A program development tool

Abstract

In this paper we describe how we have combined a number of tools (most of which understand a particular programming language) into a single system to aid in the reading, writing, and running of programs. We discuss the efficacy and the structure of our system. For the last two years the system has been used to build itself; it currently consists of 500 kilobytes of machine code (25,000 lines of LISP/370 code) and approximately one hundred commands with large numbers of options. We will describe some of the experience we have gained in evolving this system. We first indicate the system components which users have found most important; some of the tools described here are new in the literature. Second, we emphasize how these tools form a synergistic union, and we illustrate this point with a number of examples. Third, we illustrate the use of various system commands in the development of a simple program. Fourth, we discuss the implementation of the system components and indicate how some of them have been generalized.