Summary

Reduction of the overall product development cycle time while maintaining quality is one of the key initiatives and challenges facing today's software development community. While generation of code using CASE tools is not new to the software industry, the need for incorporation of such tools into our software development community has never been as imperative as it is today due to the pressures of cycle time reduction. Generating code using CASE tools needs to be re-evaluated and given serious consideration in terms of reducing cycle time. This paper discusses how code generation is possible using SDL and GEODE. SDL ( Specification and Description Language ) is a standard developed by ITU-T for the development of real-time and message-based telecommunications software. The GEODE toolset includes SDL, MSC, and OMT editors, a simulator, a code generator that can be customized for different target platforms and a TTCN test-case generator. Also discussed are evaluation criteria for code generation tools, some of the pros and cons of code generation, and some hurdles to overcome.