CA-VISUAL REALIA: NEW LIFE FOR $2.3 TRILLION TECHNOLOGY ENGINE; Take The Quiz Below And Learn What Three Million Corporate Programmers Have Been Waiting For.

ISLANDIA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 29, 1994--To comprehend the importance to corporate computing of CA-Visual Realia, which Computer Associates released today, take the following quiz:

World-wide business computing is overwhelmingly dependent on the programming language known as: [a] FORTRAN, [b] C++, [c] COBOL, or [d] Microsoft Visual Basic. Yes, despite two decades' effort to replace it, COBOL --which became the standard programming language in the '60s and has been called the most important technology of the information age-- is still the software language most used in heavy-duty computing by business and government worldwide.

Why, after the development of innovative new languages, are 180-200 billion lines of programming code --which Gartner Group researchers say is 75%-83% of total lines of code in use-- still COBOL-based?

Because rewriting this code is a losing proposition for business. Trashing the estimated $2.3 trillion invested in COBOL over the past decade and reinventing the work of the very COBOL programmers who are most experienced in running business computing simply doesn't make business or technological sense.

From the point of view of MIS managers who wish to upgrade their current software by using tools with Graphical User Interfaces to create new or revised GUI applications, there are only three options, according to Marc Sokol, CA's vice president of product strategy:

- Bring in a new group of programmers to write new code in some new language --but be prepared to lose the expertise of the programmers who know your business inside-out, the programmers who made it a success.

- Teach your current COBOL programmers some exciting new language --but if you're talking 100 programmers requiring 6 months each before they're up to par, this works out to 50 programmer years totally blown away.

- Give your COBOL programmers CA-Visual Realia -- they won't need to learn a new programming language, and you'll benefit from all the power of COBOL driven by simple GUI commands...all this, without losing the invaluable experience of your veteran developers.

According to Gartner Group, three million programmers --two-thirds of them in North America-- are COBOL professionals; worldwide, 80% of all applications are written in COBOL; and the market for software tools to maintain existing COBOL applications and to develop new ones is expected to total close to $3 billion in 1996.

To meet the needs of this enormous market, Computer Associates has developed CA-Visual Realia to allow COBOL programmers to easily and efficiently create mission-critical graphical applications. CA-Visual Realia uses a Windows-based visual programming environment to provide veteran COBOL programmers with new, highly productive tools for creating and updating new applications, yet retains the full functionality of COBOL.

"Despite the well deserved publicity for new software languages, the fact is that business depends on COBOL," said Sokol. "CA-Visual Realia uses advancements in client/server technology to help COBOL programmers bring traditional computing into the 21st century."

From desktop to mainframe, Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA) leads the world in client/server software. Guided by CA90s open architecture, 8,000 dedicated employees in 30 countries develop, license and support more than 300 integrated products that include systems and database management, application development, financial and manufacturing applications and consumer solutions. The world's major industrial, government and research organizations depend on CA, whose fiscal 1994 revenues exceeded $2.1 billion. -0-

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CONTACT: Computer Associates, Islandia

Bob Gordon, 516/342-2391