From: L.Dachary@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: C++ standards / CASE
Date: 21 Aug 92 08:49:14 GMT


>From: rcox@cad625.intel.edu (Richard Cox)
>Sender: rcox@cad625 (Richard Cox)
>Subject: C++ standards / CASE
>Date: 20 Aug 92 19:06:16 GMT
>
>Hi Does anyone know of a good set of coding standards for C++?  Also are there
>and good CASE tools for software development?  I know CASE is very general so
>a description would be most helpful.
>

	If you have a Sun4 and OpenWindow3 and olwm you can try Sniff.
You can download it from iamsun.unibe.ch (130.92.64.10) and it is
in C++/Sniff1.1b/Sniff-1.1b.tar.Z. 
	The current version dumps core quite often but it looks
like a maturity problem. I guess that the next version will be
more reliable.
	
	Here is the README file :

---
Sniff 1.1 Beta
==============

**********************************************
* Executable release for OpenWindows Version 3
**********************************************

Send Comments to:

    Walter R. Bischofberger
    UBILAB (UBS Informatics Laboratory)
    Union Bank of Switzerland
    Bahnhofstrasse 45
    CH-8021 Zurich/Switzerland

    Phone: (0041) 01 236 31 83 (direct)
    Fax: (0041) 01 236 46 71 (direct)
    Email: bischi@ZH010.ubs.ubs.arcom.ch


Contents
========

* Short Overview of Sniff
* Important Characteristics of Sniff
* State of Sniff
* Contents of this Distribution
* Update Strategy


Short Overview of Sniff
=======================

Sniff is a C++ programming environment which runs on a large 
number of UNIX workstations under several window management 
systems such as OSF-Motif, OpenWindows, and SunView.
Sniff is an open environment providing browsing, cross 
referencing, design visualization, documentation, and editing 
support. It delegates compilation and debugging to any C++ 
compiler and debugger of choice.


Important Characteristics of Sniff
==================================

* Completeness
Sniff is a complete software development environment providing a 
developer with editing, browsing, and execution support.

* Efficiency
Sniff provides all its operations in an efficient way. It needs 
about 6MB RAM to work on a project consisting of 100'000 lines of 
source code and it performs all operations on projects of this 
size without an annoying degradation of responsiveness.

* Actuality of Information
All information provided by sniff is always uptodate. If a 
developer changes a source file changes are considered immediately 
in open tools.

* User Interface
The user interface of Sniff was implemented with the most advanced 
application framework technology currently available. The 
resulting direct manipulation based WYSIWYG user interface 
provides a high degree of comfort not only in browsing but also in 
manipulating a software system.

* Abstraction Level
Sniff introduces an abstraction layer above the file system. Once 
a developer has defined the structure of his project he works with 
classes and methods instead of files and directories.

* Documentation
Sniff helps a developer to document an object-oriented software 
system in a structured way. The resulting documentation can be 
accessed any time from any tool.

* Multi-Language-Support
Sniff supports not only C++ and ANSI-C but also Kernighan-Ritchie-
C which is a major advantage in projects where old C code has to 
be maintained, enhanced, or integrated.

* Openness
Sniff does not provide a C++ compiler and debugger on its own for 
reasons of portability, adaptability, and manpower.  It delegates 
compilation and debugging to the compiler and debugger of choice 
such as the AT&T, SUN, and GNU C++ compilers and the corresponding 
debuggers.

* Team Work
Sniff supports team work by allowing a developer to transparently 
overlay source code instead of directly manipulating a shared 
file. Implementation of an agent managing the information about 
who overlaid what, is underway. This agent will also comfortably 
support the WYSIWYG merging of different versions of the same 
file.


State of Sniff
==============

Sniff is in internal use at UBS for several months. The version 
you find in this distribution is the port of the stable Sniff 
version to the new ET++ release (3). The port was a prerequisite 
for distribution because it makes it possible to run the same 
version of Sniff under Motif, OpenWindows, and SunView.

The new ported version was applied on its own evolution during the 
last weeks. It is reasonably stable but there are some features
which do not work perfectly. You find a description of the most important 
known bugs in the file "Known_Bugs".

The current version runs only under OpenWindows Version 3.


Contents of this Distribution
=============================

The current distribution consists of:

* The executables needed to run Sniff on SUN SPARCstations, with
  operating system release 4.1.1 and 4.1.2.

* Documentation consists of a reference manual and a user's
  guide. The latter describes how to get started with Sniff and 
  how to sensibly apply it. The documentation is a first draft and 
  I am grateful if you give me feed back about which information
  you missed.(In PostScript and as ASCII text document.)

* Sniff-A Pragmatic Approach to a C++ Programming Environment. A
  paper about technical details of Sniffs realization
  (PostScript document).

* A directory with sample projects and a directory tree with the
  corresponding source code.

* A directory with the fonts needed to work with Sniff under
  SunView.

Notice: In order to print the PostScript documents LaserPrep
has to be downloaded from a Macintosh. This happens automatically 
if a LaserWriter is shared between Macintoshes and Unix 
workstations.


Update Strategy
===============

I am currently planning to replace the executables in the current 
release monthly to provide you with bug fixes.