IBM developed the qedwiki project to realize the programming dream of end users

IBM developed the qedwiki project to realize the programming dream of end users

2006.04.27 from: zdnet

IBM is developing a project named qedwiki to realize a long-term dream in the industry: End User Programming. On Wednesday, Smith, vice president of IBM's emerging technologies, discussed qedwiki and IBM's growing interest in scripting languages at a PHP Web Development Conference. Smith said that the goal of qedwiki is to allow business personnel to create their own web pages by dragging and dropping components on a panel. For example, a business person can create a panel to observe the effect of weather on retail store sales. By integrating information from public websites such as map and weather forecasting services, he or she can "assemble" a useful and simple content-driven application. Smith said that the company's mashups philosophy attracted the attention of IT vendors. Suddenly, a new generation of applications came out. RSS, XML, and other web technologies, as well as web collaboration websites named wikis, are increasingly being applied to enterprises. Although it has long been a supporter of "industrial intensity" languages such as Java and COBOL, IBM is also trying to use these technologies to develop simple applications with shorter lifecycles. Qedwiki is intended for those who want to develop Web applications without the help of professionals. It uses Ajax script software and wiki to collect and share information. Smith said that to complete more complex work and customization work, users can use the PHP language in qedwiki. The concept of "assembling" application software by business personnel rather than programmers has existed for a while, but it has never been truly implemented. Smith said IBM is working with its enterprise customers to test qedwiki to evaluate the value of this "five-minute application" and "Assembly Tool. He said that IBM may release qedwiki software on its alphaWorks website some time this year.