RE: VisualAge for Java -- JAVA400-L

Title: RE: VisualAge for Java

In my opinion, the idea of two people working on the same class is in itself flawed. The whole idea of a class is for it to be a small, self-contained piece of code whose inner workings are controlled and owned by a single person. Of course, someone else should understand it, in order to avoid the "hit by a bus" situation, but the idea of two people independently modifying the same class at the same time is, to my thinking, wrong for a number of reasons:

1. No class should be big enough to require that two people make simultaneous changes. Instead, all requirements should be given to the class's owner, who should implement them. Simultaneous modifications without central management is a recipe for disaster in any software project.

2. A class may have side effects within it that one programmer knows and the other doesn't; this is the nature of object-oriented programming. No user of the class cares about the side effects, because their only contact to the class is thorugh the interface, but anybody actually changing the code may not know the ramifications and break something.

3. Unless there is a standard test suite that one can run a class through to ensure that it is not broken, nobody should change someone else's class. Since objects have state, you must test the various states, and any class large enough to require multiple programmers is going to have many, many possible states.

People who insist on running distributed development projects using project management techniques that made sense for monolithic green-screen programming are missing the point - object-oriented, dsitributed development is a completely different environment than I grew up with in the traditional midrange platform.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-java400-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-java400-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Daniel Magid
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 8:07 PM
To: JAVA400-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: VisualAge for Java

Steve,

I am with Aldon Computer Group and our new Affiniti SCM tool provides support for managing multiple programmers working on the same code simultaneously. It also supports the SCCI standard so developers can perform checkouts and promotes from directly within the VisualAge IDE. Using the Affiniti product, you can easily see who else is working on the source and it will prevent one developer from overlaying another's work. When the time comes, it has an integrated compare and merge tool for merging the versions together. An added advantage is it interfaces with our AS/400 Change Management System so you can manage your standard AS/400 (RPG, COBOL, DDS, CL, etc.) and your JAVA, HTML, VB, etc. from the same user interface. If you would like more info, visit our website at www.aldon.com.

Dan Magid

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Merritt [mailto:cyberlync@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 7:22 AM
To: JAVA400-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: VisualAge for Java

Steve,

Professional edition of VisualAge 3.5 supports the
use an external version control system, i.e.
SourceSafe, rational etc, basically anything that
supports SCCM. These can be integrated directly into
the IDE with no problem.

Now as to the Enterprise version of change management,
stay away from it. I have never seen a more ill
thought out change management process then this one
that IBM has produced. Don't get me wrong I like
collective control of source etc. But IBM's solution
just invites problems; in the end it ends up being a
very manual process for a medium to large team.

I say this because there is no way to tell if some one
is editing the code, so if you edit the same code you
now have to versions of that code that are slightly
different. These then need to be manually merged, but
they cannot be merged unless someone realizes that
there is a conflict. This is just asking for trouble.

Jim used the term Dynamic Change Management; a more
accurate term is Concurrent Change Management. This
idea has been around for some time but it has never
caught on largely because, I think, the basic premise
is flawed. Anyway just my 2c.

--- Steve Raisor <sraisor@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I have a quick question for anyone familiar with
> VisualAge for Java. Until now, I have always used a
> simple text editor with a compile option for my Java
> editing. I have tried several IDE's lately and like
> VisualAge. However, I have a question...is it
> possible (without buying the enterprise edition) to
> have two people work on the same set of source?
> Hope this isn't a silly question and I look forward
> to your answers!
>
> Steve Raisor
>
>

=====
Eric Merritt
Information Systems Consultant
McCormack & Associates, Inc.
Rock Hill, South Carolina
(V) 803-327-3358 X 225
eric@mccinc.com
http://www.mccinc.com/

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