CASCON

Source code is, among other things, a text to be read. In this paper I argue that reading source code is a key activity in software maintenance, and that we can profitably apply experiences and reading systems from text databases to the problem of ...

Software engineering problems often involve large sets of objects and complex relationships among them. This report proposes that graphical visualization techniques can help engineers understand and solve a class of these problems. To illustrate this, ...

Understanding programs written by others is a difficult task. Most maintenance tasks in software require an understanding of the source code as a first step. Unfortunately, in most cases, the source code of a program is the only reliable documentation ...

This paper reviews the progress-to-date of the application of program reverse engineering technologies to a large-scale legacy software product. Basic reverse engineering concepts and a project overview are outlined, followed by a description of the ...

How do people find the information they need in softcopy documentation? In an attempt to answer this question, two usability assessments were conducted in which participants solved tasks using softcopy manuals presented on a version of BookiManager* ...

Historically, the process used to develop software has played an important role in the field of software engineering. A number of software lifecycle models have been developed in the last three decades. These models, while helpful in giving general ...

The presentation gives an overview of the activities at the IBM European Networking Center (ENC) in high speed and multimedia communications. ENC is involved in major efforts towards defining and prototyping communication systems for Europe 's evolving ...

This paper describes Distributed Knowledge Worker (DKW): a prototype multi-point desktop conferencing system that enables users to initiate and conduct business meetings using an ordinary computer and standard communications hardware. We present a ...

Starburst is a research prototype of an extensible relational database management system that is under development at the IBM Almaden Research Center. Through extensions to Starburst, we are incorporating the advanced structuring and data behavior ...

This paper examines the strategic importance of object oriented programming, looking ahead to the year 2000. It also surveys the coming impact of the more general area of object oriented computing, which includes analysis, design, databases, libraries, ...

The main objective of the proposed research described here is to create a prototype environment for developing and managing distributed applications. Its specific focuses are: building extensions to third-generation languages to exploit the process ...

This paper presents a strategy for simplifying the programming of heterogeneous distributed multiapplications. A multiapplication is a distributed system or a collection of autonomous applications which occasionally interact, such as a bank and its ...

Hermes is a process-oriented language that supports both blocking and nonblocking communication. This paper examines some constructs that can be used to introduce time limits on interprocess communication in Hermes. Currently, exceptions can only be ...

The work reported in this paper is part of a project aimed at designing and prototyping an application development environment that allows easy development of platform-independent distributed applications. The main goals of the database subproject are ...

The main objective of our research is to provide efficient mechanisms for storing and accessing bulk data using Hermes. The approach is to provide concurrent access to large shared data stores within and outside the Hermes environment. We propose that ...

NESTMOD is a combined analytical modeling and simulation tool, based on the existing tools NetMod and NEST. It provides both transient and steady-state response statistics from models of interconnected local area networks that can execute at any level ...

The X.500 Standard has been proposed as the basis for a directory service in distributed systems. There is some question as to whether it is suited to this use. This paper describes the initial work on the development of an X.500 simulation testbed to ...

Refresh strategies for distributed database directories, commonly recommended for the X.500 standard, are defined and analytically modeled for variations on push/pull and total/differential options under ideal asynchronous control conditions. The models ...

Much of recent work on computer systems has focused on providing transparent resource-sharing in a distributed computing environment. Many of these systems use the server-client model to provide access to data and services. As more distributed services ...

This report addresses the issues arising when structuring large-scale distributed systems. It examines the client-server paradigm, points out its shortcomings, and proposes a new structuring method called the client-service paradigm. It also describes ...

Network management systems built on a client/server model centralize responsibilities in client manager processes, with server agents playing restrictive support roles. As a result, managers must micro-manage agents through primitive steps, resulting in ...

Programmers of distributed applications face the challenge of building communicating processes (CP) in a complex, heterogeneous network with distributed data and services. The tools necessary to build these systems are emerging, but widespread ...

Efficient execution of loops is one of the most important obstacles facing high-performance computer architectures. Loop scheduling involves handling a partially ordered set of operations which are to be performed repetitively over a number of ...