CompuTest was getting more and more requests for a Macintosh version of their law-school application, Electronic Bluebook. But the application was written in Visual Basic, so it ran only on Windows. What to do? It turns out that there is a great solution for them and anyone looking to bring a Visual Basic application to the Mac. And, it may not take as much time and effort as you might expect.

Greg Mitchell and Chris Bombardo at CompuTest had to find a solution. They had successfully developed and deployed their mission-critical application in top US law schools—Electronic Bluebook completely locks down a student laptop to thwart cheating during an exam. In the pressure cooker world of top-tier law schools, secure exam testing is an “obsession,” according to Greg, President of CompuTest and a law professor himself.

So now CompuTest was getting more and more requests for a Macintosh version. In fact, it was their number one requirement.

Therefore, with no experience programming the Mac, Greg and Chris decided at the end of summer 2004 to make a commitment to the University of Michigan law school—one of their key clients and one of the top law schools in the country. They would do a Mac version of Electronic Bluebook.

“We weren’t at all sure what we were getting into,” says Chris, a former law student and chief of technology at CompuTest. “Nobody at our company had developed for the Mac. We estimated it would take at least six months to a year to do this, and we thought we’d have to hire a contract Mac programmer, which could take a ton of money.”

REALbasic to the Rescue

Chris started by turning to the Internet to see what was out there for the Mac that might be similar to Visual Basic.

“I found REALbasic from REAL Software,” he says. “At first I was a little leery. I had never heard of them. But I downloaded the demo and played with it for a while. I was surprised how close it was to Visual Basic.”

So CompuTest purchased a copy of REALbasic and set to work. REALbasic is a cross-platform development environment for Mac, Windows and Linux, and includes tools for converting applications to and from Visual Basic.

“At first I used the conversion tool,” Chris says. “But then I realized I could better fine-tune the results by cutting and pasting between Visual Basic and REALbasic. At that point, the Electronic Bluebook application in Visual Basic was about 200 pages of code. But it only took us 12 days to a get a full alpha version on the Mac—with all features working. I was shocked, really shocked.”

“I can’t sing the praises of REALbasic and REAL Software enough,” says Greg. “Their technology has saved us a tremendous amount of investment. We are delighted.”

Electronic Bluebook turns a student’s laptop into a “typewriter” and cuts off access to any other applications or the Internet. Every thirty seconds, the software automatically saves a student’s responses. Every two and a half minutes, the program transmits the student answer file to a server. When a student finishes the exam and exits, Electronic Bluebook saves an encrypted copy of the student responses on the server, on the student’s laptop, and, optionally, on removable media. Then a faculty member can decrypt and print out the exams for grading. (Sending exam results to a server was a CompuTest innovation that others are now replicating. It greatly simplifies test administration and improves security.)

As Chris worked on the Mac conversion and subsequent fine-tuning, support from REAL Software and the REALbasic Networked User Group was critical.

“In some cases,” he says, “REAL Software provided specific guidance and fixes that we needed to get a particular feature working. In other cases, I could turn to the online user group, ask a question, and get the help I needed. The user group is an outstanding source of developer support.”

Having a Mac Version Creates New Business Opportunities

For CompuTest, having a cross-platform version of Electronic Bluebook has opened lots of doors. “We made the conscious decision at the beginning,” says Greg, “to develop for top law schools with strong tech departments. With my experience as a law professor, I knew we could do a much better job of understanding and meeting the real requirements of these schools, compared to the other exam-taking products on the market.

“Now, with the Mac version ready, we can move into much more aggressive business development and market to a much wider range of law schools. Developing a Mac version has been a tremendous boost for us. A real leap forward.”

With 188 law schools in the US and approximately 150,000 students enrolled, CompuTest is ready for some serious growth.

For more information about CompuTest, see electronicbluebook.com

For more information about REALbasic, see www.realsoftware.com