Rule-Based Configuration Control Mechanisms

This paper explores the use of rule-based techniques to manage reusable software libraries. In particular, we examine the properties of partially instantiated Ada generic packages and present an object- based view of a particular collection of reusable Ada generic packages. We argue that because types are the primary mechanism for structuring programs in Ada, our ability to organize and manage large Ada software systems is commensurate with the software development environment\u27s support for organizing and managing types. We have assembled a testbed environment for Evolutionary Software Associates\u27 Workshop object management software. The testbed enables us to evaluate the Workshop system and demonstrate the feasibility of the evolutionary approach to the development of large Ada systems. The evolutionary approach to software engineering seeks to integrate tools that support software development with tools that support software maintenance. Initially the Workshop is being used in conjunction with a LISP-based development environment, but it is, in principle, language and platform independent. We are currently experimenting with rules and class definitions for structuring information about the products and processes in software design and development. We are designing and implementing control mechanisms that can be automatically activated when the developers engage in certain events. An inference mechanism determines which rules can fire and in some cases will cause transformations to occur automatically.* The developers interact with the environment through a Software Spreadsheet™ (Clemm 1987) which actively indicates the status of software objects