Columbus/CAN 3.5 release notes (31.01.2003)

(Academic version)

Welcome to Columbus/CAN! This file contains some important notes about Columbus and startup tips. For more information, please refer to the "Setup and User's Guide to Columbus/CAN" document that is located in the Start menu and in the Columbus directory after installation.

1. What is Columbus/CAN?

Columbus/CAN is a product of FrontEndART Ltd. designed for information extraction from large C++ software systems. The product consists of a general reverse engineering framework for the analysis, internal representation, filtering and exporting of information from arbitrary source codes.

This version of Columbus contains the CAN command line program which parses C++ translation units and extracts data according to the Columbus Schema (see below) into an internal representation. The complete representation of a subject system is created by linking together the elements of a Columbus project. This extracted data can be interactively filtered and exported to various export formats supported by Columbus; currently CPPML (XML), UML (XMI), GXL (XML), HTML, RSF (rigi), Famix (XMI) and Metrics (CSV).

2. Improvements over the beta release

Apart from the usual bug fixes, this final version contains new features for creating user projects: the possibility for inserting the content of a whole physical folder (directory) into the project with automatic include path detection. Further new features are: more metrics, comments are now extracted as well, call graphs can be filtered taking into account class instantiations, fully functional built-in preprocessor, etc.

3. Installation and startup

Please refer to the Columbus download page for system requirements and installation steps.

After you have successfully installed Columbus/CAN on your system, you will need a valid license to use the software. You should receive your license file from FrontEndART by e-mail at the address you provided on the download page when you have downloaded Columbus/CAN. To install the license key, please follow the instructions given in the e-mail. Contact us, if you still have any problems with the installation of Columbus.

If you are new to using Columbus we recommend that you begin with the basic steps described in Chapter 3 of the User's Guide ("First Steps").

4. Columbus Schema

The extracted data of Columbus/CAN conforms to the Columbus Schema, a common specification for the internal representation and the supporting export formats. An overview of the Columbus Schema is given in the User's Guide to Columbus. Please refer to the FrontEndART web site for further information about the schema.

5. Contact

Please give us feedback on using Columbus/CAN. If you find any bugs or experience problems with its use please let us know.

FrontEndART Software Ltd.
H-6701 Szeged, P.O. Box 700
Hungary

www.frontendart.com

The FrontEndART web page will provide the most up-to-date information about Columbus/CAN. The most recent versions of the Columbus technical and research documents can be found there as well.

Have fun using Columbus/CAN!

Your FrontEndART team.

Copyright (c) 2001-2006 FrontEndART Ltd. All rights reserved.