Process Centered Software Development on Mobile Hosts

Software Development Environments have traditionally relied upon a central project database and le repository accessible to a programmer s workstation via a high speed local area net work connection The introduction of powerful mobile computers has demonstrated the need for a new model which allows for variable bandwidth machines as well as transient network connectivity to assist programmers in product development A new client server model is introduced which minimizes network tra c when bandwidth is limited To support discon nected operation I propose a process based checkout model by which process information and product les that may be needed during a planned period of dis connectivity are pre fetched with minimal user e ort Rather than selecting each le by hand which is tedious and error prone the user only informs the environment of the portion of the software development process intended to be executed while disconnected The environment is then responsible for pre fetching the necessary les It is hoped that these research e orts will enable programmers to continue working on a project without continuous high speed network access