Bay Area Roundtable (BART)

Scaling for the Internet series, meeting 8

Configuration Management Over the Internet

Versioned Java Packages in the JP Programming Environment
Michael L. Van De Vanter, The Forest Project, Sun Microsystems Laboratories, mlvdv@eng.sun.com

As part of an investigation of scalable development techniques for systems written in the Java(TM) programming language, the Forest Project at Sun Microsystems Laboratories is building JP, an experimental programming environment. This talk will describe key technologies and directions in JP: reliable system building (replacing make), orthogonally persistent object storage using PJama, tool integration via Java interfaces, and versioned Java packages as a unifying concept.

Biography: Michael L. Van De Vanter is a member of the Forest Project at Sun Microsystems Laboratories, which is investigating software development technologies and persistent object systems. He has previously worked in the industry and taught at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Stanford University, a M.S. in Computer Science from M.I.T., and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California Berkeley. His research interests include software development technology, the human factors of software development, and advanced program editing systems.

The New Age of Technical Collaboration in the Enterprise
Steve Reynolds, Director of Product Management, StarBase, sreynolds@starbase.com

The enterprise development environment is changing in several significant ways due primarily to two factors. The first factor is that development resources are becoming more and more distributed. As a direct result of the Internet and the scarcity of key development resources, the ability to communicate with and coordinate geographically- dispersed project resources is a key development requirement. The second factor is that the contributors to the development effort have increasingly diverse backgrounds, not all of which are technical. For example, the advent of web development has directly involved sales and marketing in the development effort, but these team members are often overwhelmed by the technical complexity of most Software Configuration Management products. Until development tools that address these factors are deployed in the enterprise, true technical collaboration will not occur. StarTeam 3.0, which will be demonstrated during this presentation, was designed to address these factors and promote enterprise-wide technical collaboration.

Biography: As one of founders of StarBase, Steve has been involved in the design, development, and marketing of tools for technical collaboration for over five years. Starting with the Windows-based Versions product, Steve was directly involved in the design and development of StarTeam, a software configuration management tool that combines version control, change management, and knowledge sharing. With the latest release, StarTeam provides web browser interfaces, Java based class interfaces, and platform independent access. Prior to StarBase, Steve has held the positions of vice president at a major Savings and Loan and lead software engineer at Ashton-Tate.

Coordinator: Sriram Sankar, President, Metamata, Inc., sriram@metamata.com

Directions to the meeting are available.

Upcoming Meeting:

Friday, October 9, 1998
Topic: Scaling for the Internet Series, meeting 9: Trust, but Verify
Speakers: Rohit Khare, UC Irvine
                    Ambarish Malpani, Founder and Lead Architect, ValiCert
Coordinator: Richard N. Taylor, UC Irvine/IRUS, taylor@ics.uci.edu

The Irvine Research Unit in Software wishes to thank its corporate sponsors:

Sustaining:

The Boeing Company * Boeing North American, Inc. * Microsoft Corporation
Northrop Grumman Corporation * Raytheon Company * Sun Microsystems Laboratories * TRW

Supporting:

Beckman Coulter * FileNet Corporation * Printronix, Inc.

Continuus Software Corporation * Hewlett Packard

For further information on BART or IRUS, contact
        Debra Brodbeck at (949) 824-2260; brodbeck@ics.uci.edu