4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the selected data item is parsed before validating against the logical definitions of the DED and the step of storing cross-reference information further comprises the step of: storing additional support information transparently in the Support File, the additional support information including header information including description, type, language, change date, type and reason, and a cross-reference to each program that currently uses the selected Include File.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the selected data item is parsed before validating against the logical definitions of the DED and the step of storing cross-reference information further comprises the step of: storing additional support information transparently in the Support File, the additional support information including header information including description, type, language, change date, type and reason, and a cross-reference to each program that currently uses the selected Include File. 6. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the step of retrieving, further comprising the steps of: creating a temporary copy of the selected Include File and a temporary of the Support File; moving the temporary copy of the selected Include File into an edit buffer and the temporary copy of the Support File into memory; invoking the text editor; invoking a context dispatcher from the text editor in the appropriate context, including edit, validate, and generate; creating a link to the DED across the network; testing the DED by a handshake routine to ensure that the DED is available.