We describe a relatively simple but effective set of techniques that is used to support a commercial computer application maintained by several developers and used by several thousand businesses. The techniques allow for complete control over a system that is in a continuous state of maintenance and enhancement. All functions and data are controlled by a proprietary relational database written in APL with almost no reliance on the contents of the workspace. The workspace contains only the few functions required to initialize the application and utility functions that are there simply to avoid defining them at load time. All other functions are defined as they are needed by specific user commands and erased thereafter.
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/war-on-the-workspace-supporting-continuously-changing-commercial-IakbQfp1nt