Architecture for WWW-based hypercode environments

Abstract

A hypercode software engineering environment represents all plausible multimedia artifacts concerned with software development and evolution that can be placed or generated on-line, from source code to formal documentation to digital library resources to informal e-mail and chat transcripts. A hypercode environment supports both internal (hypertext) and external (link server) links among these artifacts, which can be added incrementally as useful connections are discovered; project-specific hypermedia search and browsing; automated construction of artifacts and hyperlinks according the software process; application of tools to the artifacts according to the process workflow; and collaborative work for geographically dispersed teams. We present a general architecture for what we call hypermedia subwebs, and groupspace services operating on shared subwebs, based on World Wide Web technology - which could be applied over the Internet or within an intranet. We describe our realization in OzWeb.