Chinese software architect from Paris

Architecture
Chinese software architect from Paris

He created the famous design software PowerDesigner, and in the world has more than 50,000 genuine users, known as "Power-designer founder Godfather", he also in the famous International Software enterprise Sybase as the product's chief Software Architect. This piece of software legend written by Wang has also become the pride of all Chinese programmers.

Since Wang developed the first Windows version of PowerDesigner 1.0 in 1988, after constant revision and improvement, the 2004 officially launched the PowerDesigner latest version 10.0, powerful and complete, covering business Process , UML, E-R model, Enterprise Repository and other necessary module functions, is currently on the market well-known software engineering modeling tools.

Wang was invited to speak to China in order to assist the vast number of software users in China by applying software engineering technology to practical development work. After returning to Beijing from the Shanghai lecture, Wang in a meeting room in China's Grand Hotel was interviewed.



Reporter: Please talk about this time to China, do technical lectures after the feeling?

Wang: It should be said that the focus on the model design more than I think, Shanghai's audience more than 100 people, there are developers, there are many teachers, we have shown a strong interest in software engineering.

PowerDesigner is also used by many people in China, but it is generally used only in database design, but it is not yet known how to use UML design and model design, they are also interested in how to connect business process model, object-oriented model and data model and how to apply it in software engineering. However, this is also related to the lack of information and books in this regard.

Software companies need to improve the speed and quality of development to do a lot of work, and the domestic education may have just begun, students learn software engineering is only the emphasis on theory, in the use of tools and teaching materials have to be improved. Of course, it's much better now than when I came here last year.



Reporter: Recently powerdesigner has launched the 10.0 version, what are the new features?

Wang: In Gartner's report, PowerDesigner is better at UML support than rational rose, the database model is better than Erwin, and we do a lot of work on MDA, and we support all the features. A model can be arbitrarily transformed into another model, for example, by translating the UML model analysis model into a Java model, and by turning the Java model into an EJB model. Customers to make a new template, you can generate the appropriate encoding, the more templates, the less write code. and data models and business process models can also be converted to each other. Automatic generation of BPEL4WS (the business Process Execution language for Web services), mainly because there is a BizTalk-like engine inside the software.

The current PowerDesigner only supports the analysis design and will support the requirement analysis extension since this is part of the analysis design. The next generation of products will also support code modifications before they can show how a design change can affect other designs. In addition, PowerDesigner will be more closely associated with development tools, such as the support of Eclipse and Microsoft's visual Studio. NET version of. The eclipse version will be available in April this year, with all the product features available in this development environment, and support for. NET development tools will soon be launched, which will be embedded in visual Studio this year. NET version of.



Reporter: Recently, MDA is also very concerned about, how do you think?

Wang: MDA is very similar to some of the functions we do, MDA mainly separates the analysis and software development of the model, and is not platform-independent. Whether it's a Java platform or a. NET platform, first use the model to show all the functionality and generate code based on different platforms. PowerDesigner also uses similar ideas to support many of the technologies on the market, such as supporting all databases.



Journalist: What are the similarities and differences between the powerdesigner you designed and the together products of the rational and Borland companies that IBM acquired?

Wang: The same point is that these products are all based on object-oriented design and support UML. The difference is that PowerDesigner has three different models. We believe that because the customer level is different, can not only use a model, such as business people understand the business, but UML only learned nine kinds of graphs to do business process design, so we can not insist that they understand the UML model, different people should use a specialized model. In addition, database design is unique, these three directions to be able to interoperability, such as the UML model should be able to relate to the data model, because the design needs to be stored in the database. The Gartner report also mentions that the three models are more likely to be linked within two or three years than 90%.



Journalist: How did you develop Power-designer software and make it a tool of international influence?

Wang: I was the first student to go to France from Beijing University. After I went to Paris to study automation, I started to touch computers and became interested in software.

After graduation, I worked for a French software company, SDP Technologies, which was mainly developing database software for other companies. Therefore, often need to do the analysis of the database design, although some customers have developed some tools, but it is difficult to use. Therefore, we think that it is better to spend time to do a database design products, Maito, but can for future project development Shorten time.

The first product called S-designor, because there is no reference to the product, can only own pondering. The original version is only for internal use by the company. After the second version was developed, it felt good, and the company owner, considering whether to sell it to other companies, started selling the product in France and achieved good results. Later, we considered the French market is very small, so in the United States opened branch sales, the situation is also good. In 1995, PowerSoft bought us because their customers often needed to design the database first when using PowerBuilder for development. A few more months later, Sybase bought the PowerSoft company.



Journalist: PowerDesigner is a very good product, what qualities do you think a good software designer needs to have?

Wang: First of all, to understand the technology specifically, design a new product, you need to know what new technologies can be used, if the product is not technically good, compared with other products is easy to be despised; second, to the customer's needs more understanding, if the products can not meet customer demand, it is difficult to obtain recognition; third, to innovate. , the development of software and other products is no difference, if you can not make a real difference with other products to attract customers key points, even if the technology is good, customers will not necessarily buy your products.

I now spend a lot of time every day learning about new technologies and testing other new products to see what good ideas are. In addition, the project design, and the development of the problems occurred in the process. Sometimes I also write some code, because the total does not write will lose sense of programming. I now work every day for more than 10 hours.



Journalist: How big is PowerDesigner's development team? What are the major milestones or turning points in the development of the entire powerdesigner?

Wang: Initially I was the only one in the development, about four years did four versions. Later, in order to speed up the development progress, and recruit some people. When we were acquired, the company had more than 20 people, half of which was doing powerdesigner products.

I think the first version is most important, because there was no software that divided the database into two types, that is, the CDM (conceptual data Model) and the PDM (physical data model). This is a thought, although at that time did not know whether the user can accept, now it seems that the original decision is correct.

In addition, is the PowerDesigner version 7.0, this version is written in C + +, the previous version is developed with C. C + + just appeared, because cannot find a good C + + compiler did not dare to adopt. Later it felt like the development of C + + was faster, and the business model and data model were ready to be connected, and the system architecture needed to be rewritten. However, the 7.0 version just out of the time is not very complete, and did not add all the functions, until 7.5 to do the full function, now the function is more complete.



Journalist: What software engineering methods do you use in software development and what tools are often used?

Wang: We choose the Software engineering method that suits us according to our needs. We did some simple software projects, such as designing with PowerDesigner, writing design documents in Word, and using project to plan projects. Test aspects In addition to manual testing, but also the introduction of automated testing, we are using WinRunner, every night to automatically test, which can greatly improve work efficiency, automated testing to do more, the higher the quality.



Reporter: You are Chinese, but powerdesigner this has the international influence development tool but was born in France, why cannot the domestic birth such tool software and the manufacturer?

Wang: I've talked to other friends about that. In fact, there are many people in the domestic theoretical level is very high, but research and product development is still a considerable distance, and domestic understanding of the international market is not enough, the development of products are not necessarily suitable for international market demand.

It may take a while to change this situation, and now I think it's time to pass on the idea of software engineering to the students, who will know how to develop and design software with the help of a school. In fact, this is also good for developers, because master the analysis of the design, their value is improved.



Journalist: What is the state of software development in France? How is the software development atmosphere?

Wang: It should be said that France and international standards are still relatively close, France in software education is also good, and the United States to communicate a lot. France also has a number of well-known software companies, such as our company, as well as businessobject and ilog companies. Many large companies are developing their own software, and they all know how to use modeling tools. In addition, French software companies, as long as the size of dozens of people, there are generally dedicated to tracking the development of software technology personnel, they will understand how to use these tools to study what part of software engineering to meet the needs of the company.

Our tracking technology is generally also learned through the Internet, magazines and so on, France has a similar "programmer" such as the magazine, called "Programmez", as well as "informatique" such as the technology site, the company every week will organize lectures on new technologies. In France, there are many companies that specialize in training new technologies. National law also stipulates that the company to do technical training can also be offset tax, can account for 1% of the turnover, so it also greatly promote the company's training of technical personnel input.

I think the French atmosphere is more suitable for software, especially for the company to develop internal software is suitable, but to adapt to the market needs of products, compared with the United States is still less, because the French dare not many people, really dare to invest in the people are not many.