Enhancing Software Development with IDE-Managed Multiple Codebases

Modern integrated development environments (IDEs) support one live codebase at a given moment, which imposes limitations on software development. For example, with only one codebase, development must be paused while running tests or a static code analysis, as most analyses assume that the codebase they are running is not modified concurrently. If the IDE supported a copy codebase, an analysis could run on this copy, in parallel with the development. We propose software development techniques and tools that take advantage of multiple live codebases. Our thesis is that an incrementally-maintained copy of the developer’s codebase can be used to enhance software development and aid developers.