Exploiting Persistent Linkage in Software Engineering Environments

This paper examines some of the advantages of providing software engineering environments within a persistent object system with strong typing and referential integrity. Persistent linkage allows persistent objects to be included in the binding process. Strong typing guarantees that objects are only manipulated in a manner consistent with their type system descriptions. Referential integrity ensures that once a link (reference) to an object is established, its identity is unique and it persists over time. As a consequence no object can be deleted while another refers to it. It is shown how the integration of system specifications, programs, configuration management tools and documentation all within a single persistent environment leads to powerful new techniques. This new power is achieved by sharing structured persistent data across the hitherto enclosing boundaries of system components.