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Announcing Netron Fusion™ 3.5

May 20, 2008

 Netron is pleased to announce the release of Netron Fusion™ 3.5, the premier solution for creating enterprise-class adaptable software. Available on June 16, 2008, with the CD release scheduled for June 30, 2008, our latest full product release for Windows Vista®, Windows® XP Professional and Windows 2000 focuses on incorporation of SlickEdit® 2007 with special customizations which enhance the development and maintenance of Netron Fusion programs; improved DB2, CICS and z/OS support, improved ease-of-use; and improved support for third-party tools. Most of the enhancements and fixes have been driven by requests from you — our customers.

 

Netron Fusion 3.5 Highlights

SlickEdit® 2007 - Customized for Netron Fusion

Netron is very pleased to include SlickEdit 2007 in this release. This Netron-customized version includes enhanced functionality for Netron source files (SPCs and Frames), in-editor links to the Netron Reusable Object Manager, links to Netron online help for frames and the ability to run other Netron tools from the special Netron toolbar.

SlickEdit 2007 for Netron Fusion is supported under Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Improved Support for DB2

Netron Fusion Data Manager and the Domain frames now support the following DB2 data types:

  • BIGINT
  • BLOB
  • CLOB
  • DBCLOB
  • FLOAT(n)
  • REAL (single precision floating point)
  • DOUBLE PRECISION floating point
  • VARGRAPHIC & LONG VARGRAPHIC
  • ROWID
  • IDENTITY columns

The CICS and IMS frameworks have been updated to support long Data Manager entity names (up to 18 characters).

Data Manager Import Utility (NFDMImport.exe) now supports directly importing the DDL as formatted by DB2 UDB v9.

Improved Support for the Latest Versions of CICS, IMS, Enterprise COBOL and z/OS

  • Support for 16-character TSQUE names (CICS TS 1.3 and higher).
  • All CICS frames have been updated to support both granular and global control of EXEC CICS HANDLE commands.
  • FILE.F supports extended VSAM codes and ESDS (Entry Sequential Data Set) VSAM files.
  • STACK.F and SAVEA.F, used by older programs written with NETRON/CAP™, are now compatible with the latest CICS TS and COBOL compilers.
  • CICS BMS map generation has been corrected to emit the correct macros when the color of a field is set to WHITE.
  • The DomFormat subroutines for CICS and IMS now compile 'out of the box' for both Mainframe Express and IBM z/OS.
  • The behaviour of STRING and MATCH under CICS on both z/OS and Mainframe Express is now the same, simplifying matters for those who use PC-based development systems for the mainframe.
  • The Fusion runtime subroutines for IMS now compile 'out-of-the-box' under the latest versions of z/OS and Enterprise COBOL.
  • The compile JCL and PROCs supplied by Netron to build the mainframe runtime subroutines from the shipped source have been updated to be compatible with the latest compilers and precompilers from IBM for its various mainframe products.

Ease of Use

This is just a partial list of enhancements based on customer requests:

  • The Netron Processor Graphical Debugger, used by developers and frame engineers to trace and debug the construction of programs, now has the ability to set breakpoints in a frame before the frame has been opened. Also, the debugger now skips over all comment line types used in Netron Fusion frames and SPCs.
  • The Netron Processor and Graphical Debugger now supports relative paths in the NETRONFRAME environment variable.
  • The Netron Processor's internal limits have been increased to improve the generation of XML and Java.
  • The Screen Editor and Report Editors have a number of usability enhancements:
    • The mouse is supported for moving the cursor.
    • Fully-qualified filenames up to 79 characters long are supported, as well as paths with embedded spaces.
    • The name of the Screen or Report layout file being edited is shown in the title bar.
    • The online help for the editors can be viewed while the editors are running, so that you can see both the editor and help windows side-by-side.
    • It is no longer possible to accidentally close the editor window and lose your work.
  • The Fusion Wizard's Attribute selection panel has "Include All" and "Exclude All" buttons to speed up attribute selection.
  • The Netron Fusion Build Utility now has alt-key accelerators for all options and better validations to ensure that you don't select a screen option that's inappropriate for a particular target.

In addition to these benefits, Fusion 3.5 includes more than 100 minor enhancements and bug fixes to tools, frameworks, and frames. The full list can be viewed in the Release Notes.

Target Run-time Environments

  • IBM z/OS (CICS TS, IMS, TSO, Batch)
  • UNIX (Sun Solaris, AIX for System p, HP-UX)
  • IBM i5/OS (V5R1 through V5R4) and OS/400 (V4R1 through V4R5)
  • OpenVMS
  • Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, 2000

User Presentation Clients Supported:

  • Java Applets
  • Visual Basic
  • Native Windows graphical API (Win32)
  • Text Console (CICS BMS, IMS MFS, UNIX curses, Windows console)

System Requirements

  • Windows Vista Business or Enterprise Edition
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 or higher
  • Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or greater

Hardware Requirements

  • A PC with CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive for CD installation
  • RAM: 128 MB minimum, 256 recommended
  • Hard disk space: 180 MB
  • Processor: minimum 1Ghz Pentium III

Your feedback plays an important role in determining future product enhancements. Please feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions, comments or suggestions.