IBM Systems Application Architecture: Difference between revisions

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'''Systems Application Architecture''' ('''SAA'''), introduced in 1987,<ref>{{cite web|title=IBM Archives: 1980s|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1987.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041216105801/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1987.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 16, 2004|website=IBM|date=23 January 2003|url-status=dead}}</ref> is a set of standards for [[computer software]] developed by [[IBM]]. The SAA initiative was started in 1987 under the leadership of [[Earl Wheeler]], the "Father of SAA".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bride|first1=Ed|last2=Desmond|first2=John|title=Wheeler: father of SAA - IBM VP and General manager of programming Systems Division Earl Wheeler; Systems Application Architecture - interview|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SMG/is_n15_v9/ai_8048960/|access-date=June 20, 2012|newspaper=Software Magazine|date=Dec 1989}}</ref> The intent was to implement SAA in IBM [[operating system]]s including [[MVS]], [[OS/400]] and [[OS/2]]. [[IBM AIX|AIX]]&mdash;IBM's version of the [[UNIX]] operating system&mdash;was not a target of SAA, but does have interoperability with the SAA family.

SAA did not define new standards, but selected from among IBM's existing guidelines and software. IBM also purchased some third party software from developers such as [[Bachman Information Systems]], Index Technology, Inc., and [[KnowledgeWare|KnowledgeWare, Inc.]]<ref>{{cite news|title=IBM kauft sich für SAA Software-Know-how ein|url=http://www.computerwoche.de/heftarchiv/1989/35/1151816/|access-date=June 21, 2012|newspaper=Computerwoche|date=1989-08-25|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130210202313/http://www.computerwoche.de/heftarchiv/1989/35/1151816/|archive-date=2013-02-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> These were intended to be implemented uniformly across all SAA compliant environments.

The standard was "designed to make application programs look and work in the same manner across the entire range of the company's personal computing systems, midrange processors and System/370 processors."<ref>{{cite web|last=IBM Corporation|title=IBM Archives: 1987|date=23 January 2003|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1987.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041216105801/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1987.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 16, 2004}}</ref>

SAA was labeled "complex, obscure, and potentially difficult to learn."<ref name=Linnell>{{cite book|last=Linnell|first=Dennis|title=The SAA Handbook|year=1990|publisher=Addison-Wesley|isbn=0-201-51786-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVkPAQAAMAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|p.xi}}

Under [[Louis V. Gerstner Jr.|Lou Gerstner]] IBM later quietly discontinued use of the "SAA" [[Umbrella term|umbrella]]. By 2001, SAA was being spoken of in the past tense.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cooper|first=Charles|title=Gerstner's legacy and why it matters|url=http://www.zdnetasia.com/gerstners-legacy-and-why-it-matters-38030327.htm|access-date=June 20, 2012|newspaper=ZDNet|date=November 2, 2001}}</ref> However many of the individual components of SAA arewere still in use {{as of|2014|lc=y}}.

==Common programming interface (CPI)==