IBM is busy denying recent reports that development of its Repository data dictionary has run into serious trouble. In the UK, news of Leonard Liu’s resignation as Repository project manager (CI No 1,157), was followed with the revelation last week that IBM had instructed independent computer-aided software vendors to stop writing interfaces to the product back in December. Similarly, a recent Computerworld interview with Programming Systems director of market support Robert Libutti (CI No 1,146), clearly designed to leak a few plactory details, only served to renew a number of fears. Dark hints of incompatibility were extended to cover both IBM’s SQL, and the integration of the Repository with non-IBM relational databases such as Oracle and Ingres. According to an IBM White Plains spokesman, however, development of the Repository continues on course. Liu has been replaced by Tom Furey from IBM’s Rochester Lab; Furey’s recent responsibilities included the development of the AS/400. The spokesman also insisted that the December request to software vendors to abandon interface development reflected a number of product changes, made as a result of a better understanding of customer needs. He added that – unspecified – changes of this kind often occurred when product development involved customers and third parties. In conclusion, the spokesman confirmed that, as scheduled, a version of the Repository will be introduced later this year. However this initial offering willnot be designed only for 370 environments, and not for use with OS/2, or the OS/400 operating system.
