Version Control

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Assessing CM in the Development Process

Is configuration management (CM) integrated into your development process? Do you have a good way to assess this? Do you have a process to improve the situation? Development without CM will eventually lead to lost code, delays in release schedules, and regression in functionality (amongst other negative impacts). The purpose of this article is to lay out a set of steps that can help assess the level of CM in the current development process (and environment), then identify ways to improve the situation.

Mario  Moreira's picture Mario Moreira
Rebuilding When CPPFLAGS Changes

GNU Make has no way of detecting that some targets ought to be rebuilt, because it doesn't take into account changing the commands. If, for example DEBUG=1 causes the flags passed to the compiler to change then the target ought to be rebuilt. This article shows how, in a few lines of GNU Make code, to make that happen.

John Graham-Cumming's picture John Graham-Cumming
Will Open Source Dominate Development Management?

Open Source is a great concept, thmough any resisted at first. Can you remember a time when it was valid to use the argument that, "Nobody will commit to supporting it, so you're taking your chances"? Today, I see it differently. There are loads of support for open source products, even better than for commercial products in many cases. So does that make it the winner?

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Dynamic Breakpoints in the GNU Make Debugger

The most recent change (taking GMD from v1.0.0 to v1.0.1) is the addition of dynamic target breakpoints. At the GMD prompt it's now possible to set and remove breakpoints on the name of a file (in GNU Make language a target) that the Makefile will build.

John Graham-Cumming's picture John Graham-Cumming
Open Source, and other Dumb Ideas

It was way back when I was in school, walking uphill through the snow both ways, mind. That's when I first encountered Emacs and the Free Software Foundation. Because I was young and naïve and enthusiastic, I jumped in with both feet. Free software was going to revolutionize the world, and I was going to write most of it! I was naïve, like I said. I think most FOSS (free/open-source software) people get started in school, the same as me. A lot of the ideas come from the young and idealistic. Face it: young people have dumb ideas.

Austin Hastings
Affordable Peer Reviews

Many people know that peer reviews can help them to produce better-quality products, but most organizations do not use this potent tool. Why? Because, although they would like to experience the quality benefits, they can't justify the costs they would incur.

 

Alan S. Koch
A Look Ahead to the Third Generation of CM Tools

Every year we like to take a look at where the CM industry is going. There are always two sides to the story. Where is technology moving, and where is the market moving? Technology is moving ahead at a good clip, from some vendors, while stagnant with others. The same can be said of the market. There are those looking at a full ALM solution or an Enterprise CM solution, while there are others who are looking primarily for a version control/build tool, possibly with some change management.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Setting a Makefile Variable From Outside the Makefile

In this article, Ask Mr. Make talks about how to set Makefile variable from outside the Makefile.

John Graham-Cumming's picture John Graham-Cumming
Who's in Control of Process and Tools in your Organisation / Project?

There is an age old debate about who's responsible for quality in software. Some people have quality teams, others dedicate quality to testing.

 

Charles Edwards
Dumping Every Makefile Variable

What if you want to print out every variable defined in a Makefile? In this tip I'm going to show you how and introduce GNU Make's powerful functions.

John Graham-Cumming's picture John Graham-Cumming

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