The Evolution of SampleManager

David LeithamDirector, Product Development

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Agenda

• Introduction• SampleManager’s Illustrious History• Our Motivations for Change• A New Era – SampleManager 9.0• SampleManager 9.0 Technology• What’s next for SampleManager?

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SampleManager’s Commercial History

• Some Significant milestones– 1985 - Development started by VG Data Systems– 1986 – First deployment at customer site– 1995 – First Windows Client (SMW) released– 1996 – First Windows NT version released

• Current statistics– >1150 SampleManager systems sold

– Nautilus, LabManager, Watson, Galileo

• Dawn of a new era….– SampleManager 9.0

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The Evolutionary Development Path

• VAX RMS• Oracle Version 6 VAX• First Unix Solution HP-UX• SampleManager on IBM AIX• Reflections Terminal Emulation• SampleManager for Windows Client• SampleManager NT Server• SampleManager Browser Interface

• Continuous Upgrade / Migration of SampleManager

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Growing Younger

SM VAX

White Green AmberAvailable in...

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Growing Younger

SM Windows Client

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Growing Younger

SMW

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Growing Younger

SM8

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Growing Younger

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Relieving Business Pain…

• Mission #1: Build the right thing!– Relieve true business pains– Exploit technology to provide the best solution

• Mission #2: Build it right!– Reliability

• Help you sleep well at night…– Extendibility

• Look beyond current set of requirements• Solutions allow us to respond quickly to changing business

needs• Serve you into the future• Ensure your investment in our technology is one that will

last

• Mission #2A: Build it right now!– Commitment to responsiveness & punctuality

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Change… Driven by the market

• Market Demands– Use of Standard Tools– Expanded Development Pool– More Rapid Enhancements– Ease of Deployment– Reduced Cost of Ownership– Future Proofing– Enhance Integration with the Desktop– Easier Access to Information

“SampleManager works for us it always has…. just make it easier”

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Meeting User Demands

• New in SampleManager 9.0….– Extensive Re-engineering

• Microsoft .NET (core + extensions)• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

– New Interface• Enhanced usability• Shares features with Darwin

– New Functionality• CoA Management• Enhanced Specification Checking• Web Result Entry• Explorer Enhancements

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What the SampleManager User Wants to Know!

• What has been removed from SampleManager…–NOTHING!!– SampleManager will continue to provide familiar functionality– VGL is still supported

• Undertook great pains to preserve your existing investment• Choice is yours for future extensions

• What has been ADDED to SampleManager…–.Net Support!!–Increase Flexibility–Enhanced user Experience!!

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SampleManager Technology – State of the Art

• Microsoft .NET– Microsoft’s latest/greatest development platform– What makes up the platform?

• A source-language agnostic virtual machine specification• One major implementation (MS Common Language Runtime – CLR)

– Several minor ones (Compact – CE, Mono – Linux, Rotor – OS X)• A large set of class libraries

– Thousands of classes for threading, I/O, Messaging, Security, etc.

• Why did we choose .NET as our technology direction?– Take advantage of new features/benefits– Keep you ahead of the technology curve– Greatest re-use of our “cherished code”

• Used to re-engineer the core of SampleManager 9.0• Can be used for extensions to core system

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• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)– What is it?

• An architectural paradigm• Based on loosely-coupled “services”• Applications built by assembling multiple services

– Haven’t I heard this before???• Represents the latest in the evolution of distributed computing

– Benefits• Service reuse• Code reuse

– Wrap “cherished code” into services• Scalability on a service-by-service basis

– Plug-in or upgrade services in a granular fashion• Future-proofing

– Support from major vendors, governed by W3C (Web Services)

SampleManager Technology – State of the Art

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Harnessing the Power of Technology

• Agile Development– What is it?

• Group of software development practices• Applies time-boxed iterations, adaptive planning, evolutionary delivery• Accepts change as a reality, strives for maneuverability• Strong emphasis on continuous integration & unit testing

– Key to exploiting service re-use– Benefits

• Agility!– We can respond to your needs quicker

• True-to-need features– Continuous feedback, accounts for IKIWISI syndrome

• Lower Risk, Greater Predictability– Test critical assumptions early, progress is more tangible– Learn impact of changes quicker

• Lower Defect Rate– Test early & often

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Compare - Creating a Screen in SM8

SET NAME DEFER “DEFER/“ENABLE WINDOWSSET NOTPROTECTEDJOIN STANDARD_LIBRARY STD_UTILS

CREATE OBJECT “STD_FORM“ . form

form . height = 2form . width = 50form . column = 5form . row = 5

form . header = “Sample test Assignment“

PROMPT OBJECT from . prompt_objects ( 1 )AT 20, 1BROWSE ON SAMPLE

PROMPT OBJECT from . prompt_objects ( 2 )AT 20, 2BROWSE ON VERSIONED_ANALYSIS

form . add_display ( “Analysis to Assign“, 1, 2 PROMPT_RENDITION_NORMAL )form . add_display ( “Sample“, 1, 1 PROMPT_RENDITION_NORMAL )

form . start_prompt ( )form . wait_prompt ( )form . end_prompt ( )

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Compare - Creating a Screen in SM8

SET NAME DEFER “DEFER/“ENABLE WINDOWSSET NOTPROTECTEDJOIN STANDARD_LIBRARY STD_UTILS

CREATE OBJECT “STD_FORM“ . form

form . height = 2form . width = 50form . column = 5form . row = 5

form . header = “Sample test Assignment“

PROMPT OBJECT from . prompt_objects ( 1 )AT 20, 1BROWSE ON SAMPLE

PROMPT OBJECT from . prompt_objects ( 2 )AT 20, 2BROWSE ON VERSIONED_ANALYSIS

form . add_display ( “Analysis to Assign“, 1, 2 PROMPT_RENDITION_NORMAL )form . add_display ( “Sample“, 1, 1 PROMPT_RENDITION_NORMAL )

form . start_prompt ( )form . wait_prompt ( )form . end_prompt ( )

• Save and Compile

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Compare - Creating a Screen in SM8

SET NAME DEFER “DEFER/“ENABLE WINDOWSSET NOTPROTECTEDJOIN STANDARD_LIBRARY STD_UTILS

CREATE OBJECT “STD_FORM“ . form

form . height = 2form . width = 50form . column = 5form . row = 5

form . header = “Sample test Assignment“

PROMPT OBJECT from . prompt_objects ( 1 )AT 20, 1BROWSE ON SAMPLE

PROMPT OBJECT from . prompt_objects ( 2 )AT 20, 2BROWSE ON VERSIONED_ANALYSIS

form . add_display ( “Analysis to Assign“, 1, 2 PROMPT_RENDITION_NORMAL )form . add_display ( “Sample“, 1, 1 PROMPT_RENDITION_NORMAL )

form . start_prompt ( )form . wait_prompt ( )form . end_prompt ( )

• Save and Compile• Not WYSIWYG• Multiple Edits• It does work

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To - Creating a Screen in SM9

• Thermo Studio

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The Studio in Action

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But what about all stuff I did in the past….?

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What’s Next for SampleManager?

• Positioned to address your changing needs–Technology & Architecture geared towards increased agility–New features can be shared between Darwin &

SampleManager–Extensions can be made with state-of-the-art, industry-

standard tools

• Industry-specific configurations–Commitment to Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) principles–Reduce implementation/upgrade pains

• Increased ability to reap benefits of newly developed features