Implementation of a knowledge-based programming environment

MARVEL is a knowledge-based programming environment that assists its users during the implementation, testing, and maintenance phases of software projects. Solutions to the pragmatic problems of MARVELs implementation are discussed. MARVELs knowledge is supplied as strategies, where each strategy consists of classes that define the structure of objects, relations that define the semantic interconnections among objects, tools that define the processing that can be performed on objects to derive new objects, and rules that control the integration and automation of tools. The primary focus is the strategy language, its translator, and run-time support. An explanation is given of tool envelopes, which provide a mapping from the software objects defined in the current strategies to/from the file system representation expected by existing tools. The interactions between envelopes and the forward and backward chaining among the rules used to achieve controlled automation is described.<>