toolchain

   A  collection  of  tools  used  to  develop for a particular hardware
   target,  or  to  work with a particular data format (thus `the Crusoe
   development  toolchain',  or  the `DocBook toolchain'). Often used in
   the  context  of  building  software  on  one  system  which  will be
   installed  or  run  on  some  other device; in that case the chain of
   tools  usually  consists  of  such items as a particular version of a
   compiler,  libraries,  special  headers,  etc.  May  also  be used of
   text-formatting,  page  layout, or multimedia tools which render from
   some  markup  to  a  variety  of  production  formats.  Differs  from
   `toolkit' in that the former implies a collection of semi-independent
   tools  with  complementary  functions, while `toolchain' implies that
   each  of  the  parts  is  a  serial  stage  in a rather tightly bound
   pipeline.  Seems  to  have become current in early 1999 and 2000; now
   common.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {tool}]