10Chapter1 • Introduction to Software Development
1.2Components of a Development System
Like any other system, a development system is composed of many components that work
together to provide services to the developer for the software development task. Depending upon
the requirements of a project, different types of components can be chosen. Many commercial
companies also sell comprehensive development tools. On Linux systems, all of the develop-
ment tools are available and you can choose some of these depending upon your level of exper-
tise with these tools and your requirements. Typically each development platform consists of the
following components:
•Hardware platform
•Operating system
•Editors
•Compilers and assemblers
•Debuggers
•Version control system
•Collaboration and bug tracking
Let us take a closer look on these components and what role they play in the development
cycle.
1.2.1Hardware Platform
This is the tangible part of the development system. A hardware platform is the choice of
your hardware, PC or workstation, for the development system. You can choose a particular
hardware platform depending upon different factors as listed below:
CostDepending upon budget, you may chose different types of hardware.
Usually UNIX workstations are costly to buy and maintain. On the
other hand, PC-based workstations are cheap and the maintenance
cost is also low.
PerformanceUsually UNIX workstations have high performance and stability as
compared to PC-based solutions.
ToolsYou also need to keep in mind availability of development tools on a
particular platform.
Development TypeIf the target system is the same as the host system on which develop-
ment is done, the development is relatively easy and native tools are
cheap as well, compared to cross-platform development tools.
Depending upon these factors, you may make a choice from the available hardware plat-
forms for development.