VcsTools is a set of object which enable you to perform a lot of functions
to a Vcs file :

- check-in, check-out of files
- display a graph showing the revision tree (with bindings 
  to easily get diff between revision or the log of each revision)
- edit the history information through a dedicated window and archive it 
  in the Vcs system.
- help to merge revision by checking out the different revision and 
  connect you to xemacs ediff session to let you perform the merge.
- keep a cache in a MLDBM file so that a history retrieve is not necessary
  each time you start the tool.


Note that only HP HMS is currently implemented. But the following
VcsTools classes are generic and can be re-used as is for extending
VcsTools to RCS, PRCS or other Vcs systems:

- GraphWidget : this Tk composite widget is a Tk::Multi widget featuring a 
  Canvas and a List box.
- GraphMgr: A class using GraphWidget. This class perform the drawing of 
  revision nodes (the rectangle with the text inside) and of the arrows 
  between revision.
- Version: A class holding the relevant information for each revision. This
  class knows how to find a common ancestor and how to edit the history log.
  It will also pilot the drawing of the revision tree.
- HistEdit: A Tk Widget dedicated to the history edition.
- History: A class containing all the Version objects and the GraphMgr. It 
  manages the different versions and will create the Version object only when
  necessary.
- File: This class contains the History and access all other classes which 
  represent the "real" world (Vcs interface, file system interface, 
  process interface). Note that the class names representing the "real world"
  are passed to the constructor of File. So you can re-define your own
  "real world" class and use them within File without modifying the File class.

Note that most of these classes inherit the Puppet::Any module.

Other less generic classes are :

- FileAgent: Class to perform basic file functions such as remove, chmod...
- HmsAgent: Class which defined the command needed to perform operation
  on the HMS database. (such fci, fco ...). Note that only this class should
  be re-written on order to provide an access to other Vcs tools such as RCS.  
- DataSpec::HpTnd: This class knows how to retrieve relevant data from the 
  HMS log. It also feature some rules specific to TND division here in 
  HP Grenoble. You may choose to use it as is or create your own DataSpec
  class for your needs.
- Process: Tiny module which runs processes (currently in blocking mode)
  and perform a call-back with the result of the process. 

Support for asynchronous opreation: The File, FileAgent, HmsAgent and
Process classes are written in asynchronous mode.  I.e. all their
methods will invoke call-back functions to get results back to the
caller. Granted, the feature is not really usefull right now, since
the process are executed in a blocking mode. But in the future we may
have a new process class which may fork its process or invoke them on
a remote machine (using RPC::Simple). In this case, the aysnchronous
mode will be necessary.
  
This module also contains an executable perl program named hmsWork. This
exec file is the user callable program to actually monitor the HMS file and
it uses the FileAgent HmsAgent HpTnd and Process as "real world" classes.

Note that I will not provided the interface to RCS or other Vcs systems. 
I've tried to make VcsTools easily extensible so that users will be able to
adapt to their needs (and hopefully contribute their modules to the 
community).

I'd like people who actually use this module for their application to
drop me a short note about what they're using this module for. 


This module was written with perl5.004. 

See the embedded documentation in the module for more details.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Note that this module is in alpha state. Its interface may change (but
I hope not).

Legal mumbo jumbo:

 Copyright (c) 1998 Dominique Dumont. All rights reserved.
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
 THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
 IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 

 - Dominique Dumont
   dominique_dumont@grenoble.hp.com

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INSTALLATION

   	 gunzip -c <dist_file>.tar.gz | tar xvf -
   	 cd <dist_directory>
   	 perl Makefile.PL
   	 make test          
   	 make install