Managing Text Objectively

Complex development environments which use languages of diverse styles and purposes have special problems efficiently managing their data. Generally there are two alternatives; first, marking the text with extra codes, and second, using a tool capable of structuring the data, such as an object management system. For many purposes, something between the two is appropriate, in which plain text files can be read and used as if stored in an object management system. This paper describes a technique which can be used to implement this kind of data management substrate, and how it can be used to help in the construction of one such complex environment, the VITAL workbench.