Evaluation of the Rational Environment

Abstract

Abstract : This report presents an analysis of the Rational R1000 Development System for Ada, also called the Rational Environment. The evaluation combined the use of methodology for evaluation of Ada environments, an analysis of functionality not covered by that methodology, and an assessment of the novel environment architecture of the Rational Environment. Another report contains support material for the experimental results. The support material is the result of performing experiments based on the SEI's environment evaluation methodology. It consists of transcripts of the experiments, the detailed answers to the evaluate questions, and the detailed performance results. The introductory chapter presents some background information for the evaluation, describes the configuration of the environment being evaluated, defines the scope of the evaluation, and gives the reader a road map to assist in the reading of this document. Chapter 2 discusses the distinguishing architectural characteristics of the Rational Environment, highlighting in general its novel aspects compared to more conventional Ada language systms. Chapter 3 summarizes the capabilities of the Rational Environment in terms of the provided functionality, the user interface, the documentation, and some performance aspects. The report concludes with a summary of major findings. (jhd)