A CONFIGURABLE AUTOMATED LIBRARIAN FOR COMPUTER SOFTWARE SOURCE CODE

COORDINATION OF THE SHARING OF SOURCE CODE IN MEDIUMETO LARGE-SCALE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS POSES A DIFFICULT PROBLEM IN THE ABSENCE OF A SOURCE CODE LIBRARIAN SYSTEM. UNFORTUNATELY, SYSTEMS OF THIS TYPE, WHILE POWERFUL AND FLEXIBLE, GENERALLY REQUIRE A LEVEL OF EXPERTISE AND COMMITMENT NOT COMMONLY FOUND IN THE APPLICATIONS CODE DEVELOPER. IN AN ATTEMPT TO ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM, THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS TO SPECIFY AN ENVIRONMENT CONSTRUCTED UPON COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS TO PROVIDE AN AUTOMATED SOFTWARE SOURCE CODE LIBRARIAN. THE ENVIRONMENT IS SUPPLEMENTED WITH A SET OF SOFTWARE TOOLS TO SUPPORT TRANSPARENT INTERACTION (SUBJECT TO ACCESS CONTROLS) BY MEMBERS OF THE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY. OTHER TOOLS ENABLE SOFTWARE MANAGERS TO CONFIGURE THE ENVIRONMENT (DEFINE INTERNAL STRUCTURES AND SET ACCESS CONTROLS). THE GOAL OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEFINE A POWERFUL, FLEXIBLE, CONFIGURABLE SOFTWARE LIBRARIAN WHICH IS COSTEFFECTIVE TO OPERATE AND MAINTAIN, WHICH IMPOSES MINIMAL OVERHEADS UPON PROJECT PARTICIPANTS AND WHICH IS COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF SOURCE CODE IMPLEMENTATION LANGUAGE. AS THE FIRST AND ONLY SUCH ENVIRONMENT TO BE MADE GENERALLY AVAILABLE, THIS AUTOMATED LIBRARIAN HAS THE POTENTIAL TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT THE PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS HOSTED ON A WIDE RANGE OF COMPUTERS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS.