NT = New Tools

I've been in the application-development business for a long time. Sevenyears ago, I had my trusty AS/400 "toolbox" containing thetried-and-true tools for developing any type of business application. All Ineeded was RPG, CL, DB/400, and a few display files, and I was off and running.Then we moved to a LAN environment and were faced with new challenges. So welearned NetWare, FoxPro, Visual Basic, and Microsoft Office. We gave up somescalability to build flexible, good-looking applications. But what if Iwant flexibility, a GUI, and scalability?

Let's face it client/server is the technology for mid- to high-levelapplication development It promises flexibility and scalability. Many of youalready have several client/server applications in production. The questionisn't whether to doclient/server but how to do it

The first thing you'll need to get is a bigger toolbox. We can't rely on onelanguage or methodology to get the job done anymore. Ifs going to take a lot ofpieces to make it happen. On the positive side, the hardware and softwareavailable on Windows NT to develop client/server applications are impressive.Today, almost all development languages and database servers run natively on NT.But what's really compelling is the next wave of application-development tools.Open your toolbox and throw in telephony (TAPI), messaging (NIAPD, speech (SAPD,cryptography (CAPI), security, object-oriented programming, Web development OLE,wireless computing, distributed objects, scaleable hardware, multimedia, andmore. All this technology will be available-in some cases exclusively-on WindowsNT.

One of the benefits of working for a magazine is that we get to review allthe new software tools available for NT Our MIS department is right next to theWindows NT Magazine Lab, and the MIS staff is always inventingexcuses to check out the new stuff we've received. Currently, we're workingtogether on a Web-based NT Products & Services Directory. We're using a newWeb development tool, Cold Fusion, to dynamically build the directory from datastored in Microsoft SQL Server on an NEC MIPS server. You can check out ourprogress on our Web site at http://www.winntmag.com.

Our lab has also spoiled us with the hardware "tools" availablefor Windows NT. Several years ago, we had to add more NetWare servers to "scale"our applications. Now we're running multi-CPU Pentium, Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPCmachines that can scale beyond most minicomputers today. Instead of bumping upagainst the edge of performance, we can plan our growth based on existing servertechnology. Currently, we're working with four-CPU servers. But vendors, such asTricord and Intergraph, have announced six- to eight-CPU P6 systems, and AT&Thas announced that its WorldMark systems will support Windows NT with up to 16CPUs!

It's exciting to be involved with an operating-system platform that bothworks today and doesn't lock you out of future tools and technology.