Article View: comp.doc.techreports
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From: Laurence Leff
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1989 05:29
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1989 05:29
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46637 bytes
The following abstracts describe Non-Proprietary Technical Reports available
from MCC's Software Technology Program. Please send requests for SINGLE
copies to the person below. INCLUDE your U.S. MAIl address since copies
cannot be electronically distributed.
Jim Babcock
<babcock@mcc.com>
######################################################################
STP Technical Reports
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NON - PROPRIETARY ABSTRACTS for TRs ISSUED
Mid-1987 Thru NOVEMBER 1988
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__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-132-87
Date : May 01, 1987
Author : B.Curtis
# pages : 23
Title : Five Paradigms in the Psychology of Programming
Abstract: This is a review chapter prepared for the Handbook of Human-Computer
Interaction to be published by North-Holland in 1987. -- Since the
1950s, psychologists have studied the behavioral aspects of computer
programming. However, it has been difficult to integrate their data
with theory because of the mixture of psychological paradigms that
have guided their research. This chapter will review the research
results that have been generated under the five psychological
paradigms used most often in exploring programming problems. These
five paradigms are 1) individual differences, 2) group behavior, 3)
organizational behavior, 4) human factors/cognitive ergonomics, and
5) cognitive science. The major theoretical and practical
contributions of each area to the theory and practice of software
engineering will be discussed. Based on current trends, it appears
that research guided by the paradigm of cognitive science will be the
easiest to integrate with new developments in artificial intelligence
and computer science theory.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-257-87
Date : February 24, 1988
Author : D.Volpano
# pages : 24
Title : STS - Software Templates System
Abstract: The Software Templates System (STS) is described. STS is a collection
of tools that permits you to build abstract specifications of
algorithms called software templates and instantiate them for use in
many different applications. This document is intended to serve as a
description as well as a manual for users of STS. A portion of STS is
bootstrapped using STS itself. This bootstrapping process is used to
illustrate the features of STS.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-299-87
Date : September 24, 1987
Author : B.Curtis
# pages : 13
Title : Cognitive Issues in Reusing Software Artifacts
Abstract: This paper reviews the cognitive aspects of reusing the artifacts of
computer programming. This paper will first review how programming
knowledge is organized and used. It will then discuss how
professionals design programs and where the information they use
comes from. It will end by describing the requirements for
reusability tools generated by a cognitive analysis of programming.
The thesis is that programmers' primary source of information during
programming is their store of problem specific design schema, and
that a body of reusable artifacts must provide links into these
schema in order for programmers to be able to search and retrieve
information effectively from a store external to their own memory.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-304-87
Date : November 04, 1987
Author : C.Potts;G.Bruns
# pages : 25
Title : Recording the Reasons for Design Decisions
Abstract: We outline a generic model for representing design deliberat ion and
its relation to the generation of method-specific artifacts. A design
history is regarded as a network consisting of artifacts and
deliberation nodes. Artifacts include specifications or design
documents. Deliberation nodes represent issues, alternatives or
justifications. Existing artifacts give rise to issues about the
evolving design, an alternative is one of several positions that
respond to the issue (perhaps calling for the creation or
modification of an artifact), and a justification is a statement
giving the reasons for and against selecting the related alternative.
The model is applied to the development of a text formatter. The
example necessitates some tailoring of the generic model to the
method adopted in the development, Liskov and Guttag's design method.
We discuss the experiment and the method-specific extensions. The
example development has been represented in hypertext and as a Prolog
database, the two representations being shown to complement each
other. We conclude with a discussion of the relation to this model
with other work, and its implications for tool support and methods.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-316-87
Date : November 10, 1987
Author : P.Cook
# pages : 20
Title : The Role of Champions in Successful Computer Applications
Abstract: A structure to understand the reasons for computer success or failure
is reported. It is represented as a matrix, where the rows relate to
the elements of a successful application, and the columns are derived
from diffusion theory as it relates to technology transfer.
Vertically listed is the result of a number of years of
implementation efforts and observation of the efforts of others. It
asserts that to be successful, a computer application must have: A
real need, Good hardware, Adequate software, A receptive environment,
and A champion. The column structure is derived from diffusion
theory, particularly the work of Everett Rogers. It categorizes user
environments into four categories: Innovator, Early adopter,
Majority, and Late Adopter. Observations are made about each of the
cells of the resulting matrix.
_________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-320-87
Date : November 20, 1987
Author : F.Halasz
# pages : 22
Title : Reflections on Notecards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of
Hypermedia Systems
Abstract: NoteCards is a general hypermedia environment designed to help people
work with ideas. Its intended users are authors, designers, and other
intellectual laborers engaged in analyzing information, designing
artifacts, and generally processing ideas. The system provides these
users with a variety of hypermedia-based tools for collecting,
representing, managing, interrelating, and communicating ideas. This
paper presents the NoteCards systems as a foil against which to
explore some of the major limitations of the current generation of
hypermedia systems. These seven issues are: search and query,
composite nodes, virtual structures, computational engines,
versioning, collaborative work, and tailorability. For each of these
issues, the papers describes the limitations inherent in NoteCards
and the prospects for doing improving the situation in future systems.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-340-87
Date : March 25, 1988
Author : P.Attie
# pages : 61
Title : A Guide to Raddle87 Semantics
Abstract: Defines the Raddle87 design language. Describes syntax and an
operational semantics.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-353-87
Date : November 06, 1987
Author : X.Liangfang;K.Fairchild
# pages : 7
Title : Harnessing the Computer Revolution to Further Modernization in China
Abstract: The People's Republic of China has a commitment to develop expertise
and sweeping changes in science and technology. This paper describes
many of the authors' observations about China's growing computer
technology abilities. First, we discuss the problems and existing
capabilities that influence China's entry into the computer
revolution. Then we discuss several of the recent success stories and
we close with suggestions about two new research areas that might be
particularly useful to further computer modernization.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-362-87
Date : October 19, 1987
Author : B.Curtis
# pages : 41
Title : The Tarpit and a Rope: A Presentation to Aetna on STP
Abstract: These viewgraphs constitute the presentation made by the author to
the Aetna's Information Systems Executives Conference on October 19,
1987. The presentation started with a description of systems
development problems observed in the STP Field Study and then
described how the research program of STP is developing technology to
reduce or eliminate some of these problems.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-365-86
Date : January 08, 1987
Author : P.Marks
# pages : 19
Title : System Development as a Performing Art
Abstract: This report explores a view of system development, drawn by analogy
to performing arts like theater and competitive sports, as an ongoing
progression of Practice-Performance-Postmortem cycles. These stages
are defined with regard to their treatment of errors, and the roles
of Performer, Audience, and Coach. Potential impact of this model on
STP's part in building Leonardo" is suggested.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-368-87
Date : November 20, 1987
Author : F.Halasz
# pages : 22
Title : Reflections on the State of the Art: Seven Issues for the Next
Generaton of Hypermedia Systems
Abstract: These slides briefly review the state of the art in workstation-based
hypermedia systems (e.g., NoteCards, Neptune, and Intermedia). Seven
major issues for the next generation of hypermedia systems are then
presented and briefly discussed. These slides accompany the paper
contained in MCC Technical Report STP-320-87. These slides were
presented at Hypertext '87, Chapel Hill, NC, November, 1987.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-375-87
Date : December 17, 1987
Author : I.Baxter
# pages : 53
Title : PCL: A Production Control Language (A Proposal)
Abstract: A program development [Wile83a] or metaprogram ([Feather86a]) is a
description of the steps necessary to convert a specification into an
implementation using a transformation system (we prefer the term
metaprogram). PCL is a metaprogramming language intended as part of
an Implementation Maintenance System, a software package whose goal
is the efficient re-derivation of transformationa l implementations
given a change to a specification. This document specifies PCL.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-383-87
Date : December 31, 1987
Author : L.Power
# pages : 10
Title : OOPSLA'87 Panel Discussion: Object-Oriented Concurrency conference
held at OOSPLA'87.
Abstract: This report covers the panel discussion on object-oriented
concurrency held at OOPSLA '87, the ACM-sponsored object-oriented
programming conference, held in Orlando, Florida, October, 1987. The
panelists were Barbara Liskov, Akinori Yonezawa, David A. Thomas, and
Carl Hewitt. In addition to a summarizing the panelists' comments and
questions from the floor, the author has included background material
on the panelists' object models. Characterizing these as variations
on active objects", the author identifies important issues and
trade-offs for future research.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-386-87
Date : March 24, 1988
Author : V.Shen
# pages : 62
Title : Using Superimposition to Add Fault to an EFT System
Abstract: Describes the application of a new control construct, the
superimposition, to the design of a distributed system expressed in
Raddle.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-016-88
Date : January 12, 1988
Author : J.Conklin;M.Begeman
# pages : 6
Title : gIBIS: A Hypertext Tool for Team Design Deliberation
Abstract: This paper describes an application specific hypertext system
designed to facilitate the capture of early design deliberations. It
implements a specific method, called Issue Based Information Systems
(IBIS), which has been developed for use on large, complex design
problems. The hypertext system described here, gIBIS (for graphical
IBIS), makes use of color and a high speed relational database server
to facilitate building and browsing typed IBIS networks. Further,
gIBIS is designed to support the collaborative construction of these
networks by any number of cooperating team members spread across a
local area network. Early experiments suggest that the IBIS method is
still incomplete, but there is a good match between the tool and
method even in this experimental version.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-018-88
Date : April 08, 1988
Author : G.Rein;C.Ellis
# pages : 36
Title : The Nick Summer Experiment: A Field Study on the Usage of Meeting
Support Technology by Software Design Teams
Abstract: Presents the study, results and interpretations of this
experimentation to explore and increase the understanding of the use
of the prototype Nick electronic meeting room by software design
teams working on fuzzy, high-level design problems.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-025-88
Date : January 19, 1988
Author : M.Lubars
# pages : 10
Title : Code Reusability in the Large Versus Code Reusability in the Small
Abstract: As a general rule, the goals of software engineering involve the
development of techniques for improving software development
productivity. It is no surprise, then, that a lot of attention has
been focused on facilitating the reuse of program code. However, much
of this attention has been directed with only shortsighted and
self-supporting goals, and has thus condemned code reuse techniques
to limited areas of success. This paper brings to light some of the
issues involving code reusability and contrasts the two ends of the
reusability spectrum; code reusability in the large" and code
reusabilaity in the small". Methods for possibly improving code
reusability are examined.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-048-88
Date : March 03, 1988
Author : P.Cook;C.Ellis;G.Rein
# pages : 20
Title : Meetings Research - A Nick Retrospective
Abstract: Overview of research work performed by the Nick project team since
its inception in late 1985. States the motivation and scope of the
research followed by an explanation of the modeling work, systems
building work and experimentation work.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-042-88
Date : February 08, 1988
Author : S.Gibbs
# pages : 9
Title : LIZA: An Extensible Groupware Toolkit
Abstract: Software for supporting groups of collaborating users - groupware -
raises a number of problems in such areas as communication,
distribution, concurrency control and user interface design. This
paper gives a definition of groupware and presents a high-level model
of groupware systems. The model has been applied to the design and
implementation of an extensible groupware toolkit known as LIZA in
terms of their user interface and functionality.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-047-88
Date : February 16, 1988
Author : C.Ellis;G.Rein;S.Jarvenpaa
# pages : 15
Title : Nick Experimentation: Some Selected Results
Abstract: Presents the study, results and interpretations of this
experimentation to explore and increase the understanding of the use
of the prototype Nick electronic meeting room by software design
reams working on fuzzy, high-level design problems.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-058-88
Date : February 10, 1988
Author : M.Lubars;M.Harandi
# pages : 31
Title : Addressing Software Reuse Through Knowledge-Based Design
Abstract: The reuse of available software components is one important method
for improving the productivity of new software product development.
Software reuse benefits are especially apparent during specification
and design where the foundations are established for the development
and maintenance of the software product. Effective reuse of software
designs requires a collection of good design components, knowledge
about how to locate the components, and strategies for combining and
customizing them into new designs. Schemes are also required for
representing and manipulating reusable software components and
various types of rules and heuristics for design construction. This
paper presents both the philosophical and practical aspects of a
knowledge-based design environment, called IDeA.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-061-88
Date : February 24, 1988
Author : D.Volpano
# pages : 9
Title : The Templates Approach to Software Reuse
Abstract: Programs written in conventional, imperative languages usually cannot
be reused in other applications because commitments have been made to
specific types and representations of data. A software template is an
algorithm specification that is free of these kinds of commitments. A
template is expressed in a typed, functional notation. As a separate
programming activity, abstract types are implemented in an imperative
language. Templates for standard algorithms, and implementations of
commonly-used data types are catalogued for reuse. A programmer
chooses implementations for a template's data types at which time the
template is translated into a program tailored to the chosen
implementations.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-081-88
Date : April 08, 1988
Author : R.Miller
# pages : 26
Title : Representing Communication Protocols
Abstract: Aims at showing how some of the ways of representing protocols can be
directly converted into Raddle representations.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-082-88
Date : March 09, 1988
Author : J.Conklin;M.Begeman
# pages : 23
Title : gIBIS: A Hypertext Tool for Exploratory Policy Discussion
Abstract: This paper describes an application specific hypertext system
designed to facilitate the capture of early design deliberations. It
implements a specific method, called Issue Based Information Systems
(IBIS), which has been developed for use on large, complex design
problems. The hypertext system described here, gIBIS (for graphical
IBIS), makes use of color and a high speed relational database server
to facilitate building and browsing typed IBIS networks. Further,
gIBIS is designed to support the collaborative construction of these
networks by any number of cooperating team members spread across a
local area network. Early experiments suggest that the IBIS method is
still incomplete, but there is a good match between the tool and
method even in this experimental version.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-088-88
Date : March 11, 1988
Author : T.Biggerstaff
# pages : 12
Title : The Ada Reuse Picture: What is Wrong with this Picture?
Abstract: This presentation argues that the reuse oriented structure provided
by Ada, or any programming language for that matter, are insufficient
to produce payoffs that approach an order of magnitude and in fact,
will tend to be in the range of 20% to 30% at absolute best. Further,
such reuse improvements derived through reuse of program language
code are a part of, not in addition to, other improvements derived by
modern programming practices. To gain larger improvements, it is
argued one must reuse design abstractions and this will require the
development of an environment infrastructure for dealing with such
constructs. Thus, the reuse (design/maintenance) problem is not a
language problem, but an environment problem.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-187-88
Date : July 18, 1988
Author : R.Miller;I.Forman
# pages : 6
Title : The Readers-Writers Problem Using Interactions
Abstract: Short technical note to record an interesting problem in the
expressive power of Raddle.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-120-88
Date : April 29, 1988
Author : M.Lubars
# pages : 6
Title : Environmental Support for Reuse
Abstract: Discusses reuse methods which should be embedded with CASE tools and
environments as an integral part of the methodology, rather than
treated as a separate problem.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-122-88
Date : April 12, 1988
Author : G.Bruns
# pages : 12
Title : Germ: A Metasystem for Browsing and Editing
Abstract: Focuses on the modeling primitives underlying a Germ schema and how
they relate to the features of browsing and editing tools.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-182-88
Date : June 18, 1988
Author : V.Shen
# pages : 64
Title : Problem-Driven Software Engineering Research
Abstract: Contains the charts presented at a workshop in Taipei, July 18-22,
1988.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-155-88
Date : May 18, 1988
Author : S.Gerhart
# pages : 25
Title : A Broad Spectrum Toolset for Upstream Testing, Verification, and
Analysis
Abstract: Describes a suite of tools to analyze properties of sequences
associated with a specification, with input or output to a program,
or with simple behavioral models of a system under design.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-186-88
Date : June 10, 1988
Author : G.Bruns;C.Potts
# pages : 36
Title : Domain Modeling Approaches to Software Development
Abstract: Reviews and discusses a representative sample of software design
approaches that contain a domain modeling component.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-195-88
Date : June 20, 1988
Author : S.Gibbs;C.Ellis
# pages : 12
Title : Action Objects: Realities and Possibilities
Abstract: Defines and explains the concept of active object. Presents and
justifies examples of active objects.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-206-88
Date : July 21, 1988
Author : E.Gullichsen;D.D'Souza;P.Lincoln;K.The
# pages : 44
Title : The PlaneTextBook
Abstract: Describes PlaneText as a hypertext system written in C to run under
the SunView window manager on a SUN workstation. Users can create and
share a general graph structure of nodes.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-214-88
Date : July 07, 1988
Author : R.Guindon
# pages : 15
Title : Software Design Tasks as Ill-Structured Problems, Software Design as
an Opportunistic Process
Abstract: Reviews the main cognitive studies of software design and their
findings contrasted to informal observations by practitioners and
researchers in software development.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-236-88
Date : July 22, 1988
Author : P.Attie
# pages : 13
Title : The Generation of ADA Code from RADDLE/VERDI Designs
Abstract: Addresses the problem that, given a suitably low level VERDI design,
what the problems involved in generating ADA code from this design.
Discusses the problems, presents suggestions for solutions and gives
an example of VERDI to ADA translation.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-250-88
Date : August 02, 1988
Author : M.Evangelist;I.Forman;G.Bruns
# pages : 26
Title : Tebasco: A Team-Based Coordination System
Abstract: Proposes on how such a system should operate.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-263-88
Date : September 14, 1988
Author : C.ElLIS;S.Gibbs;G.Rein
# pages : 12
Title : Design and Use of a Group Editor
Abstract: GROVE is a prototype outline editor specifically designed for use by
a group of people working simultaneously on the same text outline. It
has been used in work sessions by several groups ranging in size from
two to six people, in both face-to-face and distributed modes, for a
variety of design tasks. This paper describes the function of GROVE
and presents some of the important observations from these work
sessions.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-256-88
Date : September 07, 1988
Author : M.Lubars;M.Harandi
# pages : 7
Title : The Knowledge-Based Refinement Paradigm and IDeA: Concepts,
Limitations, and Future Directions
Abstract: The knowledge-based refinement paradigm of software development is a
paradigm that views the software development process as a succession
of knowledge-based refinements to an initial model of a desired
system. IDeA (Intelligent Design Aid) was developed as a prototypical
design environment to support the knowledge-based refinement
paradigm. This paper outlines the knowledge-based refinement
paradigm, capabilities of IDeA, and evaluates IDeA's effectiveness in
supporting the paradigm. Suggestions are made for improving the
paradigm and for constructing future supporting environments.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-270-87
Date : September 13, 1988
Author : I.Forman
# pages : 16
Title : Leader Election: An Exercise in Raddle Design
Abstract: This report presents three Raddle solutions to the Leader Election
Problem. The solutions demonstrate three strengths of Raddle: (1) The
use of the N-party interaction to express algorithms that are
independent of architectural and optimization considerations. In this
way Raddle supports the extreme upstream phase of the design process
in that designers can express concepts that were previously
unexpressible in any design notations for distributed systems. (2)
The decomposition of N-party interactions to achieve optimization and
customization to specific architectures. This supports the designer
in his second problem: how the performance requirements can be
achieved. (3) The composition of library teams to obtain a desired
team. This supports designers in their quest to reuse designs.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-033-88
Date : January 27, 1988
Author : C.Ellis;S.Gibbs;G.Rein
# pages : 23
Title : The Groupware Project: An Overview
Abstract: This paper is an overview of the groupware project, a
computer-supported collaborative work research project at MCC in the
Software Technology Program. We present the goals of the groupware
project and the design philosophy of our prototype systems. The paper
is organized into three sections: The Early Work, the Current Work,
and the Future Vision. Highlights of the past work on Project Nick
are presented, including a description of the electronic meeting room
(hardware and software) and a summary of the key findings from an
extensive empirical study conducted at STP during the summer of 1987.
Other early groupware systems (HyperMate and LIZA) are briefly
described. Then we describe our current activity to build a group
outlining tool (grove), and conclude with a description of our long
term vision.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-289-88
Date : September 09, 1988
Author : T.Biggerstaff
# pages : 6
Title : The Nature of Semi-Formal Information in Domain Models
Abstract: This position paper describes the nature and importance of informal
and semi-formal information in the understanding, interpretation and
reuse of large complex programs. The understanding of large, complex,
existing programs is sometimes called the "dusty deck" problem. The
emphasis of this research is on how one might create a model of a
domain that would help in the job of understanding and eventually
reusing large scale designs from large, complex and generally
unmastered existing programs. The role of informal and semi-formal
information is central to this domain model.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-233-88
Date : August 01, 1988
Author : B.Curtis;H.Krasner;N.Iscoe
# pages : 30
Title : A Field Study of the Software Design Process
Abstract: We studied the major problems experienced in designing large software
systems by interviewing personnel from 17 large projects. We use a
layered behavioral model to analyze how three of these problems - the
thin spread of application knowledge, fluctuating and conflicting
requirements, and communication bottlenecks and breakdowns - affected
software productivity and quality through their impact on cognitive,
social and organizational processes.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-294-88
Date : September 09, 1988
Author : M.Lubars
# pages : 19
Title : The IDeA Design Environment
Abstract: The design of software is a complex process requiring the software
designer to simultaneously perform a variety of activities. These
include the intellectual activities of exploring and analyzing design
alternatives, the consideration and reuse of previous solutions, the
organizational tasks of managing design goals, dependencies, and
partial solutions, and the clerical aspects of recording design
decisions. Very few environments have been developed that provide all
of these aspects of design support. The IDeA system is a prototypical
design environment that was developed to demonstrate that a single
environment could integrate many different aspects of software design
support. This report describes the IDeA environment and the aspects
of design support that it provides.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-275-88
Date : August 18, 1988
Author : S.Smith;S.Gerhart
# pages : 52
Title : STATEMATE and Cruise Control: A Case 2 Study
Abstract: The STATEMATE system uses a state transition formalism embodied in
activity and control charts and supported by simulation, analysis,
and documentation tools. This paper describes its application to an
automobile cruise control system, emphasizing the methodology lessons
of the case study.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-249-88
Date : July 29, 1988
Author : J.Conklin
# pages : 16
Title : Design Rationale and Maintainability
Abstract: Design decisions and assumptions occur within and during the process
of system design, but are not documented. This rationale is thus
generally lost. The careful deliberation and much of the domain
learning that went into resolving key design issues is thus wasted,
increasing overall system costs. This cost is most apparent during
maintenance, when a significant portion of engineer's time is spent
trying to recover the lost rationale of the system structure. An
approach is proposed for capturing this process oriented material
during development, indexed so that it provides this critical
information to maintainers.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-252-88
Date : August 04, 1988
Author : J.Conklin;M.Begeman
# pages : 20
Title : gIBIS: A Tool for all Reasons
Abstract: This paper describes an application specific hypertext system
designed to facilitate and capture policy and design discussions. The
system, gIBIS, implements a specific method, called Issue Based
Information Systems (IBIS), which was developed for use on large,
complex design problems. gIBIS (for graphical IBIS) makes use of
color and a high speed relational database server to facilitate
building and browsing typed IBIS networks. Further, gIBIS supports
the collaborative construction of these networks by any number of
cooperating team members spread across a local area network.
Experience to date suggests that the gIBIS tool is quite useful tool
for communication and organizing informal information.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-400-87
Date : October 12, 1988
Author : C.Ellis;F.Harary
# pages : 23
Title : The Forced Color Assignment Problem
Abstract: The 4-color problem has received widespread attention within
mathematical circles; it is concerned with coloring nodes of a graph
in such a way that no adjacent nodes have the same color. This paper
introduces and investigates a new, related concept within graph
theory which is motivated by the needs of software engineering. The
concept is a graph invariant, f(G) which we call the node color
forcing number of G. This invariant specifies the minimum number of
nodes of a graph G which must be colored in order to completely
determine all remaining node colors. A significant open problem is
how to characterize f(G).
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-363-88
Date : October 26, 1988
Author : T.Biggerstaff
# pages : 23
Title : Reuse of Very Large Scale Components
Abstract: This presentation argues that the reuse of very large scale
components (10KLOC and above) is where we can expect the increase in
productivity and quality to approach an order of magnitude. For
smaller components, the improvements to the overall project are
significantly less. In addition to productivity and quality, other
factors change as one scales up the size of components. In
particular, the key research problems change. The problems of finding
components and component standards are now overwhelmed by problems
such as understanding the nature of the large components so that they
can be modified and adapted to new situations. This introduces the
need for a new kind of tool -- one that aids in recovering the design
of a program. Such Design Recovery tools aid both in the population
of libraries of reusable components as well as in the understanding
and maintenance of existing programs.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-213-88
Date : September 22, 1988
Author : I.Forman
# pages : 14
Title : Data Flow Anomaly Detection for Raddle87
Abstract: The problem of detecting data flow anomalies in Raddle87, a language
for the design of distributed systems, is addressed. An algebra A is
described that is specialized for the detection of data flow
anomalies by interpreting the regular expression for the paths in a
program as an A expression. A method for efficiently computing data
is presented; the method is based on the iterative algorithm of
global data flow analysis.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-335-88
Date : October 18, 1988
Author : J.Peterson
# pages : 17
Title : XSCOPE: A Debugging and Performance Tool for X11
Abstract: The X Window System architecture consists of separate processes for
the window server and its clients. When poor performance or errors
are a problem in such a system, it may be difficult to determine if
the problem is with the client, some client toolkit, or with the
server. Xscope allows a programmer to view the actual request, reply,
error, and event packets sent between the client and the server,
providing the data needed to understand the system. The design of
Xscope indicates some problems with the syntax of the X11 protocol.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-298-88
Date : September 18, 1988
Author : R.Guindon
# pages : 13
Title : A Framework for Building Software Development Environments: System
Design as Ill-structured Problems and as an Opportunistic Process
Abstract: One model of the design process is as a process of stepwise
refinement, which is useful to describe the process of designing
programs and simple software systems. Any theory or model, however,
is an abstraction of the actual phenomenon studied and accounts only
for a subset of the potentially relevant events. Other abstractions
might more appropriately account for the process of designing
realistic systems and have early impact on the building of
environments to support software designers. An analysis of system
design tasks reveals that they are ill-structured problems. An
empirical study, using a system design task of realistic complexity,
shows that the design process is highly opportunistic. Opportunistic
planning is planning in which interim decisions can lead to
subsequent decisions at arbitrary points in the planning space. On
the basis of this analysis of system design tasks and the empirical
results, implications for environments to support designers are
derived.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-271-88
Date : September 27, 1988
Author : E.Levy
# pages : 34
Title : A Survey of Distributed Coordination
Abstract: Distributed Coordination is a problem of implementing a synchronous
communication event between an arbitrary number of processes in a
distributed environment. The problem captures two primary aspects in
distributed computing: exclusion and synchronization. After
presenting a clear specification of the Distributed Coordination
problem, the paper surveys and assesses algorithms for solving it.
Both message passing and broadcast algorithms are discussed. Classes
of algorithms which exhibit common properties are identified and
analyzed.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-295-88
Date : November 04, 1988
Author : M.Lubars
# pages : 11
Title : Domain Analysis and Domain Engineering in IdeA
Abstract: IDeA is a design environment that provides several forms of design
assistance during the construction of software designs. IDeA
concentrates in supporting the reuse of abstract software designs,
represented as design schemas. Before IDeA can provide design reuse
support, a designer experienced in certain application domains must
populate IDeA's design reuse library with schemas for those domains.
In performing a domain analysis, the analyst must consider which
objects to include and to what degree they should be abstracted.
After completing the analysis, the domain must be engineered to
support reuse. This paper outlines the domain analysis and domain
engineering steps for populating IDeA's reuse library and considers
how much abstraction is appropriate within a reusable domain.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-366-88
Date : November 04, 1988
Author : M.Lubars
# pages : 31
Title : A Domain Modeling Representation
Abstract: A serious problem in most software development projects is that key
information fails to get recorded, and many other kinds of
information are not uniformly integrated. A possible solution to the
problem is to evolve a model of the software system that includes the
relevant knowledge about its development. It is conjectured that if
all this information could be recorded, its use would provide better
quality software, facilitate communication between software
engineers, enhance software maintenance, and provide software
artifacts that are more reusable. This paper presents a domain
modeling representation (DMR) that represents a large portion of the
desired information.
__________________________________________________________________
Rpt num : STP-367-88
Date : November 11, 1988
Author : D.Webster
# pages : 35
Title : Mapping the Design Information Representation Terrain
Abstract: This report attempts to establish a context for design information
representation research, via a qualitative survey and comparison of a
broad range of relevant technologies. We discuss associated
representation requirements, and present a working "technology map",
which reflects relationships among the surveyed technologies. Within
the context provided by the map, we point out limitations of the
representation mechanisms of conventional software development
technologies, and prospects for overcoming them.
__________________________________________________________________
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!smu.UUCP!leff From: leff@smu.UUCP (Laurence Leff) Newsgroups: comp.doc.techreports Subject: tr-input/mcc Message-ID: <8901200529.AA18342@smu.edu> Date: 20 Jan 89 05:29:25 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 971 Approved: trlist@smu.edu