LINC was originally developed as a short-cut (or template) by two programmers to reproduce and automate the production of computer applications for different companies, that had similar requirements and specifications.
These components and events were the "interface specifications" or "ispecs" and contained the database definitions, screen designs, and business rules of the application system.
(Similarly, different names were intentionally used for control structures: DO.WHEN rather than IF or LOOP, and LOOK.UP or DETERMINE rather than READ, with the OPEN and CLOSE statements generated automatically.)
The Model Driven approach is extended with a UML based Class Diagram integrated with all the source code of the solution, in such a way that a round trip update is achieved.
[citation needed] The code generation is transparent to the user, it allows developers to very rapidly design and deploy applications.
Every new version will automatically recognize database changes and generate code to migrate datastructures (if required) to a new structure without developer involvement.
LINC was originally developed by two New Zealand computer programmers (Gil Simpson[1] and Peter Hoskins) while working in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s.
The LINC system created 3rd GL COBOL (application), DMSII (database definition), NDLII (network description), and WFL (job control) source code.
The job control statements were themselves subsequently run to compile the other elements and create an integrated system of database, applications, and user terminal network.
Gil Simpsons Christchurch team went on to create the Jade language/database that could import and run LINC code on commodity hardware.