Graphical interfaces give power to users

Software Magazine, Nov, 1990 by Harvey A. Levine

However, the IBM mainframe platform presents a less supportive environment for a GUI, according to Martin Dracup, Artemis 9000 marketing manager. "There is no industry standard GUI for the IBM. But we have been able to design a bit-mapped management graphics capability, for on-screen viewing, with zooming options."

Perhaps the best future opportunity lies in combining the advantages of the IBM PC and mainframe platforms. This will be accomplished via IBM's APPC/PC data communications subsystem. APPC/PC provides SNA Advanced Program-to-Program Communication for application programs that perform distributed transaction processing.

Richard Murphy, vice president of K&H Professional Management Systems, Wayne, Pa., calls this PC cooperative processing. K&H's project management software product, Prestige, is now available in PC, VAX and Unix versions. New VAX and IBM mainframe versions are being developed to take advantage of the cooperative processing environment.

According to Murphy, "The IBM version will operate in Windows or OS/2 Presentation Manager, with the database resident on an IBM mainframe. A server program will be developed for the mainframe. A special version of Prestige, plus a communications/gateway process will be on the PC. Most database and mainframe operations will be transparent to the user, who will be working on the PC, in a GUI environment."

The VAX/Oracle version of Prestige, employing the cooperative processing appproach, is targeted for release early in 1991, and the IBM/DB2 version will follow later in the year.

While many variations of GUIs and applications will exist, the most pervasive benefit will be an improved learning curve and, hence, better access to computer power by the more casual computer user.

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With 28 years of experience, Levine is an expert on project management. He is a principal of The Project Knowledge Group, Clifton Park, N.Y., a firm specializing in project management software selection, evaluation and training.