An evaluation of PCTE as a portable tool platform

PCTE has been called the “open respository” because it aims to provide a common environment for portable tools. If a technological base for system development environments (SDEs) is to be truly open, then portability of tools from one base to another is an important requirement, and a good test of how much of an “open system” that base really is. Tool portability has two aspects in relation to PCTE-based environments; porting tools to PCTE from conventional operating systems and porting tools from one PCTE implementation to another. This paper reports on investigations into the degree to which PCTE makes both of the above possible. It discusses the features of PCTE that were found to be of particular benefit as well as some that were not and some portability problems that persist despite the facilities offered by PCTE