Documentation Model

The organization of the MOVIE Server Reference Manual mirrors the structure of the M-tree, with the appropriate M-nodes represented as nested parts, chapters, sections, and so on. There is a corresponding detailed manual page for each elementary component of the server such as function, structure, or method, and an overview page for each composite component such as type, shell, or library. The interactive documentation browser is available, currently based on the WYSIWYG Publisher program from Arbor Text, Inc. [Podgorny:92a].

MetaShell tools operate on nodes of the M-tree and its mappings in a way similar to how the query language operates on its database. Atomicity and integrity of all operations is assured. A typical command, creating new C function foo in the library M/Type/String/Lib/regex, implies the following actions, performed automatically by MetaShell:

• The full C name for this function (o_string_regex_foo) is constructed based on the C naming rules for the server entities;

• files foo.c (C-source), foo.h (C-include), and foo.mk (make-include) are created in the library directory M/Type/String/Lib/regex from suitable templates;

• the name foo is appended to the system name dictionary M/Key;

• new MetaIndex slot is assigned for this function in the appropriate descriptor table and the MetaIndex is computed;

• foo entry is appended to the MovieScript dictionary T_String_Lib_regex, maintaining all functions in this library and installing itself as appropriate node in the MetaDictionary tree; and

• the manual page for this function is created.

MetaShell commands are organized in the object-oriented style, with each directory/file node of the M-tree represented as a MetaShell class/instance. The basic methods supported for all MetaShell objects are: Create, destroy, and query/browse. More sophisticated CASE tools, useful in the group development mode are currently under construction, such as a class corresponding to the whole $MOVIEHOME (with instances represented by individual developers' copies of the system) or the server class (with instances representing the customized versions of the MOVIE server).