Obsolete Software Tools the Pace of Technological

¶ … Obsolete Software Tools

The pace of technological change continues to accelerate rending many software development applications, tools and programs obsolete quickly. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate ten of these obsolete applications, tools and programs, providing insights into how they can be improved to deliver greater value.

Analysis of Obsolete Tools

The first of the ten tools is Borland C++ Compiler Version 3.1. This specific version of the Borland C++ Complier had a series of commands within its structure that led to direct conflicts with the broader BSD C++ conventions supported by other software companies including Microsoft and their C++ Compiler. C++ has since been replaced with more Web-capable programming languages including Python.

The second obsolete programming tool is Borland Kylix. This programming tool is used for scripting and creating its own proprietary application libraries. Scripting languages including PERL and other tools for shell scripting have since overtaken this tools' functionality (Binstock, 2005).

The third obsolete tool are flat file Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) files used for completing common electronic transactions across distribution and supply change networks. EDI networks often cost over $50,000 or more to set up and run, and have since been replaced by Web-based trading networks and systems that can quickly scale globally (Lee, Clark, Tam, 1999). EDI has now migrated into entirely Web-based transactions were development systems emulate its command set and deliver higher levels of performance than the most fine-tuned EDI batch programs had in the past been able to achieve.

The fourth obsolete programming tool is Hummingbird DM 5.1.0.5. This development tool was used for creating logical file pointers across a network using proprietary network protocols and commands. Advanced TCP/IP programming techniques today can accomplish the same tasks that Hummingbird was used to automate in the past. Automating telnet commands in Unix can also accomplish the same result as well.

The fifth obsolete development tool is Microsoft Access 2000. This entire platform was used for completing departmental databases development, often as part of a broader enterprise. Microsoft Access 2000 had nascent technologies included in it that made programming databases across groups possible. It however lacked the ability to bring databases to the Web, which is why Active Service Pages (ASP) .NET programming tools replaced it.

The sixth obsolete programming tools is Objective-C. The same functionality of Objective-C can be found today in both ASP.NET and in C# programming languages. The code base of Objective-C was also highly fragmented and difficult for programmers to maintain over time.

The seventh obsolete programming platform is Solaris, the operating system Oracle has ceased providing support for despite many Sun Microsystems customers having it installed on their servers. Solaris has since been replaced in functionality with IBM's AIX operating system and HP-UX (Binstock, 2005).

The eighth most obsolete programming tool is the Terminal Control Language (tcl). This is a pervasively used tool in programming languages to illustrate the concepts of how libraries and scripts are created, edited and run over time. PERL is slowing overtaking this tool even in programming courses, and both Python and Ruby have overtaken it in enterprises today (Miner, 2001). All three of these options have more efficient means of translating more complex workflows into a common code base that can be used across a wide variety of applications and systems.