.W. Costello. The trip, by any measure, was a big success!
Not long after that, Sherie approached a few of us who had been on the trip with an idea for starting a Connecticut OO user group. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and a small group started working. With Sherie's assistance, the program was planned, notices sent out, refreshments ordered, and COOUG's first public meeting was held a few weeks later on November 10, 1993 at Connecticut Mutual. This first meeting attracted more than 75 attendees to hear Chris Stone of the Object Management Group and Marie Lenzi of Syrinx Corp and Object Magazine. Encouraged by the large turnout, we promised additional meetings.
A series of ad-hoc advisory board meetings followed during 1994 to plan programs and formalize the group with a charter and an executive board. The charter was adopted later that year on October 18, and the first executive board was elected on November 15.
Since that time, COOUG has grown steadily. and now has attendees from more that 80 companies in the Connecticut Valley area. Our newsletter is mailed to more than 300 people and an E-Mail notice goes to an additional 100. COOUG now has a home page on the World Wide Web to make information available to an even broader audience.
It feels like we've come a long way from that bus trip 2 years ago. I hope you'll be with us as we kick off our third program year on November 14th with a presentation on Distributed Smalltalk by Jim Barton of ParcPlace. That will be closely followed, in December, by a morning with OO methodologist Jim Rumbaugh in the auditorium at CIGNA, to be co-sponsored by COOUG and the CT Valley Chapter of DAMA. January will feature a talk on Design Patterns. Each of our SIGs will also be scheduling programs during that time. So many great meetings, so little time . . .
(See also SIG info).
Dick McKee
The Object Modeling SIG held its second meeting on October 17, with 28 people in attendance. We were really pleased to have such a good turnout for our first presentations.
Alan Yezierski (ITT Hartford) and Tom Wagner (CIGNA), gave an extremely interesting and thought provoking presentation: Business Objects to Design Objects: A Process of Abstraction. Both presenters talked about situations they have encountered in which it may be better to design implementation objects that are highly abstract and much more generalized than the business objects in the problem domain that a user would readily identify (e.g., policy, account, customer, order, etc.).
After the presentations and discussions, the OMSIG Work Group got together for the first time. The topics that were under consideration for the group to work on were: Business Objects; Reuse: Analysis & Design Objects; OO CASE Tools; Design Patterns; Standard Methodology; Quality Measurement. The Work Group decided to try to address all (or at least most) of these topics by taking a sample project through analysis and design, and having people on the team research topics they are interested in and bringing the results back to the Work Group to be used in doing the sample project.
The Work Group does not have a formal leader. There will be a facilitator, and the role of facilitator will rotate from time to time. The first facilitator is Peter Weinstein. Anyone interested in working on the Work Group should get in touch with Peter (860-627-9298). This does involve a significant time commitment, including meetings outside of the OMSIG meetings and work outside of the meetings.
The Object Modeling SIG will normally meet on the third Tuesday of even numbered months, 6 - 8 PM, at the ITT Hartford, North Plaza Building, Conference Room 5-48. For more information, contact Patricia Wildes at 726-4461 or Dick McKee at 277-5550.
There will not be a meeting in December. Instead OMSIG will meet in both January and February. The dates are January 16, 1996 and February 20, 1996. The presentation topic for January will be announced later. In February Peter Weinstein will present Analysis Through Programming: A Live Demonstration. This demo will use a CASE tool.
By Buddy Kresge
The first meeting of the Smalltalk SIG will be on November 15, 1995 at ITT Hartford. The meeting time will be 6:00 - 8:00 PM in the North Plaza Building, 5th floor, in the large conference room near pole G-5. A security officer can direct you once you are inside the main building. Driving directions are the same as COOUG meetings.
By Tom Fulton
The second meeting of the C++ SIG was held on October 24 with almost 30 attendees. Ron Dombrowski of Rotec talked about his company's use of C++ and OO technology in developing software for the transportation industry. Of particular value was Ron's special insight into the mistakes they made along the way, and how to improve the process of implementing OO technology. His conclusion: regardless of the drawbacks, OO technology is worth the effort.
Future topics to be covered include:
In addition, the C++ SIG is presenting a continuing tutorial on C and C++ for beginning users of the language. In the last meeting, we talked about data types, operators, branching, and loops. In the next meeting we will be covering functions, arrays, and pointers.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 23 at the East Hartford Public Library, starting at 6:00PM.
If you're interested in a Hartford area Software Process Improvement Network please E-Mail HASPIN@aol.com or call Janice Gray (860) 769-7182.
If you're interested in a Hartford area PowerBuilder group please E-Mail Rich Sutherland at 76461,3307@compuserve.com or call him at (860) 987-4266.
If you're interested in a Hartford area Delphi Users Group please E-Mail Larry Grigely at 76015,3613@compuserve.com or call him at (860) 870-5707.
ITT Hartford for the meeting room
C.W. Costello & Associates for refreshments
The Systems Group for newsletter costs
Computer Horizons for expenses.
Hartford Grad Center for meeting room
Digital Communications Services "web page"