NWDS & Portal Java iView development? Documentation gap?

Hello again SDN,

After reading section 3.7 (SAP NetWeaver Development Environment) of the NetWeaver Master Guide some of my development environment questions have been answered but I am a bit puzzled about one thing. Through the first few sections where configurations are discussed for local, centralized, mixed development... on java development/jco/Web Dynpro, etc..., Team oriented development, component based development, JDI.. the portal is not discussed in any of the possible development configurations. In fact it is only brought up and actually shown running on the java stack in the sections near the end of 3.7 on the Visual Composer and the .Net connector.

Obviously the portal is needed, so it just may be a given that it's needed in there somewhere. My question is a simple one. Given the various possible development configurations, in particular of course local development, I would assume that the portal is installed locally, as well as WebAS and all the rest. Is that a safe assumption? Are others doing this? Sorry if this is a rookie question but given the absence of the portal on the Java stack in most of the development configurations early in 3.7 of the master guide, I figured I'd better ask.

Thanks,

Doug