Issues in Automatic Software Manufacturing in the Presence of Generators

Automated software manufacturing systems increase productivity by taking care of scheduling and executing manufacturing actions. Systems such as Make have been widely used. The introduction of generators into the software development process creates new challenges due to the increased complexity of the manufacturing process. When designing a system for manufacturing software using generators, two issues assume particular importance: change tracking and the division of knowledge between the user and the system. Based on experience gained while building the Eli language processor construction system using the Odin manufacturing system, this paper illustrates the issues and describes how they can be resolved by extending the capabilities of the manufacturing system. Change tracking can be enhanced using dynamic checking of cached artifacts. An extended notion of artifact naming incorporating options eliminates problems due to subtle dependences. Reference artifacts and artifact lists increase the expressive power of the manufacturing model. Exception handling mechanisms enable sophisticated error reporting.