AppWare
Encyclopedia
AppWare was a rapid application development
system for Microsoft Windows
and the Mac OS
based on a simple graphical programming language. AppWare was developed by Joseph Firmage and marketed by Serius, a company started by Firmage in 1989. The AppWare product was originally known as Serius Developer before Novell
purchased it in 1993 during Ray Noorda's period of intense empire building
. Immediately after the acquisition AppWare was positioned as one of the "three pillars" of Novell's long-term strategy, the others being NetWare and UnixWare
, but the product was quickly killed off when Noorda was forced out of Novell in 1994. It was sold off to a small group of its original developers in 1995, who reformed as Network Multimedia and sold AppWare under the unfortunate name Micro Brew for a short time before simply disappearing.
Applications in AppWare were constructed by dropping icons representing pre-rolled objects onto a worksheet, and then connecting them together to represent message flow between them. Some of the "objects" represented basic logic statements, while others represented GUI
widgets such as text editors. The overall logic for any particular object, say a text editor in a window, was constructed as a series of chains of these object connections, fired up in response to an event. At a high level the system is similar in concept to HyperCard
or Visual BASIC
, in that the program's logic is strongly associated with the object that sends some initial event.
AppWare built true "double clickable" applications that ran natively on either Windows or the Mac. Unlike most systems of the sort, the applications did not end up looking generic, and generally behaved as first-class citizens of the host system. However the applications were also similar to HyperCard and VB in that they generally did not support multi-window operation or the creation of new documents. AppWare applications consisted of a fixed number of forms and windows, a side effect of its lack of a
Rapid application development
Rapid application development is a software development methodology that uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself...
system for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and the Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
based on a simple graphical programming language. AppWare was developed by Joseph Firmage and marketed by Serius, a company started by Firmage in 1989. The AppWare product was originally known as Serius Developer before Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
purchased it in 1993 during Ray Noorda's period of intense empire building
Empire Building
The Empire Building at 71 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City is a 21 story steel framed curtain-wall skyscraper designed by Kimball & Thompson and built by Marc Eidlitz & Son in 1895. It is one of the earliest skyscrapers built on pneumatic caissons and one of the oldest still standing today. It...
. Immediately after the acquisition AppWare was positioned as one of the "three pillars" of Novell's long-term strategy, the others being NetWare and UnixWare
UnixWare
UnixWare is a Unix operating system maintained by The SCO Group . UnixWare is typically deployed as a server rather than desktop. Binary distributions of UnixWare are available for x86 architecture computers. It was originally released by Univel, a jointly owned venture of AT&T's Unix System...
, but the product was quickly killed off when Noorda was forced out of Novell in 1994. It was sold off to a small group of its original developers in 1995, who reformed as Network Multimedia and sold AppWare under the unfortunate name Micro Brew for a short time before simply disappearing.
Applications in AppWare were constructed by dropping icons representing pre-rolled objects onto a worksheet, and then connecting them together to represent message flow between them. Some of the "objects" represented basic logic statements, while others represented GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
widgets such as text editors. The overall logic for any particular object, say a text editor in a window, was constructed as a series of chains of these object connections, fired up in response to an event. At a high level the system is similar in concept to HyperCard
HyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
or Visual BASIC
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
, in that the program's logic is strongly associated with the object that sends some initial event.
AppWare built true "double clickable" applications that ran natively on either Windows or the Mac. Unlike most systems of the sort, the applications did not end up looking generic, and generally behaved as first-class citizens of the host system. However the applications were also similar to HyperCard and VB in that they generally did not support multi-window operation or the creation of new documents. AppWare applications consisted of a fixed number of forms and windows, a side effect of its lack of a
NEW-type operator for creating new objects at runtime.