Check Digits: Domain Implementation in Microcomputer Databases

Students studying their first systems learn that many businesses use serial numbers to identify such entities as customers, employees, and products. Sequentially numbered identifiers are prone to substitution and transposition errors during data entry. The addition of a check digit allows a business to continue to use their serial numbers (with modification) and provides identifiers less prone to undetectable data entry errors. Project oriented systems courses often utilize 4GL tools to implement student designs. With such tools students can reduce the development time considerably over the time required using 3GL procedural programming languages, this allows students to focus on design considerations rather than procedural programming techniques. However, in real life as well as in student projects, some functions cannot be implemented without the use of a procedural language. This article provides instructors material for illustrating how check digits can be incorporated into a microcomputer database application using the procedural language components of two popular database systems

Two research contributions in 64-bit computing: Testing and Applications

Following the release of Windows 64-bit and Redhat Linux 64-bit operating systems (OS) in late April 2005, this is the one of the first 64-bit OS research project completed in a British university. The objective is to investigate (1) the increase/decrease in performance compared to 32-bit computing; (2) the techniques used to develop 64-bit applications; and (3) how 64-bit computing should be used in IT and research organizations to improve their work. This paper summarizes research discoveries for this investigation, including two major research contributions in (1) testing and (2) application development. The first contribution includes performance, stress, application, multiplatform, JDK and compatibility testing for AMD and Intel models. Comprehensive testing results reveal that 64-bit computing has a better performance in application performance, system performance and stress testing, but a worse performance in compatibility testing than the traditional 32-bit computing. A 64-bit dual-core processor has been tested and the results show that it performs better than a 64-bit single-core processor, but only in application that requires very high demands of CPU and memory consumption. The second contribution is .NET 1.1 64-bit implementations. Without additional troubleshooting, .NET 1.1 does not work on 64-bit Windows operating systems in stable ways. After stabilizing .NET environment, the next step is the application development, which is a dynamic repository with functions such as registration, download, login-logout, product submissions, database storage and statistical reports. The technology is based on Visual Studio .NET 2003, .NET 1.1 Framework with Service Pack 1, SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 4 and IIS Server 6.0 on the Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 platform with Service Pack 1

Type-Directed Program Transformations for the Working Functional Programmer

We present preliminary research on Deuce+, a set of tools integrating plain text editing with structural manipulation that brings the power of expressive and extensible type-directed program transformations to everyday, working programmers without a background in computer science or mathematical theory. Deuce+ comprises three components: (i) a novel set of type-directed program transformations, (ii) support for syntax constraints for specifying "code style sheets" as a means of flexibly ensuring the consistency of both the concrete and abstract syntax of the output of program transformations, and (iii) a domain-specific language for specifying program transformations that can operate at a high level on the abstract (and/or concrete) syntax tree of a program and interface with syntax constraints to expose end-user options and alleviate tedious and potentially mutually inconsistent style choices. Currently, Deuce+ is in the design phase of development, and discovering the right usability choices for the system is of the highest priority

Team-oriented process programming

Team-oriented process programming promises to provide significant support for the planning, directing, and controlling of software engineering projects. In this paper we apply process programming to software engineering teams and show how this can provide powerful new capabilities for the management of software projects. We identify key issues which must be addressed to apply process programming to teams, and present our vision for team-oriented process programming