The HP SoftBench environment: an architecture for a new generation of software tools - an integrated software development environment for computer-aided software engineering

Hewlett-Packard Journal, June, 1990 by Martin R. Cagan

The HP SoftBench product improves programmer ProductivitY by integrating software development tools into a single unified environment, allowing the program developer to concentrate on tasks rather than tools.

THE HP SOFTBENCH PRODUCT is an integrated software development environment designed to facilitate rapid, interactive program construction, test, and maintenance in a distributed computing environment.

The HP SoftBench environment provides an architecture for integrating various CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tools. Many of the tools most often needed-program editor, static analyzer, program debugger, program builder, and mail-are included in the HP SoftBench product. Another HP SoftBench component, the HP Encapsulator, makes it possible to integrate other existing tools into the BP SoftBench environment and to tailor the environment to a specific software development process. Fig. 1 illustrates the HP SoftBench user interface.

This article describes the HP SoftBench tool integration architecture. The HP SoftBench program editor, static analyzer, program debugger, program builder, and mail are described in the article on page 48. The HP Encapsulator is described in the article on page 59.

Design Objectives

The overall goal of the HP SoftBench product is to improve the productivity of programmers doing software development, testing, and maintenance. To achieve this goal, the following objectives were defined for the tool integration architecture:

* Support integrated tool sets. The tools should cooperate to present a task-oriented environment that lets users concentrate on what they want to do, not how to do it.

* Support interchangeable tools. HP's CASE strategy is based on the belief that there is no single solution appropriate for all users. The type of application being developed, the size of the team, the delivery constraints, and the development methodology all impact the optimal tool set. The integration architecture should permit any tool to be replaced such that no changes need to be made to the other tools and the new tools cooperate with the other tools in the environment at least as well as the original tools do.

* Support a distributed computing environment. The architecture needs to support software development in a distributed computing environment composed of combinations of X terminals, workstations, midrange computers, and servers, possibly in geographically dispersed locations. Tool execution, data, and display should all be designed for a network environment.

* Leverage existing tools. Users need to be able to integrate tools they already use, which they have either purchased or developed, into their software development environment. To do so, they should not have to modify the source code of any tool or change the other tools in the environment. Support software development teams. The tools and architecture should support team coordination and the management of project files in a distributed development environment.

* Support multiple work styles. The HP SoftBench product should not dictate a single style of work. The style should be based on the task. For example, if the user is primarily doing maintenance the environment should be centered around the maintenance task, and if the user is primarily doing rapid prototyping, the environment should be centered around the program construction task.

* Support other life cycle tools. The HP SoftBench architecture should facilitate the integration of additional life cycle tools such as project management, documentation, analysis, and design tools.

* Build on standards. The HP SoftBench architecture should build on the UNIX' operating system, NFS and ARPA networking, the X Window System- Version 11, and the OSF/Motif appearance and behavior.

Architecture Overview

We define a software engineering environment to be an ensemble of tools that collaborate to support the user's software engineering process.1 There are several types of tool integration. The HP SoftBench tool integration architecture concentrates on providing mechanisms that support tool collaboration in a distributed computing environment. This type of integration is often called control integration or process integration.

The architectural facilities provided by the HP SoftBench product are complementary to those in other integration architectures that concentrate on providing services for sharing data between tools and managing data relationships.

Over the last several years, university and industrial research laboratories have been addressing the issues of improved software tool integration facilities. The HP SoftBench tool integration services are an implementation of much of this research in a commercial product. There are three primary components in the HP SoftBench tool integration architecture:

* Tool communication

* Distributed support

* User interface management.

Tool Communication

HP SoftBench tools communicate in a networked environment via a broadcast communication facility designed to support close communication of independent tools.