Item Subject: HP EDIT and Source Control Woes :-(
        Did you even consider HPToolset?  Does the product even still
     exist?
 
     Russ
 
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: HP EDIT and Source Control Woes :-(
Author:  Non-HP-HP3000-L ([log in to unmask]) at HP-Unix
Date:    7/20/95 9:26 PM
 
 
We just got a package deal from HP, which includes
HP EDIT (full-screen editor), HP SRC (Software
Revision Controller), HP Search, a debugger, and
other odds and ends. I (silly me) was hoping that
all of this stuff would work together as an
integrated development environment that would help
us get our work done faster. Instead, I found out
that the modules don't "talk to each other," and
that most of them have such a miserably unfriendly
user interface that, to me at least, they are a lot
more trouble than they are worth.
 
It was my idea that we should try these packages in
the first place, since we had no source control, no
debugging to speak of, and no full screen editor.
But now, it looks as though we have committed
ourselves to a set of packages that (mostly) don't
deliver the goods.
 
Here are my experiences:
 
1. HP SEARCH is, IMO, the only module that has
offered us any productivity benefit. However, it has
two significant flaws. The first flaw is that it
updates the "date accessed" on all modules that it
searches. If we are searching job streams to find
out where a program or file is being used, this
wipes out our indication of when the job stream was
last used. If Store/Restore doesn't update the "date
accessed", then neither should HP Browse. The second
flaw is that HP SEARCH will work only with ASCII
files that have NOT been checked into HP SRC. If you
are using HP SRC to maintain your source library,
this defeats the whole purpose of having HP SEARCH
in the first place. We reported the second flaw to
HP, and there is at least some possibility that they
will fix it. (I don't know about the first flaw.)
 
2. For most purposes, the user interface of HP EDIT
is so awkward and slow that I find that I can do my
work faster using HP's ancient line editor. The
function keys and/or commands that are available at
any given time don't represent a logical grouping of
functionality. There are too many keystrokes (and
delays) involved in alternating between navigating
through your source file(s) and entering data into
it. Also, I got very frustrated trying to get the
cut and paste function to work.
 
3. HP SRC is giving me fits. Once you check
something into it, you'd better remember what you
did, because it won't be easy to find it again
unless you already know what you are looking for. I
don't see any point in a source control facility
that isn't integrated with a fast, reliable
directory and file viewer. You can't use HP EDIT,
the old line editor, or anything else to view a
checked-in file. If you want read-only access to
a file, you have to know what file you are looking
for, and then you have to use the COPYREV command to
make a copy of the file. Once you've done that, you
can get into whatever text editor is available and
look at the file. This is shamefully wasteful of the
user's time, processing time, and disk space. If you
need to look at a lot of files, there is no
point-and-shoot scrollable interface for viewing
them, nor is there any mechanism for making sure the
user deletes all of those copies after he or she is
finished viewing them. <flame on> This is the most
rudimentary, Mickey Mouse, half-baked excuse for a
source control system that I've ever seen, and I've
been in this business since 1976. <flame off> We have
complained to HP about the lack of any source
directory and file viewer that can be made to work
with HP SRC. HP's response is that they have no plans
to fix it.
 
If it were up to me, I'd like to send all of this
stuff back for a refund (except perhaps for HP
SEARCH), and try some other editor, debugger,
and/or source control package. Does anyone know of
other packages that are faster and more
user-friendly, and that work under MPEiX?
 
Thanks ...
 
Alida Jatich, Sr. Programmer/Analyst
Heinemann's Bakeries, Chicago IL