Description

This section describes some basic development aspects of GBS.

Choice of Language

GBS is written in Perl.
I needed a language that will execute exactly the same on various computers (at that time Windows and UNIX), without being depended on installed libraries.
When I started developing GBS in 2001 the best choice was Perl.
Should I start developing now I would probably chose Python.

Quality Assurance

perlcritic

Running perlcritic yields the following results for this release:

----
   312 files.
 5,591 subroutines/methods.
80,490 statements.

135,270 lines, consisting of:
    14,806 blank lines.
    32,794 comment lines.
        68 data lines.
    85,256 lines of Perl code.
     2,346 lines of POD.

Average McCabe score of subroutines was 3.26.

0 violations.
Violations per file was 0.000.
Violations per statement was 0.000.
Violations per line of code was 0.000.
----

I do use function prototypes, but only with $ and @. Never with \.

Checks

A proprietary program is used to detect:

Unused 'use' statements
Missing 'use' statements
Unused functions
Missing functions
Unused global variables
Active (Uncommented) trace/debug statements

Help

Command help (--help) and Help File All Commands are created directly from the code so there is no mismatch.

Design Considerations

It must be fast.
Hence command-line interface and no frills.
Some standard packages duplicated and reduced to cater only for Windows and Linux.
The Perl code is 'compiled' replacing comment-lines by blank lines, making the files smaller and reducing disk I/O.
Only dependent on plain Perl with standard packages.
No extra CPAN installs. No separately installs of any utilities (except of course your compiler-suite).
Must run exactly the same on Windows and Linux
Straight forward. No exceptions
TBS

History

GBS is based on experiences with 'CCS', the Code Control System developed at Philips Medical Systems in 1985. Designed and developed by Randy Marques.
Used for over 15 years by a variety of small and large projects and still in use for maintenance projects It was Written for VAX/VMS in DCL.

GBS development started in 2001 on WinXp
Now available for Windows 10 and Linux.
Written mainly in Perl to ensure exact same functionality on all platforms.
Only dependent on Perl. No special privileges required.

Generic Build Support (GBS) - User Manual - Development

development.html

Contents