SciTools

I'm excited to announce that with B450 we are removing the "beta" tag from Understand 2.0.  

Since "beta" means different things to different people, I'll explain what it means to us. Basically, it means that Understand 2.0 reached a set of stable features that meets or exceed Understand 1.4.    Of course we've added a lot more features (metrics charts, change analsyis, estimation support, so forth), and since we have quite a few more developers working on 2.0 than we ever did on 1.4, the features will be coming more quickly with each weekly build.

As of now, 2.0 is what you can download from our site.  We will be building new 1.4 binaries that reflect parser and API bug fixes/improvements monthly and if you need access to them just e-mail and we will send you links for updating. 

We've also made changes to our product structure for Understand 2.0, pricing and our website, which I'll cover in subsequent notes.

It is very common to walk a call, call by, or class hierarchy tree seeing what is “going on”.  You can do this in the Information Browser, or in the various graph views we have provided for years.

A new way in Understand 2.0 is the Entity Explorer window.  It permits keyboard based fast exploring of reference hiearchies with syncronized source and informatoin updates.

To see this just click on any entity that has relationships. For instance, a function, and choose “Explorer”.  It will list the reference hiearchies availble to explore:

Have you ever looked at a call tree and wondered “is somefunction()” in there?

B453, which you can download now,  introduces a new “incremental search” feature to the Information Browser that makes answering questions like that a snap.

To use it hit select where you want to start searching from and then hit the Ctrl-F key while in the IB or click on the  icon.

That brings up a search box on the bottom of the IB:

Some of you may have noticed that the quality and timelyness of our support has improved this week. That is because I’m not there bugging everybody. My son and I are fishing on a lake in upstate New York.  Here I am with a 4 lb largemouth bass.  Normally I throw them back, but this one seemed just right to feed us this evening.  And it was tasty. The trip is almost over, so support will return to its slower lower quality form on Monday. 

Metrics have always been very tightly coupled with software engineering. Love them or hate them, there is usually no avoiding them. In Understand 2.0 we've significantly increased our ability to provide useful metrics about your project. 

The metrics capabilities vary depending on what version of Understand you are using: Understand Engineer provides high level project metrics, Understand Pro lets you explore and export project and entity level metrics, and Understand Analyst lets you do all that, create custom graphs, and even compare how metrics are changing over time (trend analysis). 

All of this Metrics capability is accessed through the new Metrics menu.

Engineer	Pro	Analyst

I was working hard on doing nothing on the 4^th of July holiday and didn’t do a Build Metrics post about B450. Now I’m ready to do that and I find that I forgot to make an Understand 2.0 snapshot of the source for B450.

I have a couple options:

1. Check out B450 source to an alternate location and make a snapshot from it.
2. Look up the revision tag time for B450 and use TrackBack to make a snapshot.

I’ll choose #1 just for an example. Next time, I’ll show #2.

First, I’ll check my SVN e-mail log to see when B450 was tagged:

Historically we have always had a very small percentage of our revenue as services. As our customer base has grown (over 4,000 customer sites as of last month), requests for customizations, training, new reports, new metrics, new analysis features have increased to the point where we need to have an organized way of responding.

Towards that end we’ve created a Professional Services group within Scitools. Currently it is a Lead Engineer (Rob Shurtliff – a senior engineer with a number of years experience providing professional services) and three other engineers. We can matrix a variety of other engineers with special skills through the group as well.

So what can the new Scitools PSG do for you?

http://www.scitools.com/products/proservices.php

has the details.  But in short, anything related to improving your benefit from using our tools. That could include training, special scripts, new metrics, adding an assembler or other language, helping you create architectures, a multi-site metrics collection system. Whatever you need that depends on our technology.

Our new Scitools PSG works in these ways:

•  fixed price deliverable – we agree on a deliverable. You pay when we deliver and you are happy.
•  on going hourly  – this is for ongoing work; a budget or contract is set, we bill against it.
•  retainer – the group sells 40, 80 and 200 hour retainers. There are also product bundles that include licenses and service hours. When you have a need they tell you the hours required and after your e-mailed approval they proceed.

If you have something in mind e-mail our support@scitools.com folks.

You will notice that our website (http://www.scitools.com) is completely redone.  This coincides with Understand 2.0’s release and with the Engineer, Pro, and Analyst versions of Understand.

I hope you like it. If you notice anything bogus, please e-mail.

Understand 2.0 projects contain a lot more user provided information than 1.4 projects. Things like Architecture, Snapshots, Metrics comparison data,  and Maintenance estimates take effort to create and would hurt if lost.

I urge you to back up your Understand 2.0 databases regularly, especially if you are using any of the above features. A simple copy will do, and the copied database will compress.

In B450 we have introduced a Project Scheduler. It  can be used to automatically update project files, project parses and build snapshots. In the the next build or two we will add Understand database back up to this scheduler.  Longer term we plan to also have reports, metrics updates and script/script set runs scheduled as well.

Concurrent to Understand 2.0’s movement from beta to release we are also announcing some product structure changes.

2.0 adds a lot of features, but not all those features are of interest to all engineers.  Or if of interest, then some do not need the same level of functionality.  And not all features require the same support (one of our major expenses).  And, frankly, some of those features are worth more to some customers than others (I’m not going to hide that we do hope to make some more money).

To make sure that customers can buy tools closer to their exact needs Understand 2.0 is offered in four different levels. The “lowest”, Understand Engineer offers what 1.4 offered.  So the segmentation mainly involves new features only. The four levels are:

1. Understand 2.0 Non-Commercial
   This version has all features of the highest Understand level, but only supports C/C++/Java and C#.
   We are still finalizing license agreements for this version, but it is intended for use by students and open source developers.
   If you wish to be notified when it is available, just e-mail sales@scitools.com.  We can supply temp codes to permit use until the final shrinkwrap agreement for this version is finished.  The eventual license will be an annual license.
   
   
2. Understand 2.0 Engineer
   This version supports C/C++/Java and C#.  Understand Engineer provides similar capabilities to Understand 1.4 including the excellent navigation, graphics, maintenance editor, reporting and project metrics. 2.0 adds combined language analysis, basic change analysis, single scenario maintenance estimations and metrics charts/graphs.  Our standard for this version was that it be better than 1.4 but cost the same. One key difference, Understand Engineer will not be offered with a floating license. For that, get Pro or Analyst.
   
   
3. Understand 2.0 Pro
   This version comes in two language variants – L1 (C/C++/Java/FORTRAN) and L2 (L1+Ada, PL/M, Jovial). It provides all the capabilities of Understand Engineer, but offers advanced snapshot based change analysis, a full set of metrics, broader metrics charting capabilities, and multi-scenario maintenance estimation.  We envision Understand Pro as what a team would typically outfit an engineer with if they are trying to create a rigourous programming environment.
   
   
4. Understand 2.0 Analyst
   This version also comes in L1 and L2 language variants. It provides Pro capabilities, plus advanced multi-snapshot change analysis and change metrics, detailed multi-time metrics charting, and multi-scenario/multi-plan maintenance estimation. We’ve also placed API development in Analyst, although scripts or API programs built with Analyst can be used by Pro or Engineer versions of Understand 2.0 .  We envision Analyst as what an IVV, QA, Test team members would use, and also as something a team operating in a rigorous environment would have a license or two available as team members rolled through IVV/metrics analysis/change analysis roles. 
   

THe exact differences can best be seen by running 2.0 and alternating Run Levels via the Help menu.  Or you can check out the feature comparison matrix on our revised website.

What about 1.4 licenses?   Understand for C++, Java, FORTRAN map to Understand 2.0 Pro with their respective languages and API usage enabled.  Understand for Ada, JOVIAL and PL/M licenses map to Understand 2.0 Analyst licenses with their respective languages enabled.  Combined language analysis is avialable but will consume a legacy license for each language. No new license is needed, your existing ones will work.   If you want to have your licenses upgraded to L1 or L2 language packs then our sales@scitools.com folks can help with quotations for that.

What about TrackBack?   TrackBack is a cool product that helps us every day. We are fully committed to TrackBack and plan near term improvements for it.  But it will be part of Understand 2.0 going forward.  We just think it is something that every engineer should have.  It will be in each Understand 2.0 kit.  Customers who have TrackBack but not Understand will be sent a download link for updating separate from Understand.

I’ll caveat that the features between the versions can change, and probably will, once we get feedback from customers and experience selling this way. 

If you are using Understand 2.0 I encourage you to update with each release. It is a young version and has a number of bug fixes and improvements introduced each week.

In particular, if you are a Unix user you will want to at least update to B448 released today. It has a fix in it for the problem of lost application settings (fonts, font sizes, window locations, etc…) on systems that have daily or more frequent clearing of their /tmp directories.

Thanks,

Ken N.