Re: Asset Question

You raise a question that has plagued many computer people, but this might
not be the best list for discussing alternatives ... perhaps a different kind
of internet discussion forum is needed such as http://www.blogger.com/

I do not use ASSET but we have had cases of multiple people modifying the
same software.  I have found PDM-54 to be invaluable in locating where in
this humongous source code is there stuff that is different from that other
version of the program.

Within the source code for what is now live, before we replace a program with
a new version, I copy the source code, changing last 1-2 characters (usually
appending 1-2 characters) & on the text line add date at end of when it was
copied, for quick reference. This way if something blows up, I can get back
to the prior version pretty rapidly.

We have a test library containing modified version of code.  This can be
added to library list of either live or test environment for testing.  If the
modification is a report, inquiry, not updating anything, don't need test
environment for that.  Many updates I test for first time in evening right
after a backup, aided by before after reports on contents of target file.

Problem can develop when I am working on a program where there are 5
modifications requested & I am not done yet & I get a rush request for some
other modification they want implemented before the other 5 are done.

I am able to implement this because all my modifications are numbered, so I
can track them individually.  Temporarily we may end up with several versions
in several libraries, but the comments in the front of the source telling me
which modifications got to this version helps me keep the stuff straight.

I have added documentation in BPCSDOC that is primarily aimed at end users.
I have added documentation in QDOCSRC that is primarily aimed at programmers.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)