Application Development

Application Development Today: Since the early 1990s, application development has matured very quickly. The emergence of the fully flexible language environments, such as Visual Basic, C++ and Java, Integrated Development Environments (IDE), such as Microsoft Visual Studio, Rational Software Architect, and MyEclipse, haven’t necessarily made the choice of development language or environment easier, but they have made the consequences of choosing the wrong path less onerous.  Application development has matured in the sense that you don't have to worry so much about something new coming along that will make your current path obsolete.

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs):  Integrated Development Environments, or IDEs, provide comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for application development from a single user interface. An IDE normally consists of an text/code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build automation tools, and a debugger. Usually, various tools are integrated to simplify the construction of a graphical user interface and to facilitate management of multiple code versions. IDEs are designed to maximize programmer productivity by providing integrated components with similar user interfaces. Almost all IDEs include some Rapid Application Development features.

Rapid Application Development (RAD): Over the years, many application development projects have failed, because, by the time the implementation took place, the business had changed. Rapid PHP Application Development methodology is a progressive/iterative model of developing applications so that a “skeleton” version of the application is available for use at an earlier date while developers continue work on the fully functional, robust solution that is the eventual goal.

Web Application Development: Factors such as time to market, daily changing business requirements and risks such as security and privacy have brought new challenges for web application development in the past five years. Fortunately, the architecture and operation of web applications, Web Services, and Application Development framework help application developers keep up with the business requirements while offering additional benefits over and above RAD methodologies and client-server application development.

Unlike client-server applications, web applications use web documents written in HTML which are supported by web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox. Web pages are delivered to the clients as static documents. During the user session, the web browser interprets and displays the sequence of pages, and user inputs are returned through web forms that are embedded in the page markup. Thus, the web browser serves as the sole, universal client to any web application. The results are increased productivity, reduced support, and agility.

Web Application Development Frameworks enable development of dynamic web sites, web applications, and web services integration offering significant additional benefits such as code reuse and time to market. Some of these frameworks provide authentication and authorization frameworks, which improve network security by enabling the web server to identify the users of the application, and restricting access to functions based on some defined criteria. These functionalities enable development of functionality to address security and privacy risks.

The Future

“The focus of application developers will shift from programming to modeling with models interpreted or compiled for execution. The models will provide a higher level of abstraction, enabling a focus on the enterprise instead of the technology. Models will support different viewpoints for specialization, simulation and collaboration that include business people. Modeling will extend to integrated models of the enterprise that provide the conceptual framework for understanding, monitoring and directing the operation of the enterprise. In short, application developers will become business modelers.” states Fred Cummins, Electronic Data Systems Corp, Farmington Hills, Mich.

In the world of internet application development, the focus of application developers will shift from programming to mastery of web application and templating frameworks.

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