Tool integration: experiences from the BOOST project

The BOOST project aims to support the development of telecommunications services by establishing effective ways of creating object-oriented service creation environments (SCEs). A major part of the project has entailed the constructing SCEs by integrating existing software tools. This paper evaluates different approaches to tool integration, covering both integration by encapsulation within an existing environment, and direct tool-to-tool integration. The use of Tcl, a language to increase tool programmability, is discussed, and examples illustrating its application in BOOST are provided. Finally, a general mechanism for direct tool-to-tool integration, and an approach towards fully open, active environments and services are presented