An agreement signed with Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University to use the Miracle™ platform in scientific, technical and educational programmes
Projects
Development tools · 1990s
Miracle. An application built from components.
An environment for assembling data, forms, algorithms and reports into an information system by describing components and their relationships. A prototype could evolve as the task became clearer.
From the company archive
datacomponentsevolving a solution
01
Challenge
A custom information system needed more than an initial program: it had to adapt to the way an organisation worked. We sought to describe the solution in terms of its business task, using data, interfaces and interaction rules, while allowing the application to be refined incrementally.
02
Our contribution
The I.V.A. team created its own environment for developing and running client-server applications. It included database structure, screen form, algorithm and report designers, an application generator, authorisation tools, a transaction monitor and application migration tools. An API allowed specialised component libraries to be extended.
03
Solution
Developers configured components and defined message exchange between them. Visual forms, data operations and algorithms became parts of one solution; the algorithm designer supported step-by-step debugging. Components could be changed in a running system. A prototype could therefore serve as the basis for further development, with its parts added and refined incrementally.
04
Outcome
Applications built with Miracle included internet telephony accounting and billing for GSL/TELEGLOB, WorkFin for information about client assets, and FinJet for planning cash flows. In these applications, the component environment connected data processing with the rules of a particular business.
05
Technology of the period
Visual development tools already existed: NI released the graphical LabVIEW environment in 1986, and Microsoft introduced Visual Basic for Windows in 1991. These illustrate the development of the field, rather than products functionally identical to Miracle. Miracle should therefore be considered in the context of an established and developing visual programming movement.
06
Historical assessment
Miracle’s engineering value lay in combining data, interface and behaviour design with execution in an environment built for applied information systems. A significant emphasis was evolving a working prototype and changing component descriptions. For 1990s projects whose requirements developed through practical use, this provided a way to refine an application incrementally.
07
Dates and milestones
An article about Miracle technology was published in 1997, the software was registered in 1998, and Miracle 32 appeared in 2000. By early 2002, a new engine was under development and the next version was being planned.
From company records
Materials
Project in the timeline
An agreement signed with Ivanovo State Textile Academy to use the Miracle™ platform in scientific, technical and educational programmes (lectures) conducted by the university
Miracle 32
Partnership agreement with ОДО «АГРИСистемс» to promote Miracle software in the Republic of Belarus
Research and development work on the analysis and design of the database structure for “Settlement accounts”, for AeroMar (Miracle)
Sale of a non-exclusive licence to use the computer program (Miracle — ЗАО АэроМар)
Registration of Miracle software
Transfer of non-exclusive economic copyright rights (Miracle — ООО ИАЦ Аналайз)
PC Week/Russian Edition weekly, No. 39 (113): the article “Rapid application development technology — Miracle”
Miracle™ — an environment for rapid software design and execution, supporting a method of constructing solution models based on a non-algorithmic process for controlling program structure and data flow.
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