Product Construction: Building Mathematica

Leland Ray
Wolfram Research, Inc.

Mathematica is a large interconnected structure. Until Mathematica 3, a publishing process governed build and release. Mathematica 3, in contrast, was constructed by a Release Engineering group that maintains build procedures. Release and development are treated as asynchronous processes. This talk will explore the effect of software construction and release on the development process. Building a large structure like Mathematica requires special tools, and the kind of problems encountered are like the problems encountered by engineers in building bridges and canals. Solutions to these problems provide an entertaining insight into software engineering.