The design and prototype implementation of a “structure attribute” model for tool interfacing within an IPSE

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe a method of tool interfacing that retains the flexibility of UNIX but which has increased control over tool operation. An important aspect of the design of an Integrated Project Support Environment (IPSE) is the interface between software tools. The UNIX approach to tool interfacing is to consider all objects to be of identical type, namely ‘text’, and to have no internal structure. Consequently, no “well defined” tool interface exists and objects can readily be passed between tools. In such a system, the toolset can be considered as a mere collection of tools, rather than an integrated set. This is no longer considered to be appropriate for first, and subsequent, generations of IPSEs. With the introduction of the Ada + + Ada is registered trademark of the U.S. Government AJPO. programming language more emphasis was placed on the integration of tools. Within an Ada Project Support Environment (APSE), an attempt is made to abstract the data structures from the processes that use them, and to capture this abstraction in a visible way. Tools are integrated by accessing the objects through a database which in turn has knowledge of the structure of each object. One particular method of abstraction is to “type” each object within the database. Tools can then be restricted to act only on objects of the relevant type. Unfortunately, too close an adherence to this language model leads to the proliferation of tools or the need to support generic tools. This paper presents a derivation of the type model, by representing the relationship between object structures.