Towards a distributed programming environment based on incremental compilation

Abstract: A ProgrammingEnvironment is a system that provides computer assistance duringsoftware development and maintenance. The primary objective of thiswork concerns practically usable methods and tools in theconstruction of incremental and integrated programming environmentsthat provide good support for debugging and testing of programs ina distributed context, in our case a host-target configuration.Such a system, called DICE - Distributed Incremental CompilingEnvironment, has been constructed and currently supportsdevelopment of PASCAL programs. Three of the papers in this volumeare concerned with this topic.It is demonstrated how powerful symbolic debuggers may beimplemented with the aid of an incremental compiler. Methods forstatement-level incremental compilation are described. Strategiessuitable for implementing programming environments are discussedand exemplified by the DICE system. Some preliminary experiencefrom the use of the prototype version of the DICE system is given.The concept of Consistent Incremental Compilation is defined, bothinformally and by algebraic methods. A semi-formal description ofthe architecture of the DICE system is presented. Many aspects ofthis system description are relevant for a large class ofprogramming environments of this kind. Problems that arise fromallowing mixed execution and program editing are also considered.One of the tools in a programming environment is the prettyprinter.The topic of the fourth paper is the automatic generation ofprettyprinters. A language-independent algorithm for adaptiveprettyprinting is described together with its application to ADAand PASCAL. Problems associated with the representation andprettyprinting of comments in abstract syntax trees are discussedtogether with some solutions.