Development Utility of the Year
Utilities are what help most programmers function. Utilities include debuggers and other testing tools, designers, memory managers, and more. Apache Ant 1.5.x is a Java-based build tool similar to Make in C/C++. Version 1.5.1 is currently available from the Apache Ant Web site at http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/.
Apache Ant thrives on removing some of the issues that tend to be found in other make tools such as make, gnumake, nmake, and jam. As a make tool aimed at Java, it centers on using Java classes and objects for doing individual tasks when building an application. More importantly, by using classes, Ant gains the ability of being able to work on multiple platforms—a characteristic that other make utilities don't have. Additionally, a number of existing tools will enable you to integrate Ant into them. This includes tools such as NetBeans, WebSphere Studio Application Developer, Eclipse, Oracle 9i Developer, NetBeans/Sun ONE Studio, JDE(E) 2.2.8, IntelliJ IDEA 2.0, and more.
Apache Ant 1.5.x receives the Developer.com Product of the Year 2002—Development Utility.
- Apache Ant 1.5.x
- Compuware Softice Driver Suite
- Crystal Reports 9.0
- DevPartner Studio 7.0 Professional Edition
- InstallShield Developer 8
- Interwoven Teamsite
- jConfig (from www.jconfig.org)
- SourceOffSite Collaborative Edition
- Visual SourceSafe
Database-Related Product of the Year
Most applications require a database, so this category was open to databases and database management systems as well as database standard, database development tool, or other database-related technologies. With a number of excellent products making it into the finalists—including products from Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and Sybase—in 2002 it was the "little guy" that stood out and took the honors.
In a day where Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, and Oracle9i are fighting it out to add features and to adapt to the Web, it was MySQL from the company, MySQL AB, that has stepped in to provide the speed and efficiencies that most Web sites need. While focused on being fast and reliable, MySQL doesn't skimp on features. Key features for building business applications are included—features such as support for large data sets, row-level locking, and transactions. The result is that there are over 4,000,000 active installations of MySQL. It is no surprise that readers of Developer.com describe MySQL with phrases like "multi-platform," "fast," "portable," "high performance," and "easy to install."
MySQL receives the Developer.com Product of the Year 2002—Database-Related Product.
The Database-Related Product of the Year finalists were:
- DB2 Universal Database V8
- MetaMatrix
- Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition (SQL Server CE) version 2.0
- MySQL
- Oracle9i Database Release 2
- Oracle9i JDeveloper
- PostgreSQL
- iAnywhere Solutions SQL Anywhere Studio / Sybase UltraLite
Web Services Product of the Year
One of the most hyped topic areas of 2002 has been Web Services. Although there has been a lot of talk about Web Services, there has also been a lot of development. This category included a number of products that were designed to help create and use Web Services. Once again, the finalists show the breadth of support that Web Services is receiving in the industry from both large and smaller companies.
A key to successful Web Services is to successfully support standards. The webMethods Integration Platform from webMethods Inc., supports a number of different standards in a number of different areas. webMethods supports Web services standards such as SOAP, WSDL, XMLP/SOAP, and WSFL. webMethods was built to connect applications as services across the Internet. Features of webMethods include the ability to turn existing applications into services without the need to write code. It also provides the ability to manage Web Services along with service-level agreements and business operations metrics.
webMethods Integration Platform receives the Developer.com Product of the Year 2002—Web Services Product.
The Web Services Product of the Year finalists were:
- Cape Clear's CapeStudio
- IBM Web Services Tool Kit
- Java[tm] Web Services Developer Pack
- MetaMatrix
- Microsoft Web Services Development Kit
- Oracle JDeveloper 9.0.3
- webMethods Integration Platform
- WebSphere SDK for Web Services
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