The base system has nothing to do with Technology CAD at all. The VISTA base system library provides the essential elements of a virtual operating environment to meet generic application requirements. Additional features of the base system are application development support provided by an integrated MAKE utility, CASE tools for code generation and module interconnection, conventions for documentation, coding guidelines, and inclusion of applications and framework modules in automatic test and verification procedures. Simply speaking, the base system is the home of VISTA's portability and of all other things that should be prevalent in every large, open, extensible, and portable software system, independent of their implementation language and the specific problem area they attack.