A multi-dimensional taxonomy of software development environments

A Software Development Environment (SDE) is a set of tools that, at the very least, supports coding and possibly other software development activities. Related to SDEs are meta-SDEs, which are classes of SDEs that must be configured or populated by tools before they can be useful. We will use the generic term environment to refer to both SDEs and meta-SDEs.This paper presents a multi-dimensional taxonomy of environments. The primary dimensions of our taxonomy are scale and genericity. Scale distinguishes environments that are suitable for small-scale programming from those that are suitable for large-scale software development. Genericity differentiates monolithic environments from highly configurable and extendible ones. Secondary taxonomy dimensions include tool integration, which identifies the degree of interoperability and data sharing between tools, and the historical dimension, which gives insight into past and present research trends in these environments.

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