An integrated toolset for engineering software configurations

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Abstract
Configuration management,in toolkit oriented software development environments (SDE), such as the UNIX† system, is a long standing nuisance. Mostly ,o ne has to face the choice between poorly or not at all integrated, independent tools, or highly integrated, most specialized, and often language,dependent,environments. The first choice offers very limited support for a complex task that needs a broad informational basis. The second choice often takes away the programmers’ most cherished tools, forces him to adopt some different work discipline, and thereby eventually restricts his creativity .T he toolset described in this paper integrates a dedicated version control system and shape ,a significantly enhanced Make [Feld79a] program, on the basis of a common,object model. This object model,comprises multiple versions of software objects as well as conventional file system objects. Taking this approach made,it possible to have a sufficiently integrated toolsystem,for engineering,software configurations,while retaining the flexibility of the basic toolbox philosophy ,p ermitting the use of ’of f-the-shelf ’ tools, e.g. editors or compilers. 1. Intr oduction Configuration,management,is a management technique, designed to control very lar ge development and maintenance,projects. As military and government institutions played a principal role in the establishment of configurationmanagement, the related terminology,is precisely defined,in an ANSI standard [IEEE83a]. An in-depth discussion of the underlying concepts can be found in [Bers80a]. Triggered of fb yt he sur ge of interest in programming,environments,(PE) during,the last few years, the term softwar ec onfiguration management

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