QA Build is an interactive program builder. It is a fourth-generation programming environment for developing and running application programs interactively. QA Build provides marked productivity gains in comparison with third-generation languages, such as COBOL and C.
By answering a series of questions you tell QA Build the specification of the program you want to produce and QA Build produces it for you. It may be a data entry, enquiry, batch update or some other type of program. Most questions require a simple Yes or No answer; for some you select an option from a menu. Default responses are suggested where appropriate and context-sensitive help is always available.
QA Build programs reside within their DP4 application database. QA Build makes extensive use of the DP4 Data Dictionary and so has access to information about your application database, such as the tables it contains, the fields in each table and the relationships between tables. This ensures that QA Build offers only relevant options throughout a program’s development. When you have written a program, you can modify it or take a copy of it to form the basis of another program.
QA Build’s single environment genuinely meets the differing requirements of the various professionals involved in the application development cycle; it can be used to produce specifications in outline, prototype programs and full run-time systems.