Life starts at 40 something: Delta ADS turns 45 this year

Developing software is looking to the future, but sometimes it is good to turn around and look back. As we did, we discovered that the foundations of our products were made almost half a century ago.

The Beginning - 1972 The first Idea

In 1972 Professor Reinhold Thurner, Zürich University, published ‘Entscheidungstabellen: Aufbau, Anwendungen, Programmierung’. He founded the Sodecon AG that implemented his ideas in DETAB/GT (Decision Tables/Generator).

In the beginning, DETAB/GT was able to produce COBOL, PL/I and Fortran and not much later also Assembler.

The Evolution - 1976 ADS was released

Resolving decision tables was only a first step. The idea of generating (slightly) different variants (targets) of programming code from one single source proved a fruitful idea. Over the next years the generator system Delta was developed and released in 1976. The foundation for this development tool is that an application contains a lot of functionality that are just slightly different implementations of each other (File I/O, Screen I/O, Printfiles, reports etc). The generators in Delta contain the abstraction of this implementation with the result that the developer only has to specify the parameters of this specific implementation to be able to get needed functionality.

Besides an increase in productivity (up to three times compared to traditional hand coding, according to some publications) one of the other main advantages is portability. It is that portability that enables software developing companies to sell their products on a number of different platforms without the full developing efforts. It also enables companies to migrate from one platform to another without having to rewrite their applications.

“I am pleased that after almost 50 years, Delta ADS is still being used successfully for the development and migration of large and complex applications.”
Dr. Reinhold Thurner

The concept was very successful: by 1982 there were already 130 installations worldwide and was available for 12 different platforms.

Till today, the majority of installations are found in banking and insurance, governmental institutions and software solution sellers.

The Future - 2021 and beyond

Like Delta DETAB, Delta ADS for COBOL and PL/I (as it is officially named today) remains a part of our product portfolio. Over the years an estimated 2+ billion unique lines of code have been generated with our generator system, a number that is still growing each year. Initially, DETAB and Delta ADS were only available for the platforms for which they generated code. Today they are also integrated into modern development environments such as Eclipse or Visual Studio and can generate cross-platform.

As the advantages of this generative approach to software development is still valued by our customers we remain committed to supporting them with our tools. The current release 6 of Delta ADS will certainly not be the last as we will continue to find solutions for the challenges our customers experience in their software development process.

  

 

 

 

Delta DETAB helps software developers to specify complex issues in an easily understandable way and to efficiently implement the decision logic. The use of Delta DETAB simplifies the communication with the business departments and reduces development and maintenance costs.

Decision Tables for a Clear Presentation of Complex Issues

Decision tables are an excellent method to clearly and understandably specify complex issues, processes and system of rules. They are used to present complex dependencies between several conditions and the individual actions to be performed in a clear, complete and consistent manner.

Decision tables are much easier to understand and validate than code, so they are often used for the specification of complex systems. As they are language-neutral as well, they simplify the communication and coordination between the technical departments and the software development. In addition, decision tables facilitate the development of test cases and the business rule management.

Delta DETAB for the Automatic Conversion into Error-free Code

Delta DETAB supports the decision-table technology in the analysis and programming. The automated, generative implementation of decision tables into target-platform-specific, optimized source code using DETAB accelerates and simplifies the software development:

• Strong reduction of the testing and maintenance effort:
  Comprehensive examination of the decision tables for completeness, consistency and contradictions, redundancies, overlaps, ambiguities, and many more.
• Efficient implementation:
  The corresponding error-free, optimized source code for the desired target platform is automatically generated in COBOL or PL/I.
• Test aids
  simplify the troubleshooting and documentation of tests.
• Exact and clear documentation

Our customers successfully use Delta DETAB to easily specify complex decision logic, simplify the communication with the business departments and to reduce the development and maintenance costs.

Platforms

As with Delta ADS, we distinguish between the development platform where the development is performed and the runtime platform the applications are generated for and run productively.

The platform support of Delta DETAB is continuously extended. If your platform is not listed below, please contact our sales representatives to discuss your specific requirements.

Development Platforms for Delta DETAB

Delta DETAB can be used for the development on different platforms – stand-alone as well as an integrated part of the development system Delta ADS.

Input for standalone usage is a COBOL or PL/I program that includes decision tables. Delta DETAB is then used as a pre-processor that translates the decision tables into the appropriate COBOL or PL/I code for the desired target platform.

NEW: As a component of Delta ADS, DETAB is already available for the development on Eclipse for some time. Now we also provide DETAB standalone for the integrated development on Eclipse. Thus, the advantages of the modern development environment can now also be used for DETAB stand-alone, and the development of decision tables with DETAB can seamlessly be integrated into current processes.

Development Platforms

• PC systems:
  Microsoft Windows - optional integrated in Eclipse or Microsoft Visual Studio
• Unix / Linux – different manufacturers
• Mainframe:
  HP NonStop, Guardian
  IBM VSE/ESA
  IBM z/OS

Target Platforms for Delta DETAB

With Delta DETAB, source code for COBOL and PL/I applications can be generated for all target platforms that are also supported with Delta ADS.

• Bull DPS7, Bull DPS8
• Fujitsu BS2000/OSD
• HP-UX
• HP NonStop, Guardian
• HP OpenVMS
• IBM AIX
• IBM VSE/ESA
• IBM z/OS
• Microsoft Windows
• Unisys OS/2200
• Unix / Linux – different manufacturers

Get to know Delta DETAB

We would like to introduce you to Delta DETAB or Delta DETAB on Eclipse. Get in touch with us and benefit from the advantages of the decision table technology.