Automatic configuration management in a General Object-Based Environment

To obtain higher productivity in software development, a trade-off is usually made between, on one hand, a simple level of common representation of data which facilitates the easy integration of third party tools and, on the other hand, a high-level representation with a high degree of collaboration between tools. The author proposes a new framework which closes the gap between openness of a system and easiness of integration of tools. A General Object-Based Environment (GOBE) is based on an object-oriented view of the whole environment, i.e. of the tools, data, and persons. It combines the ability to allow collaboration and sharing of knowledge with a fairly easy way to introduce new tools-and data and persons as well. The author briefly describes the architecture of a GOBE and its basic component, i.e. the object