1. Chapter 1 Introduction

   1. Developing Software Products

   2. Open and Closed Software Development

   3. Dirty Secrets of Software Projects

   4. What Does "Practical" Mean?

   5. A Personal Tools Quiz

2. Chapter 2 Project Basics

   1. The Parts of a Project

   2. Software Configuration Management

   3. Building Software

   4. Testing Software

   5. Tracking Bugs

   6. Writing Documentation

   7. Releasing Products

   8. Maintenance

   9. Recommended Tools

3. Chapter 3 Project Concepts

   1. Preconstructed Development Environments

   2. Why Integration Is Helpful

   3. Why Automation Is Vital

   4. Automation Environments

   5. Labeling Builds

   6. Naming Projects and Machines

   7. Choosing New Tools

   8. Internationalization and Localization

   9. Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting

4. Chapter 4 Software Configuration Management

   1. Why Do I Need SCM?

   2. What SCM Is and Is Not

   3. Drawbacks of SCM

   4. A Typical Day's Work with SCM

   5. SCM Annoyances

   6. SCM Tools

   7. Comparison of SCM Tools

   8. Wider Uses of SCM

   9. Checklist

5. Chapter 5 Building Software

   1. How Software Gets Built

   2. Build States: Virgin, Up-to-date, Changed, Interrupted, Clean

   3. Build Dependencies

   4. Common Build Problems

   5. Build Tools

   6. Comparison of Build Tools

   7. Changing Your Build Tool

   8. Checklist

6. Chapter 6 Testing Software

   1. Different Kinds of Tests

   2. Why Automate Your Tests?

   3. Evaluating Test Environments

   4. Test Environments

   5. Types of Test Tools

   6. The Difficult Parts of Testing

   7. Checklist

7. Chapter 7 Tracking Bugs

   1. Tool Requirements

   2. Bug Tracking Tools

   3. Bug Tracking Annoyances

   4. Integrating with SCM Tools

   5. Checklist

8. Chapter 8 Documentation Environments

   1. Technical Documentation

   2. Documents and SCM

   3. File Formats for Documentation

   4. Documentation Environments

   5. More File Formats

   6. Automated Production of Documentation

   7. Bad Ideas for Documentation

   8. Internal Project Documentation

   9. Checklist

9. Chapter 9 Releasing Products

   1. Overview

   2. Before the Release

   3. Creating the Release

   4. Packaging Formats

   5. Installation Tools

   6. Installation Irritations—Ship Happens!

   7. After the Release

   8. Checklist

10. Chapter 10 Maintenance

    1. Maintaining an Environment

    2. What Is Product Maintenance?

    3. Product Maintenance Tasks

    4. Product Maintenance and Development Environments

    5. Cleaning Up Your Environment

    6. Checklist

11. Chapter 11 Project Communication

    1. Tools for Communication

    2. A Project Web Site

    3. Different Areas for the Project Web Site

    4. Creating the Web Site

    5. Avoiding Content Rot

12. Chapter 12 Politics and People

    1. The Role of the Toolsmith

    2. When Good Projects Go Bad

    3. Awkward People

    4. Twisted Communications

    5. Commit Rights

    6. Automation Discipline

    7. What Do Developers Really Want?

    8. An Upbeat Ending

1. Appendix A How Tools Scale

   1. Scaling of Compilers

   2. Scaling of Build Tools

2. Appendix B Resources

   1. Online

   2. Magazines

   3. Books

   4. Conferences

   5. University and College Courses

3. Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

Abby Fox was the production editor and copyeditor for Practical Development Environments. Matt Hutchinson proofread the book. Sanders Kleinfeld and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Johnna VanHoose Dinse wrote the index.

MendeDesign designed and created the cover artwork of this book. Karen Montgomery produced the cover layout with Adobe InDesign CS using the Akzidenz Grotesk and Orator fonts.

The animals on the cover of Practical Development Environments are goldfish (Carassius auratus). Goldfish can in fact be gold, orange, white, black, blue, brown, silver, bronze, and red. Moderately hardy, goldfish have an average life span of around 10 years. The oldest goldfish on record lived for over 43 years.

The early history of the cultivation of goldfish is unclear, but it is generally accepted that by the time of the Sung dynasty (960 1280), goldfish were being bred in China. However, it was not until around 1500 that goldfish first appeared in Japan, and they did not find their way into Europe until the seventeenth century.

Marcia Friedman designed the interior layout. Melanie Wang and Phyllis McKee designed the interior template. This book was converted by Keith Fahlgren to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Adobe's Meridien; the heading font is ITC Bailey; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano, Jessamyn Read, and Lesley Borash using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS.

The ichthyographic portion of this colophon was written by the book's author. The word colophon is derived from the Greek kolophon, meaning "summit" or "finishing touch."