dz>0

At work we have a large project. Possibly the most complex I’ve been involved in with respect to organizational issues. A number of groups are involved, all trying to build the main software product, as well as integrate their own software. Also, the product in development has a number of dependencies that really need to be managed in an automated way because we can not depend on each vendor to download the correct version of all the tools in the tool chain. In fact I really do not trust them to download, configure, build, and install gcc correctly.

So the question is, can I use Eclipse in a platform independent way to manage dependencies that include the gcc compiler, gdb, xerces, libitt(?), and the project code itself?

Of course it needs to work with svn and not actually depend on each vendor being willing to use Eclipse and CDT.

What I really want for myself is to be able to use Eclipse for development and debugging, but to support the standard:
./configure
make
make install

I may do some experiments at home to see if I can get Eclipse to work as I desire.
It needs to work fast as well - I notice at work that Eclipse and Subeclipse plug-in seem to be really slow right now, and I do not know if this is because of the project organization, or if it can be fixed at all.

I need to get mod_jk working so I can connect jsp to my apache server. The foolishness I’ve used involving Proxypass is just not going to work any longer.

I’ve been using the apache VirtualHost feature to allow for some experimentation without having to worry about breaking parts of my website that actually work. The key here is that Joker.com now allows the use of wildcard * in the DNS setting, so any *.drewk.net gets sent to my webhost. It used to be that I had to add each blog.drewk, test.drewk, dx.drewk to everything I did, and the updates took as long as 24 hours. Now, I just have the wildcard, so I can add any virtual host name I like and go.

< VirtualHost *:80 >
DocumentRoot /xxx/yyy/zzz/nnn/drewk
ServerName 192.168.8.123
ServerSignature off
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml
< Location >
Order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from 192.168.8.210
DAV On  DavDepthInfinity on
< /Location >
< /VirtualHost *>

The above little bit finally allows me to use WebDAV with Dreamweaver and connect to my server without any worry about exposing WebDAV to the unwashed public.

I expect to use Retrospect Client to backup Linux - it will be interesting to see if SELinux causes me any particular difficulties. Nope, it didn’t.
Installed the 7.5 client, but I can not see it from my Mac. Probably an iptables issue. Nice to see that man retroclient provides some info.

Retrospect tries to connect to the retrospect client TCP port 497
/sbin/iptables -I RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --destination-port 497 -j ACCEPT

/sbin/iptables -I RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -p udp --destination-port 497 -j ACCEPT

Not sure which one did the trick, but Retrospect can now see the client.

Looks like I’m able to back up my Linux box now. Of course it is only really useful if I prove to myself that I can recover necessary data.

(more…)

UPDATE - March 2008

The Single Integrated Air Picture (SIAP) program was the largest project I know of that attempted to use Kennedy Carter iUML. After many years making every possible effort, it became clear to all that the KC was not going to meet the needs of the program. Management made the very difficult decision to transition from the Kennedy Carter tool set to the Rhapsody Modeling environment. Approximately nine months after the decision, the program is able to declare it a complete success. The development team has experienced a huge surge in productivity. And the software product itself is running more that 10x faster than it had been.

I am very proud of the work our team has done to support the transition to an effective tool. Most importantly, the confidence of the software development group is the highest it has been in years.

Should anyone stuck in the Kennedy Carter development environment come across these notes I welcome you to contact me. I know the way out of your dilemma.

Original Post - 2006

Executive Summary

Kennnedy Carter iUML is primarily hype with very little substance. It is unfit for modern, large scale software development.

I’ve been working on a project that uses Kennedy Carter iUML for the last two years. I’ve had all the training Kennedy Carter offers, I’m considered to be a model compiler expert in my group, and I’ve reviewed the latest technology from Kennedy Carter. If you are considering using Kennedy Carter then I have a couple of points to make. All of these issues are clear by reviewing the free iUML Light tool from Kennedy Carter.

Q:What do you call a branch you can not merge?
A:A dead end.

KC has an incomplete understanding of source control and is incompatible with CVS, SVN and tools like diff or merge. KC does not play well with other tool chains, so using make is very difficult. The IDE does not keep track internally of project dependencies so you are left to regenerate all of the code if you want to be sure you’ve correctly updated the project. This lead to long edit/generate/compile/debug cycles.

I suggest you carefully consider your needs for scalability, interoperability, number of qualified iUML engineers, and long term maintenance issues. Also consider your desire to maintain a custom compiler in addition to the application you are developing. Look carefully at ASL, the “language independent language” used in Kennedy Carter. Look carefully at the iUML simulator and the large number of instances in which it does not behave the same as the compiled code. All of these issues are clear with a careful reading of the documentation available from the free download available of the iUML tool set. When you look at the iUML IDE, note the lack of even a simple FIND command - good luck finding particular code in a large code base.

If you are still considering Kennedy Crater after reviewing the above issues, I strongly suggest a read of the classic The Mythical Man-Month by Brooks with particular attention to the essay No Silver Bullet - Refired.

Update: I’ve now had a chance to work with i-logix Rhapsody modeling and development tool. Rhapsody puts iUML to shame. I was able to do with Rhapsody in three days tasks that had taken six months with iUML.