Automatically upgradeable

Apex never needs to be rewritten when other parts of Database.com are upgraded. Because
the compiled code is stored
as metadata in the platform, it always gets automatically upgraded with the rest of the
system.
Easy to test
Apex provides built-in support for unit test creation and execution, including test results that
indicate how much code
is covered, and which parts of your code could be more efficient. Database.com ensures that
Apex code always work as
expected by executing all unit tests stored in metadata prior to any platform upgrades.
Versioned
You can save your Apex code against different versions of the Force.com API. This enables
you to maintain behavior.

How Does Apex Work?

All Apex runs entirely on-demand on Database.com, as shown in the following architecture
diagram:
Figure 1: Apex is compiled, stored, and run entirely on Database.com.
When a developer writes and saves Apex code to Database.com, the Database.com
application server first compiles the code
into an abstract set of instructions that can be understood by the Apex runtime interpreter,
and then saves those instructions
as metadata.
When Apex is executed, the Database.com application server retrieves the compiled
instructions from the metadata and sends
them through the runtime interpreter before returning the result.

What is the Apex Development Process?

We recommend the following process for developing Apex:
1. Sign up for a Database.com Edition account and create a sandbox organization. For more
information about sandbox
organizations, see Developing in a Sandbox Organization.
2. Write your Apex.
3. While writing Apex, you should also be writing tests.
4. Deploy your Apex to your Database.com production organization