16.6 Development Begins

To begin the project, a developer sets a properly configured view, checks out one or more elements, and starts work. For example, developer david on the MAJ team enters these commands:

C:\> mn (mn is a common convention; it stands for "main")
C:\> z:
Z:\> cd \monet\src
Z:\monet\src> cleartool checkout -nc opt.c prs.c
Created branch "major" from "opt.c" version "\main\6".
Checked out "opt.c" from version "\main\major\0".
Created branch "major" from "prs.c" version "\main\7".
Checked out "prs.c" from version "\main\major\0".

The auto-make-branch facility causes each element to be checked out on the major branch (see Rule 4 in the MAJ team's config spec in Creating Project Views). If a developer on the MIN team enters this command, the elements are checked out on the main branch, with no conflict.

ClearCase is fully compatible with standard development tools and practices. Thus, developers use the editing, compilation, and debugging tools they prefer while working in their views.

Developers check in work periodically to make their work available to other team members (that is, those whose views select the most recent version on the team's branch). This allows intrateam integration and testing to proceed throughout the development period.

Techniques for Isolating Your Work

Individual developers may need or prefer to isolate their work from the changes made by other team members. To do so, they can use these techniques to configure their views:

• Time rules. When someone checks in an incompatible change, a developer can reconfigure the view to select the versions at a point before those changes were made.

• Private subbranches. A developer can create a private subbranch in one or more elements (for example, \main\major\anne_wk). The config spec must be changed to select versions on the \main\major\anne_wk branch instead of versions on the \main\major branch.

• Viewing only their own revisions. Developers can use a ClearCase query to configure a view that selects only their own revisions to the source tree.