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From: mjr@hussar.dco.dec.com (Marcus J. Ranum)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.programmer
Subject: Re: Looking for UNIX CASE (Comp.Aided.Software.Engineering) tools
Message-ID: <1990Nov7.011749.2671@decuac.dec.com>
Date: 7 Nov 90 01:17:49 GMT
References: <1990Nov6.225211.9470@holos0.uucp>
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In article <1990Nov6.225211.9470@holos0.uucp> wdh@holos0.uucp (Weaver Hickerson) writes:
>Does anyone have any recommendations, info, pointers, for/against any
>specific CASE tools.

	For what kind of platform, pray ? X-window based ? SunOs based ?
Do you need to be able to analyse CRAY assembler ? Etc...

	That being said, what are you looking for ? Project management
tools ? Source code management tools ? A good debugger ? Regression
testing tools ? Multi-langauge support (Ada, C, COBOL?) All of the above
integrated into one [huge] "seamless" package ? how much of a concern
is price ? Etc...

	"CASE" is like "OOP" and other market-paradigms - it means
10e6 different things, depending on who you are talking to, and how
much of your money they are trying to take. "CASE" I have heard to
describe anything from a good debugger to an integrated environment
that comes with an integrated philosophy of existence [picture a
FORTRAN compiler with Nicklaus Wirth built in, refusing to let you
use GOTOs]. There are "overview" "CASE" tools such as IDE, which
let you diagram data flow and components, and buy into the whole
Yourdon DeMarco fascist programming paradigm. There are probably
similar tools available for the cutting edge buzzword technologies
like "object oriented design" [when we called it "modular code" in
high school, we were clearly an intellectual supernova ahead of
our time].

	I've seen a couple of CASEs where a software shop decides
to streamline their operation: "let's get some CASE tools!" "yeah!"
and, the sometimes wind up with something intended for managing
*HUGE* programs, and the programmers all (hopefully) use lint(1)
instead, and all that money goes down the drain. Something like
a complete Ada environment and IDE is overkill for day-to-day
programming. [anything smaller than, say, a fairly simple operating
system - like UNIX used to be] [now that UNIX is complex enough
to require management tools, it's too late] If you're working on
a long-term project that may grow, then some kind of overview
type CASE tools (like IDE) may help.

	I think you need to narrow the query some before you'll get
any useful pointers. If all you're looking for is a good C programming
tool, I heartily recommend [not speaking for Digital, here] Saber-C,
which is a very very useful product, even if they do spell "sabre"
strangely. :)

mjr.