Object Oriented CASE Tools

[<@IU.AI.SRI.COM:slug-admin@iu.ai.sri.com>]

To what William D.Gooch said, I would add Concordia for
specifications and documentation; the commands for navigating
class hierarchies and listing methods, etc.; defsystem for
declaring architecture, etc.  However, in all cases, although the
tools are good, they lack active participation (e.g., gen'g
defuns and defmethods from documentation specs; having graphical
class/method browsers).  There's improvement to be made.

My understanding of the typical use of CASE, however, doesn't fit
too closely with the Genera tools (it fits, but not closely).  I
wouldn't, however, suggest that Genera adapt too fully to "CASE"
unless that contributes a serious marketing advantage.  "CASE" in
its most close-minded sense seems an unwieldy bureaucratic
imposition coming from MIS depts in business schools.  Because
MIS people primarily use COBOL or low-level languages, they
deprecate coding.  CLOS, CLIM, and other high-level programming
constructs actually fulfill the role of some of the mid-level
CASE components (and thus function both as code and
specification).

One person's opinion.

Don Mitchell			dmitchell@trc.amoco.com
Amoco Production Company	(918) 660-4270
Tulsa Research Center
P.O. Box 3385, Tulsa, OK 74102