Is it costly to use many ClearCase views? Is it recommended?

The question is pretty si开发者_Go百科mple - how much does it cost (storage, etc.) to use new clearcase views for each task? Is it a legitimate methodology to use many different views? How do you use views (i.e., for what do you have different views)?

In term of spaces, the cost is basically:

• the files you get during the 'cleartool update' step
• combined with the view storage (metadata for snapshot views, checked-out files for dynamic views)

The actual cost comes from where the view storage is located.

• if it is on your workstation, the cost of accessing that storage is minimal (every operation will need to consult the view storage)
• if it is on LAN or WLAN, then having many views can be costly in term of network operation.

That being said, the other cost is that each view is in its own directory, meaning you need to redefine your IDE project for each new view you are creating.
(as opposed to VCS where you can switch the content of a workspace from one configuration to another, keeping it in the same directory. You could do it in base ClearCase, but not in UCM, where UCM views are locked to one stream)

Each time you define a branch (or a stream for UCM), you will need a view to follow that development effort.
In that aspect, views can be closely related to branches: see "When should you branch?"