254 research outputs found

    The Use of Translator Implementation Methods for Writing Nonprocedural Interfaces to Application Software Systems

    Get PDF
    One of the results of advances in computer hardware technology is a wider use of computers in almost all areas of society. There is a need to make it possible for many people to use application software systems that are produced for different areas. For people without data processing backgrounds it would seem wise to use a nonprocedural interface to these systems. The implementation of a nonprocedural interface as a part of an application software system can be facilitated using aspects of the theory and practice of the translator construction for programming languages. The purpose of this paper is to introduce programmers who lack theoretical background and/or practical experience in the area of translator design and implementation to the relevant aspects of its theory and practice

    Simultaneous Equations in the Model System With an Application to Econometric Modelling

    Get PDF
    This report describes modifications to the MODEL language and processor to facilitate automatic implementation of solution procedures for systems of simultaneous equations. MODEL is a very high level nonprocedural language for specifying computational tasks. The MODEL processor compiles a specification in the MODEL language into a computer program in PL/I . The purpose of the current modifications is to allow users with relatively little programming expertise to solve complex mathematical systems involving sets of simultaneous equations quickly and efficiently using an automatic program generation approach to modelling. The primary application which has motivated these modifications is that of Project LINK, an international econometric model composed of independent constituent country/region models which are linked together into a complex network of simultaneous equations. This report presents the rationale behind these modifications, describes the syntax, semantics, scheduling and code generation of specifications containing simultaneous equations, and illustrates these facilities in applications to two small national models from the LINK system and to a novel linkage mechanism used to simulate trade among the national models

    Nonprocedural Communication between Users and Application Software

    Get PDF
    This report is a survey of nonprocedural communication between users and application software in interactive data-processing systems. It includes a description of the main features of interactive systems, a classification of the potential users of application software, and a definition of the nonprocedural interface. Nonprocedural languages are classified into a number of broad groups and illustrated with examples. Finally, future trends in user-computer interfaces and possible developments in manager-oriented languages are discussed

    Benchmarks of programming languages for special purposes in the space station

    Get PDF
    Although Ada is likely to be chosen as the principal programming language for the Space Station, certain needs, such as expert systems and robotics, may be better developed in special languages. The languages, LISP and Prolog, are studied and some benchmarks derived. The mathematical foundations for these languages are reviewed. Likely areas of the space station are sought out where automation and robotics might be applicable. Benchmarks are designed which are functional, mathematical, relational, and expert in nature. The coding will depend on the particular versions of the languages which become available for testing

    A requirements specification for a software design support system

    Get PDF
    Most existing software design systems (SDSS) support the use of only a single design methodology. A good SDSS should support a wide variety of design methods and languages including structured design, object-oriented design, and finite state machines. It might seem that a multiparadigm SDSS would be expensive in both time and money to construct. However, it is proposed that instead an extensible SDSS that directly implements only minimal database and graphical facilities be constructed. In particular, it should not directly implement tools to faciliate language definition and analysis. It is believed that such a system could be rapidly developed and put into limited production use, with the experience gained used to refine and evolve the systems over time

    Generating Data Flow Programs From Nonprocedural Specifications

    Get PDF
    Data flow is a mode of parallel computation in which parallelism in a program can be exploited at the fine grained as well as macro level. A data flow computer executes a data dependency graph rather than the program counter controlled sequence of instructions executed by conventional machines. Nonprocedural languages appear to be especially appropriate high level languages for data flow computers. Nonprocedural languages have only two statement forms: data description and assertion. The assertions enumerate the relationships among the data. A data dependency graph is also a suitable representation for a nonprocedural language program (or specification). This research is concerned with translating the dependency graph form of a specification to a program graph for a data flow machine. Specifications in the MODEL language are translated into an intermediate form, the data flow template. The template is a language-independent representation of the specification. The template is then translated into a data flow language (Manchester Dataflow) for the Manchester University machine. The translation consists of creating an array graph to represent the specification; generating the data flow program template from the array graph; and translating the template into MaD

    An overview of decision table literature 1982-1995.

    Get PDF
    This report gives an overview of the literature on decision tables over the past 15 years. As much as possible, for each reference, an author supplied abstract, a number of keywords and a classification are provided. In some cases own comments are added. The purpose of these comments is to show where, how and why decision tables are used. The literature is classified according to application area, theoretical versus practical character, year of publication, country or origin (not necessarily country of publication) and the language of the document. After a description of the scope of the interview, classification results and the classification by topic are presented. The main body of the paper is the ordered list of publications with abstract, classification and comments.

    A methodology for collecting valid software engineering data

    Get PDF
    An effective data collection method for evaluating software development methodologies and for studying the software development process is described. The method uses goal-directed data collection to evaluate methodologies with respect to the claims made for them. Such claims are used as a basis for defining the goals of the data collection, establishing a list of questions of interest to be answered by data analysis, defining a set of data categorization schemes, and designing a data collection form. The data to be collected are based on the changes made to the software during development, and are obtained when the changes are made. To insure accuracy of the data, validation is performed concurrently with software development and data collection. Validation is based on interviews with those people supplying the data. Results from using the methodology show that data validation is a necessary part of change data collection. Without it, as much as 50% of the data may be erroneous. Feasibility of the data collection methodology was demonstrated by applying it to five different projects in two different environments. The application showed that the methodology was both feasible and useful

    Multidisciplinary design optimization: An emerging new engineering discipline

    Get PDF
    This paper defines the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) as a new field of research endeavor and as an aid in the design of engineering systems. It examines the MDO conceptual components in relation to each other and defines their functions
    corecore