Borland Delphi

Delphi is THE Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool. Based upon the Pascal lanuage and with all no limits to the applications it can create. Delphi is the main development tool used at NIS. All of the cutting-edge software we have created were done with Delphi.

Using Delphi we can create native applications that run just like any other commercial software you can buy. Our Delphi applications run without any run-time modules or other bloated overhead like you find with Access or Visual Basic applications.. The resulting executable code is relatively small considering the powerful features we can build in. Delphi applications are equivelant to C applications in terms of excecution speed and sometimes they even run faster due to the advanced optimization built into the Delphi compiler.

If you haven't heard of Delphi before now, fear not. The source code is very easy to work with and future maintenance costs for Delphi code are typically far lower than similar C source code. Delphi is the environment used by Corel for some of its Office applications, as well as for many other commercial applications. In Europe, Delphi is the most widely used development tool.

For database applications written in Delphi we prefer to use either Interbase/Firebird or Sybase SQL Anywhere for large or critical databases. Microsoft's Jet DB engine (MS Access files) is another option used successfully with several of our clients.

Java / JavaScript / JSP / Tomcat / Struts

When building web applications for Linux, you have the choice of using a commercial application server such as BEA WebLogic or IBM WebSphere. Good choices as long as you want to be tied to that application server and don't  mind paying the licensing fees.

Java Server Pages and the open source Tomcat app server give you a universal option that will run on almost any operating system from Linux, to Solaris and yes, even Windows. We prefer Linux for this due to the better performance and higher security.

Struts is another open source server library that provides a framework for building JSP applications. Using Struts with Tomcat give you great flexibility and a standard framework used by many commercial web sites around the world.

Sybase SQL Database

Sybase is one of the pioneers of the Relational SQL databases. The original Sybase database was the basis for Microsoft's SQL Server.

Applications with secure storage requirements and a desire for a reasonably-priced commercial database server are perfect for Sybase. the SQL Anywhere database server was designed for applications used by up to several hundred concurrent users. A larger database is also available from Sybase for higher use applications.

InterBase / FireBird Databases

Borland brought Interbase to the mainstream, moved it to open source and then later took it back to a commercial product. FireBird is the open source version of the same database with slightly different functionality. Applications requiring a commerically supported database should choose Interbase, while Firebird is an excellent choice for applications that do not require commercial backing but still want a high performance server.

Both database serves are SQL servers and provide robust performance.

InterBase requires a license for the server and each client workstation accessing the database. Firebird may be used with no licensing costs.

MS Access Jet DB Engine

Many smaller applications make use of Access database files without requiring MS Access to be installed. The Jet engine is suitable for applications with up to 25 users simultaneously accessing the database. Beyond that number of users a larger SQL database such as Firebird becomes a better solution.

A couple of nice features of Access are the single file storage and the ability to password protect the database.

Using the Apollo VCL library for accessing the database allows for a simple installation and no royalty licensing.

Corel Word Perfect Macros

 Corel has the ability to easily record macros for repeating command sequences that you use frequently. The Corel Macro system can also be used to create a complete data entry system for generating reports. Some of our medical clients have used this capability to generate regular reports using the macros. The reports are based upon a form with check boxes and short entry fields. Physicians fill out the forms when they see a patient and the office staff use a macro with entry screens that mimic the forms to create the report document. This significantly reduces the time required to create standard reports.

Complex formatting of standard layouts is another good use of Corel Macros.