MetaCase is powering ahead with version 4.5 of their MetaEdit product. How did they get to be a leader in the DSM space? Why, they use Cincom Smalltalk, of course. Here's their announcement:

MetaEdit+ 4.5 SR1 Now Available

With this latest release, MetaCase further simplifies graphical domain-specific language (DSL) creation for the growing number of organizations interested in generating code from models. New language definition tools offer enhanced control, and an intuitive interface eases the task of language creation. As manual coding is not required, new languages can be immediately tested during development, with existing models updating automatically in response to language changes.

Updates to the integrated generator tools add reverse engineering capabilities, enabling users to read data from external sources (e.g. legacy code). This allows expert developers to define how legacy code should be used and integrated within the models.

Included in the release are several new example languages and descriptions, e.g. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), insurance product specifications, automotive infotainment systems, and home automation controllers, all designed to assist users in quickly defining their own graphical DSL.

MetaEdit+'s unique multi-user environment allows teams of developers on different platforms, and different modeling languages, to effectively work together. With MetaEdit+'s exclusive SMART Locksâ„¢ technology, multiple users can simultaneously edit the same models-even the same objects-avoiding lock-outs, and ensuring that all models are free from design data conflicts. Improved administrative tools streamline multi-user setup and maintenance, delivering remote control functionality for automating key processes, such as routine backups and versioning system integration.

Additional information, including technical feature list, is available here.

For a free, fully functional 31-day evaluation version of MetaEdit+ 4.5 SR1, please visit our download pages.

You can view the full release (PDF) here.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, dsm, domain specific modeling

I'll be at a customer location today, completely without network access (I know, the horror :) ). I should be back online later this afternoon.

I spent the day in Dallas, visiting a division of Northrop Grumman - their IT solutions group. These guys have a very cool Cincom Smalltalk (VisualWorks) manufacturing support application they call MES (Manufacturing Execution System).

It does a ton of stuff to manage the quality and execution of jobs in what they call "slow manufacturing". In this case, that means aerospace and ship-building (as opposed to assembly line car production, where things move very quickly. Cars roll off the line fast - a modern naval ship can take years to build. Airplanes, helicoptors (etc.) take less time, but are still much bigger (and slower) jobs.

They started building this application a long while back, in VW 3.0. They are just now getting it migrated to the latest (7.4) release - and they are very pleased with it. They gave me a tour of the application, and peppered me with questions about our roadmap - I didn't have time for the plant tour (our marketing person, Suzanne, got one - I'm jealous!). It would have been very cool to see BlackHawks getting put together, with all the shop floor PC's running their Cincom Smalltalk application.

Funny thing is, they told me there's quite a market for this kind of thing - an awful lot of shops are still heavily paper and spreadsheet bound (shades of what other customers have told me about financial services applications). They are also investigating some nifty handhelds - Rudy Morales, the project manager, showed me one of the military grade ones - by throwing it onto a table! Very cool device, that one.

Fun day, even if it started off way too early. next time, I'm making time for the plant tour :)

DeepCoveLabs asked me to post this:

DeepCoveLabs has an opening for a software developer. We write payment processing software used primarily by our main customer, a financial services provider with operations in Canada and Ireland. I once did a blog entry for Cincom and here is what I had to say:

DeepCoveLabs is in the business of developing payment processing solutions. We currently offer products for cheque conversion, multi currency credit card processing, international electronic funds transfers into about 30 countries, cheque printing in many currencies and languages, a currency exchange module and a CRM system for managing a payment processing operation... all written in Smalltalk.

Our team consists of a handful of developers all with strong Smalltalk skills. Current projects include:

• building a multi-currency credit card processing gateway mirroring our infrastructure across two sites with transparent fail over
• adding real time reporting of incoming payments from accounts worldwide
• extending the range of hardware our cheque scanning solution runs on
• enhancing the currency trading platform we have just deployed
• moving our file based reporting architecture to a web based one reviewing our DB design and mapping mechanism

Candidates must have several years experience with dynamic languages, ideally Smalltalk and have worked in an agile/test driven environment. Candidates with experience or skills in the following areas will have a distinct advantage:

• Payment processing and international banking
• Credit card processing
• Inter-bank communications and file transfer mechanisms
• DBA level RDBMS skills, especially MS SQLServer
• Network administrator level TCP/IP knowledge
• UNIX and/or Windows system administration

The work is located in Vancouver Canada and candidates must have a Canadian work permit. Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter, including salary expectations to joerg@deepcovelabs.com.

Joerg.

Joerg Beekmann

DeepCove Labs

4th floor 595 Howe Street

Vancouver, BC, V6C 2T5

joerg@deepcovelabs.com.

Dana VanDen Heuvel uses his morning coffee experience to explain how good customer service generates return business. It's something that far too few companies pay attention to.

As much as I prefer the Spicy chicken sandwich at Wendy's, this is the same thing that drives me to McDonald's when I go for fast food. Wendy's service is just too variable - I've seen bad McDonald's service, but it's much rarer in my experience.

I got an interesting piece of news from a customer today - see this article on Bank of America and Image Cash Letters? The very first exchange of Image Cash Letters between that bank and a customer used a Cincom Smalltalk based system from DeepCove Labs. Here's what they say about Smalltalk:

DeepCoveLabs, is in the business of developing payment processing solutions. We currently offer products for cheque conversion, multi currency credit card processing, international electronic funds transfers into about 30 countries, cheque printing in many currencies and languages, a currency exchange module and a CRM system for managing a payment processing operation.... all written in Smalltalk by a couple of developers at a time. Why Smalltalk, this is not an item of debate for us, everyone involved feels they personally can more done faster using Smalltalk than with any other tool set.

Suzanne took some pictures while we were visiting Cargill last week - they have a great team there, and they've been a valued Cincom customer for 20 years now - so here are some shots of them and their facility. I should mention that the complex we visited (corporate center) is absolutely gorgeous. Suzanne said her first thought on seeing it was "I could live here" - until she remembered that it was Minnesota, and that meant snow in truckloads :) Anyway - here's the cake we presented at the meeting:

Next, here's a shot of us and some of the LYNX team at Cargill:

Next, a shot of geese wandering the grounds. These geese had no fear of people or cars - they seem to have it made :)

And finally, a picture of a building that would have been nice to meet in. This was a residence for someone back in the 20's, and it's gorgeous. It's now part of the complex - apparently, they have retreats and such there:

I appreciate all the folks at Cargill taking the time to meet with us - they're a great bunch!

I'm in Minneapolis, MN today and part of tomorrow, visiting Cargill - a large customer of the Cincom Smalltalk group. They've spent the last decade+ building a large suite of applications they call LYNX - to summarize a lot, it's a system that deals with the grain origination business, through the supply chain from the farmer to the end purchaser. I can't go into a lot of details - like Cincom, Cargill is privately held, and they have a lot of proprietary value locked up in this system. They've evaluated it against various COTS systems over the years, and have always made the determination that LYNX served their needs better.

We got a lot of background on the business and application architecture from them. The application work started around 1992, when they decided to get rid of the various legacy stovepipe systems they had. Later on, Y2K compliance came into play. Just from a Smalltalk perspective, they have an interesting architecture - they have a multi-tier system with VSE clients and VW servers. The VSE clients use CORBA to communicate with VW.

That actually gets into something that not a lot of people know about - there's a VSE CORBA client (not suitable for running servers - it's incomplete) that shipped way back in the day. Cargill has been cheerfully using that code for years. They also wrote their own VSE/VW code compatibility layer - the entirety of their domain model is portable between VSE and VW. The GUI stuff, obviously, is not portable - and they are very interested in Pollock development and our roadmap.

Like I said above, I can't go into many details on the applications themselves - but I can say that Cargill is very happy with Cincom Smalltalk, and is looking to hook the LYNX system up to other systems that are being developed and deployed throughout Cargill. They are getting ready to kick off a fairly large effort soon, and that's what this meeting was all about. The last time they scheduled a large effort (back in 2000/2001), we came in and had extensive conversations with them. Those conversations bore fruit in the work they deployed out in 2003, which saved them a ton of money and streamlined their operations.

It's always fun to talk to a customer doing cool things with the product!