MultiView-Merlin: An experiment in tool integration

The experiment described in this paper involved the integration of a process-centred software development environment (Merlin) and a multi-view integrated software development environment (MultiView). These two tools were developed separately from each other, with no expectation that they would ever be integrated into a single integrated software engineering environment. This paper first briefly presents the separate environments and then describes the technique used to integrate them. This technique centres on the development of an adaptor process to mediate between the environments. If was first necessary to identify the point at which to connect the two environments, and then to design and implement an appropriate process to pass commands between them. This work has resulted in enhancements to both of the individual tools and has created a combined environment which exploits the advantages of both of the original environments