5.1 When to Use ClearCase in a Mixed Network Environment

Working across platforms provides flexibility and may save time and development resources. It also requires extra planning and maintenance. The scenarios that follow represent situations in which it is beneficial to use Rational ClearCase in a mixed environment:

• A group of Windows developers and a group of UNIX developers work on the same source code.

To allow users on both Windows and UNIX to access the source code, the Windows developers use UNIX VOBs. However, the Windows developers have no need to see view-private changes to the UNIX source code, so they use Windows views for optimal performance.

• One group of developers maintains a code base for both UNIX and Windows.

In this scenario, developers on Windows use the UNIX VOB in which the source code resides. They also use their UNIX views from their Windows computers so they have access to the same view-private files on both platforms.

• A group of Windows developers works primarily on a separate source code base but keeps the source code on a UNIX VOB for administrative purposes (for example, the backup procedure resides on UNIX).

In this case, the developers use UNIX VOBs and Windows views.

When Not to Use a Mixed Environment

When you run ClearCase on Windows, you can access views and VOBs on both Windows and UNIX. If your developers do not need to access ClearCase data from UNIX computers, and you have no administrative reasons to maintain UNIX VOBs and views (for example, backup requirements), we recommend that you use Windows views and VOBs. This strategy yields better performance than does accessing UNIX VOBs and views from Windows computers