Introducing the Applications Development Environment

Two Environments for Applications Development

Two solutions that SAS offers for developing applications that have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) include SAS/EIS and SAS/AF software. SAS/EIS software is a rapid applications development environment that can be used by a business user to quickly develop enterprise applications. SAS/AF software is an object-oriented programming environment for developing powerful enterprise-wide applications.

Developers can use the rapid applications development (RAD) environment to quickly build a prototype application that the end users can see and experience before the design is finalized. Because SAS/EIS software objects are created with SAS/AF software, programmers can use SAS/AF software to easily extend these applications into powerful client/server applications that can be used across an organization by many different users on different hardware platforms. The object-oriented environment provides developers with a library of packaged classes for developing application components that can be subclassed and customized to the specific needs of each customer. With SAS/AF software, developers can make use of an integrated development environment for programming and testing.

The SAS applications development environment provides many advantages for developers. Interactive design tools sharply reduce development time by helping you visualize the most appropriate window design for your applications. By quickly prototyping applications, you can test their usability, make modifications, and deliver final applications to users to meet critical deadlines.

The most distinguishing feature of rapid applications development with SAS software is the ability to fully integrate features and functionality from all SAS software products. Because of this integration, your applications can take advantage of online analytical processing (OLAP), data access, data management, Web integration, and a broad range of analytical capabilities. In addition, you can develop and deploy applications on all platforms supported by SAS software.

Note: There is an important distinction between developing and running applications. When you create a graphical user interface (GUI), define object properties, and write SCL code, you are working in the development environment, which is also referred to as the design-time or build-time environment. When you test or run your applications, you move from the development environment into the run-time environment. Visual objects can look different depending on the environment. This book frequently distinguishes between tasks that you can do or that can take place in these two distinct environments. [cautionend]

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