Big Blue's EGL CE  (Enterprise Generation Language Community Edition), released Tuesday, is an Eclipse-based tool geared to building Web 2.0 applications. It leverages IBM's EGL modeling language. Developers who code in PHP, Ruby on Rails, Groovy, JavaScript, and HTML can use the  EGL tool to code, test, and debug Web 2.0 applications using one language.

EGL does not try to replace HTML or JavaScript, unlike Adobe Flash/Flex or Microsoft Silverlight technologies, said Will Smythe, EGL product line manager at IBM, in a slide presentation posted on .

"EGL is a higher-level programming language designed for developing powerful, modern applications," Smythe said. "The goal is to shield developers from complexities typically associated with Web 2.0 application development."

"EGL CE is intended for anyone who wants to develop RIAs (rich Internet applications) quickly and efficiently. Since EGL syntax is easy for people to learn and can integrate across different business tiers, people from all development backgrounds (Java, PHP, COBOL, etc) find they are very productive using EGL," said Smythe.