From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,3d3f20d31be1c33a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: fwl@sei.cmu.edu (Fred Long) Subject: a fairy tale (was: Re: Interface/Implementation ) Date: 1997/08/29 Message-ID: <5u77f5$ito@news.sei.cmu.edu>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 268964570 Distribution: world References: <34046FAD.52BFA1D7@eiffel.com> <3406A707.787D@dmu.ac.uk> Organization: The Software Engineering Institute Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 1997-08-29T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <3406A707.787D@dmu.ac.uk>, Graham Perkins writes: .... some stuff deleted .... |> |> But really, this whole discussion indicates to me that we are still in |> the stone |> age with our tools. Why are we still talking about "files"?!! |> Presumably stored |> in DOS or Unix directories ?!! Uggghhhh!!!! |> |> Software components and their assemblages are amongst the most |> complicated |> and highly structured, semantic rich, artefacts to be found in the human |> world. |> And yet we store, retrieve, and view them as STRINGS (for that is what a |> file |> is) organised into a labelled CABINET (which is about as powerful as |> today's |> filing systems are !!!!! |> |> Yet when it comes to simple structures like Customer, Employee, Account, |> OrderLine, etc. we use incredibly sophisticated and powerful |> repositories |> (such as Ingres). They can present multiple views of underlying |> components; |> limit or allow different kinds of read/update access by component, user, |> or view; manage batched and online transactions with or without backup, |> rollback |> etc; keep version history and audit trail of all components; support or |> enforce |> corporate workflow policy; handle co-ordination of multiple users and |> multi-threaded tasks; ..... |> |> If our software components were stored properly, then much of this |> usenet discussion would be unnecessary. The Eiffel/Ada/Java vendors who |> were |> configuring the repository to work with their compilers could choose as |> an |> implementation issue whether an interface is a view of the full |> component |> or a separate component. As a completely orthogonal issue, they could |> decide |> how to authorise and manage changes to interface and implementation. If |> they |> keep them separately, then have to make repository do some work to |> synchronise |> them. If they just have one component, then have to control change |> management |> at the view level. |> |> Proper repository could also support a lot more, eg keep the syntactic |> and |> static semantic structure that is normally thrown away by compiler; add |> more static semantic structure from the developer's software engineering |> process rather than just the language definition. |> |> Now where is that repository with all that power I want ... |> [if you're setting up a team to develop such a beast, please |> count me in] |> |> maybe Eiffel vendors are further down that road than many (or Unisys |> UREP might |> be the right track to follow) but we still seem a long way from open |> repositories |> than support full process Once apon a time there was a Stoneman. He was lonely and wanted a better environment, so he married DIANA and they had two daughters, ALS and AIE. Unfortunately, the two daughters were not as close to each other as they should have been. So Stoneman and DIANA had another daughter CAIS, and then yet another daughter, CAIS-A. But CAIS and CAIS-A had a rival, PCTE. PCTE was fed by ECMA and ISO and grew big and strong. CAIS-A and PCTE married, and had a daughter, PCIS. In the end, PCTE went EAST searching for a second ENTERPRISE and nothing has been heard of him since. PCIS must have married, since there was news about a NAPI. Some thought it was all just a big song and dance, or OPERA. But it wasn't. It was all true, and eventually they all discovered a place called Repository and lived there, in integrated harmony, happily ever after. Fred Long.