Engineering support
Encyclopedia
Configuration management
is for most of time dealing with the system that is large, complexed, has a long life duration (more than 10 years) and involve more people. The key issues for engineering support are to coordinate the participants and to provide each engineer an environment, also called a workspace
where they can work independently in the task duration. The former one refers the cooperative work support and the latter one is mostly called workspace support.
is used to resynchronizing objects.
, the integration work space plays the role of the central DB and the other basic work spaces play the role of the cache
of the concurrent transactions. Development work spaces report (integrate arrows in the figure) to the integration work space regularly and receive new version from it to work concurrently with other groups. Seeing from the outside, the complete group behaves as its integration work space along, while a tree where nodes are either groups or basic work spaces can be constructed to record the history
. Containment between two workspaces may mean either work decomposition into concurrent activities or different level of validation.
can be introduced to solve part of the problem, but this field is still under research.
In Software configuration management
(SCM), Merge
is used to combine files based on a line by line comparison method. Merge control is commonly applied to changes to the same attribute of different objects or changes to different attributes of the same object. Object concurrent change control subsumes traditional file control and provides homogeneous and elegant solutions to many difficulties which currently hamper concurrent software engineering
.
(SCM) system is responsible for providing a workspace
for each engineer in the right file system, at the right time to let users work independently, and to save or update the changes automatically when the job is done. Sometimes, the later one is also said as change management
.
Merge
tools are widely used to facilitate workspace support. The following chart provides a process flow of the merge tools which is based on a line by line comparison method.
The upper process flow digram presents the main principle of merge tools in software configuration management. When a source file is required by a second workespace, the center DB will deliver a copy of that file to it. And after submitting the 2 versions of the same file, merger tools will start to combine these two version into a new one. It is based on a line by line process, which is: if There are new lines in the submitted version, add them to the source file, and if there are lines which do not exist in the new version, delete these lines in the source file. After several times of iteration, a new version of the sources file, which contains all the changes created by the two (or more) authors, will be upload again to the central DB and acts as a new version of the source file.
Configuration management
Configuration management is a field of management that focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a system or product's performance and its functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life.For information assurance, CM...
is for most of time dealing with the system that is large, complexed, has a long life duration (more than 10 years) and involve more people. The key issues for engineering support are to coordinate the participants and to provide each engineer an environment, also called a workspace
Workspace
Workspace is a term used in various branches of engineering and economic development.-Business development:Workspace refers to small premises provided, often by local authorities or economic development agencies, to help new businesses to establish themselves...
where they can work independently in the task duration. The former one refers the cooperative work support and the latter one is mostly called workspace support.
Cooperative work support
Cooperative work support is introduced since many concurrent workspaces may contain and change the same objects (files). So, there are needs to synchronize objects and control concurrent work. It is also important since the duration of an activity can be very long, which means the files would be locked for too long and severe dead lock would occur, to solve this problem, merge algorithmMerge algorithm
Merge algorithms are a family of algorithms that run sequentially over multiple sorted lists, typically producing more sorted lists as output. This is well-suited for machines with tape drives...
is used to resynchronizing objects.
Synchronizing method
As shown in the figure, the object A is used in both of the work groups. In order to prevent overlapping, the integration work space is created to coordinate the two development workspaces. Compared with databaseDatabase
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, the integration work space plays the role of the central DB and the other basic work spaces play the role of the cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
of the concurrent transactions. Development work spaces report (integrate arrows in the figure) to the integration work space regularly and receive new version from it to work concurrently with other groups. Seeing from the outside, the complete group behaves as its integration work space along, while a tree where nodes are either groups or basic work spaces can be constructed to record the history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
. Containment between two workspaces may mean either work decomposition into concurrent activities or different level of validation.
Control concurrent work
The control of concurrent work is dealing with the problems of who can perform a change, at what time, on which attribute of which object. PriorityPriority
Priority may refer to:* Priority date, a concept of establishing waiting times in the immigration process by United States Department of State* Priority level, the priority of emergency communications...
can be introduced to solve part of the problem, but this field is still under research.
In Software configuration management
Software configuration management
In software engineering, software configuration management is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software. Configuration management practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines....
(SCM), Merge
Merge (revision control)
Merging in revision control, is a fundamental operation that reconciles multiple changes made to a revision-controlled collection of files. Most often, it is necessary when a file is modified by two people on two different computers at the same time...
is used to combine files based on a line by line comparison method. Merge control is commonly applied to changes to the same attribute of different objects or changes to different attributes of the same object. Object concurrent change control subsumes traditional file control and provides homogeneous and elegant solutions to many difficulties which currently hamper concurrent software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
.
Workspace support
Software configuration managementSoftware configuration management
In software engineering, software configuration management is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software. Configuration management practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines....
(SCM) system is responsible for providing a workspace
Workspace
Workspace is a term used in various branches of engineering and economic development.-Business development:Workspace refers to small premises provided, often by local authorities or economic development agencies, to help new businesses to establish themselves...
for each engineer in the right file system, at the right time to let users work independently, and to save or update the changes automatically when the job is done. Sometimes, the later one is also said as change management
Change management
Change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at helping employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment....
.
Merge
Merge (revision control)
Merging in revision control, is a fundamental operation that reconciles multiple changes made to a revision-controlled collection of files. Most often, it is necessary when a file is modified by two people on two different computers at the same time...
tools are widely used to facilitate workspace support. The following chart provides a process flow of the merge tools which is based on a line by line comparison method.
The upper process flow digram presents the main principle of merge tools in software configuration management. When a source file is required by a second workespace, the center DB will deliver a copy of that file to it. And after submitting the 2 versions of the same file, merger tools will start to combine these two version into a new one. It is based on a line by line process, which is: if There are new lines in the submitted version, add them to the source file, and if there are lines which do not exist in the new version, delete these lines in the source file. After several times of iteration, a new version of the sources file, which contains all the changes created by the two (or more) authors, will be upload again to the central DB and acts as a new version of the source file.