Microsoft is preparing to release new details about its Oslo modeling development platform. The company said Friday that it will offer a preview of the platform at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on Oct. 27.
New details emerging before the conference include a declarative modeling language code-named M and a software development tool code-named Quadrant. The preview will also demonstrate a repository for integration between models. Microsoft said it is looking for user feedback to help outline the road map for Oslo technologies.
“Microsoft hopes Oslo will open up programming technology to people who aren’t necessarily or primarily developers,” said Rob Helm, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. “Microsoft has had technologies for work flow, which help you write down a business process and then automate it. But it wants to provide another layer to simplify development.”
Opening Up Application Development
Modeling is leveraged across a range of domains to allow more people to participate in the application-design process. Analysts say it also allows developers to write applications at a much higher level of abstraction. Part of Microsoft’s Connected Systems Division, Oslo offers three prongs.
First, Oslo consists of a tool that helps people define and interact with models in a rich and visual manner, Microsoft said. Second, it consists of a language that helps people create and use textual domain-specific languages and data models. Finally, it consists of a relational repository that makes models available to both tools and platform components.
“Microsoft would like to have a tool for someone who’s an occasional software developer — the kind of person that does complicated Excel macros or Access database programs — so they can write down a business process,” Helm explained.
Those business processes might include how a company processes invoices or how it maintains its subscription base, or even what level of…