Low-cost, adaptable tool integration policies for integrated environments

Abstract

An important requirement for successful integrated programming environments is support for implicit tool invocation; rather than force a user to explicitly invoke each tool, mechanisms in the environment can take responsibility for guaranteeing that the right tools are invoked at the right times. However, these mechanisms typically intertwine policies of when and how the tools are invoked, with what the tools do when they are invoked. Consequently, adapting the environment to achieve different tool interactions is often difficult without modifying the code that implements the environment or the tools. In this paper we describe a simple, low-cost mechanism that solves this problem. Specifically, we show how tool integration based on selective broadcast can be adapted to allow dynamically configurable policies of tool interaction. We describe an implementation of these mechanisms, and show how it supports multiple levels of users.