Software Development Support System for a Microcomputer Environment

Abstract

This study examines some existing software development support systems with the intent of adapting some of the techniques found to a microcomputer software development environment. The motivation for doing this study arose from experiences gained as a part of a microcomputer software development project. During the course of this project, a number of very annoying events plagued us. Parallel updates and modifications to out-of-date copies of source code necessitated the redoing of work previously thought to be finished. In addition, these events caused much confusion. Another difficulty which was encountered was that on occasion, changes were made which were not propagated into the executable system. As the project grew more complex, the process of linking the system also grew to be a burdensome chore. Procedures were established to deal with these problems as they arose; however, these procedures depended on fallible humans, and mistakes still occurred far too often. This paper looks at what has been done in regard to these problems and presents an adaptation of some of the previous work to the type of environment in which these experiences took place. The result is intended as a specification for a system to deal with a number of the above-mentioned difficulties automatically. I hope that this work will serve as a guideline for anyone interested in producing such a microcomputer software development support system.