Commercial realtime software needs different configuation management

Arguments are presented as to why integrated, monolithic configuration management is not well suited to commercial realtime systems. An alternative approach to configuration management that over several years we have found to be effective and widely useable is described. This approach, Database and Selectors Cel (DaSC), separates treatment of versions that exist simultaneously from the evolution of those versions over time. Versions that exist simultaneously are represented by selectors from a common database. Evolution is represented by layers, as in the film animators cel.