CMU / SEI - 87 - TR - 7 ESD - TR - 87 - 108 Tool Interface Technology Joe Newcomer March 1987

The ideas and findings in this report should not be construed as an official DoD position. It is published in the interest of scientific and technical information exchange. Permission to reproduce this document and to prepare derivative works from this document for internal use is granted, provided the copyright and \'No Warranty\' statements are included with all reproductions and derivative works. Requests for permission to reproduce this document or to prepare derivative works of this document for external and commercial use should be addressed to the SEI Licensing Agent. Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center. The Government of the United States has a royalty-free government-purpose license to use, duplicate, or disclose the work, in whole or in part and in any manner, and to have or permit others to do so, for government purposes pursuant to the copyright license under the clause at 52.227-7013. This document is also available through the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). DTIC provides acess to and transfer of scientific and technical information for DoD personnel, DoD contractors and potential con tractors, and other U.S. Government agency personnel and their contractors. To obtain a copy, 1 Use of any trademarks in this report is not intended in any way to infringe on the rights of the trademark holder. Foreword The Technology Identification and Assessment Project combined a number of related investigations to identify: • existing technology in a specific problem area to review research and development results, and commercially available products; • new technologies through regular reviews of research and development results, periodic surveys of specific areas, and identification of particularly good examples of the application of specific technologies; • requirements for new technology through continuing studies of software development needs within the DoD, and case studies of both successful and unsuccessful projects. Technology assessment involves understanding the software development process, determining the potential of new technology for solving significant problems, evaluating new software tools and methods, matching existing technologies to needs, and determining the potential payoff of new technologies. Assessment activities of the project focused on core technology areas for software engineering environments. This report is one of a series of survey reports. It is not intended to provide an exhaustive discussion of topics pertinent to the area of user interface technology. Rather, it is intended as an informative review of the technology surveyed. These surveys were conducted in late 1985 …