USA & BANGALORE, INDIA: Every software developer aims for cent percent bug free software development and wants to achieve 50 percent of more of his/her productive time to develop a software product.

To cater the needs of software developer and graphic designer, Skyway Software has unveiled the Skyway Builder, which enables developers to gain 2x and 10x in productivity using Skyway to build RIAs versus hand coding.

In an exclusive with CIOL's Abhigna NG, Sean Walsh, president & CEO, Skyway Software said, "Increased developer productivity should translate into higher salaries over time since a given developer can produce more output in the same amount of time and be more valuable to their employer." 

Walsh also talked about the SkywayCup 2008, contest aimed at software developers to build creative Rich Internet Application using Skyway Builder. Excerpts from interview:

CIOL: What are the solutions offered by Skyway Software?

Sean Walsh: Our first product in the Skyway Visual Perspective family is Skyway Builder.  It is an Eclipse-based modeling tool that allows developers to build Rich Internet Applications and Web Services completely through modeling. It is offered in both an open source (Skyway Builder Community Edition) and a commercial edition (Skyway Builder Enterprise Edition).

CIOL: Please elaborate on the Skyway Builder. How does it helps software developers and graphic designers to deliver RIA?

SW: Skyway Builder allows software developers and graphic designers to build RIA solutions, and Web Services, completely through modeling. There is no need to do any hand coding to produce a complete application. However, Skyway Builder is Eclipse based and a very open and extensible platform.

As such, you can utilize pre-existing java code, Web services and database in RIAs to build with Skyway. Developers using Skyway Builder have reported productivity gains between 2x and 10x to build RIAs versus hand coding.

CIOL: What are the different applications layers used in Skyway Builder to provide comprehensive modeling capabilities?

SW: Skyway Builder provides developers the opportunity to model all three layers of an RIA: web/conversation, services/logic and data. As indicated, all three layers can be created entirely through modeling but can easily take advantage of pre-existing assets such as HTML pages, java code and databases.

CIOL: Recently, Skyway software joined the Eclipse Foundation. What efforts have you taken to simplify the software delivery process for customers using open standards?

SW: Skyway Builder enables RIAs and Web Services to be built as Spring Applications and deployed using a complete open source stack. We currently support Tomcat and JBoss from an open source container standpoint and MySQL and PostgreSQL from an open source database standpoint.

CIOL: What is Skyway software doing for software developer community in India?

SW: Skyway Builder Community Edition is open source and available for free download and use by developers worldwide, including India. 

Developers can download Skyway Builder Community Edition and access a variety of support resources, including forums, wiki, and video tutorials, on our community website, www.skywayperspectives.org. 

Given our proven ability to increase developer productivity between 2x and 10x, Skyway Builder provides all India based developers with a powerful new tool to increase their productivity. Increased developer productivity should translate into higher salaries over time since a given developer can produce more output in the same amount of time and be more valuable to their employer.

CIOL: Can you throw light on SkywayCup and who is eligible to participate?

SW: The SkywayCup 2008 was announced to encourage developers in development centers around the world, including India, to download and try Skyway Builder Community Edition.

Our goal is to get developers to try Skyway Builder and reward them for using it to build a creative RIA, Web Service or even create extensions to Skyway Builder Community Edition given its easy to use extension mechanisms. The top prize for the contest is $25,000, and the deadline for submissions is August 31.

Detailed information on the Skyway Cup contest, including our contest rules, can be found at www.skywaycup.in.