bill@cwi.UU.NET (Mr. Bill ) (11/03/90)
Amplify(R) Control from CaseWare(R), Inc.
Amplify Control is an interactive development environment which
emphasizes configuration management and tool integration. Amplify
provides both graphical and non-graphical user-interfaces which may be
modified or extended by the user. The graphical interfaces support
current standards such as Motif, Sunview, and OpenLook. Amplify also
supports a variety of configuration management methodologies via its
flexible object-oriented data modeling capabilities. Use of Amplify
is not limited to software development and is not language specific.
These are the main functional areas of Amplify:
Configuration Management:
Managed objects in Amplify are considered versions of
components. Each such component is stored and manipulated
according to its type, which may be user defined. The component
types are defined in a "development model," and form a
hierarchy in which inheritance of both data and methods
occurs. Certain component types, called "assemblies", are used
to collect others into configurations over which functions such
as software product construction may be performed.
Graphical Development Interface:
Most amplify operations, as well as a variety of development
tasks, may be performed via the GUI's. Configurations and
version histories may be traversed and manipulated using the
"point-and-click" style of operation. Both built-in and
user-defined operations may be invoked from menus which
accompany the various displayed objects.
Tool Integration Platform:
By means of a combination of development models and
extensibility of both the graphical and command-line
interfaces, users may add their own operations and integrate
other tools with Amplify.
Important features of Amplify include:
Version History View:
A graphical depiction of the derivation history of any
component in the system may be viewed and manipulated.
Parallel, successive, and merged versions may be represented.
Version histories of entire configurations may also be
manipulated. Each version has a status (e.g. working, released)
within a user-defined life-cycle.
Configuration View:
Assemblies of components, which are internally represented
as directed graphs, may be viewed and traversed using the
configuration view. This view, as well as history view,
permits invocation of various operations on the displayed
objects via mouse buttons and menus (such as editing of
source code).
Build Graph View:
Provides a means to visually define the processes, data
flow, and dependency paths involved in constructing one or more
products from a collection of input data. These graphical
representations are termed "build graphs", and the semantic
information they convey drives the automatic build process.
Automatic Build Process:
The build process, which may be invoked from the configuration
view or the build graph view, allows construction of software
products such as executables, or other development products
such as documents. The build algorithm utilizes "build graphs"
in conjunction with assembly hierarchies to determine
dependency information and updates all out-of-date products.
Build processes may be distributed to appropriate machines
for load balancing or cross-development.
Automatic Configuration Update:
The "reconfigure" algorithm employs user-defined rules to
automatically update the contents of assemblies. Thus
assemblies may be updated with the latest versions of their
constituent components, or with versions which meet other
criteria such as test or QA level, target compatibility, etc.
Software component dependencies (such as include files) may
also be automatically updated by this process.
Build Product Sharing:
Build products, such as object files, executables, and
libraries, are automatically shared among many configurations
and users.
Query and Reporting:
A sophisticated ad hoc query and reporting capability is
provided.
Security and Access Control:
These features permit enforcement of methodologies, as well as
ordinary access restrictions.
Extensible Command Language:
Amplify includes a command language interface which may be
extended by installations as well as individual users. This
language provides access to most Amplify capabilities.
Extensible Graphic Interface:
Development modelers may alter or extend the Amplify user
interfaces by changing control panels, extending type-specific
menus, and by adding their own dialog boxes. All such
extensions will work with all window systems which Amplify
supports and can be made without knowledge of the API's of
these window systems.
ACcent(TM) Programming Language:
This very high-level, procedural and partly object-oriented
language provides the means for making the various extensions
to the Amplify platform. The "methods" which belong to
user-defined data types, as well as user-interface extensions,
are all made using this language.
Amplify is currently supported on several Unix platforms, including
Sun3 and 4, HP300, 400 and 800, and Pyramid systems. Both the X Window
System and Sunview are supported.
CaseWare is committed to open systems and supports a variety of emerging
standards in the CASE and software systems industries.
Packages integrating Amplify with tools from other vendors are also
available. Please inquire about tools for which you need support.
For additional information please contact:
Sales Department
CaseWare, Inc.
3530 Hyland Ave. #115
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 754 0308
FAX: (714) 754 1568
email: amplify@cwi.com
uunet!cwi.com!amplify