SOFTLIB — a documentation management system

This paper describes a software sysem (SOFTLIB) that has been developed to assist in the management of software documentation generated during systems development projects. It provides facilities to manage large numbers of documents, to file documents when they are complete and to issue them to system developers and maintainers. It also includes an information retrieval facility that allows programming staff to find documents, to examine their contents before issue and to assess the state of the software project documentation. SOFTLIB is explicitly intended to help manage the documentation generated during software development — it is not designed for use by end-users of that software or for managing end-user documentation. The novel characteristic of this system is the approach that is taken to the consistency and completeness of documentation. The documentation associated with a software system is organized in such a way that it may be detected if document sets are complete (that is, if all documentation which should be provided for a software component is available) and if document sets are likely to be inconsistent. This means that if a document has been changed without a comparable change being made to other associated documents, this is detectable by the librarian system. In addition, a subsidiary aim of our work was to investigate the utility of menu systems to complex software tools by building a user interface to SOFTLIB. We conclude that menu systems are far from ideal in such situations because of the range of possible options which must be handled by the system.     

MPLOT3—A system-independent plotting package

This paper describes a general purpose plotting package which enables sets of data points to be plotted on a variety of output devices by simply specifying the mnemonic name and without any programming on the part of the users. A plot can be produced with the default options from a simple data file which can be expanded to call in many extra facilities. Options include scaling, automatic selection of axes and their markings, and identification of curves/shapes by varying-length dashed lines, different symbols or colours. English and Greek characters can be written at any angle and size. Clipping or voiding facilities are provided to confine plotting inside or outside a given area. The package is expandable to allow new facilities to be added. The present form has been arrived at through feedback from the users over the last four years and has found a wide variety of applications in a scientific environment.     

Solo—system for on-line optimization

SOLO (system for on-line optimization) is a system of interactive computer programs for solving problems of optimization. It exists in two forms, one of which uses a teletypewriter exclusively for both input and output. The other retains the teletypewriter for input but presents outputs mainly on a cathode ray tube display. The optimization problem is expressed as the maximization of a function of an arbitrary bumber of parameters. Optimization problems often occur in engineering design, where it is often a matter of fitting a computed output, response or performance curve to the one desired. SOLO can be regarded as a tool for computer-aided design in this sense. SOLO does not make use of any methods of numerical analysis, but relies instead on organized interactive searching. No function derivatives are computed, so that SOLO can be applied to any type of function. Experience so far suggests that SOLO is much more efficient with functions possessing many local optima than it is with functions which have just one maximum.     

A human-computer interface for non-computer specialists

The COM teleconferencing system was designed to be easy to use for both beginners and people with much computer experience. A number of design choices in organizing the human-computer interface were considered very carefully. These design problems are not unique for teleconferencing applications, but will appear in many other developments of human-computer interfaces for non-computer specialists. This report discusses naming conventions, menu format, user commands, help facility and the treatment of ‘type ahead’ from the users.     

Public online pool—a method for managing online direct access space

This paper describes a software system, implemented at the Weizmann Institute of Science Computer Center, for managing online direct access space in a heavy batch/time sharing environment. Appropriate background discussion of the problem is presented in general, yet practical, terms. We describe the ‘ideal’ solution along with its shortcomings as we see them, followed by the solution as implemented at our installation and successfully operating for 5 years. Finally, we point out the effect this system had on our installation and show where future efforts could be rewarding. The work this paper describes won the 1975 prize of the Information Processing Association of Israel.     

Standardized task strain and system response times in human-computer interaction

Abstract

Involuntary delays in human-computer interaction, for example, system response times (SRTs) can increase stress. In the present study, 40 college-age subjects were randomly divided into an “incentive” and a “non-incentive” group”. Subjects performed a computer task with SRTs of 0-5, 15, and 4-5 s. Physiological, subjective, and performance data were collected during the task. The computer task was designed to individually set difficulty level (i.e., mental strain), thus standardizing the task for all subjects. By using this procedure, changes resulting from SRT duration can be separated from the effects related to task difficulty. The results indicate that both short and long SRTs produced differential psychophysiological changes consistent with different types of stress responses. Short SRTs resulted in higher autonomic and somatic activity, increased positive self-reported emotional states but poorer performance. Long SRTs resulted in increased electrodermal activity, negative self-reported emotional states and better performance.     

Rcs — a system for version control

An important problem in program development and maintenance is version control, i.e. the task of keeping a software system consisting of many versions and configurations well organized. The Revision Control System (RCS) is a software tool that assists with that task. RCS manages revisions of text documents, in particular source programs, documentation, and test data. It automates the storing, retrieval, logging and identification of revisions, and it provides selection mechanisms for composing configurations. This paper introduces basic version control concepts and discusses the practice of version control using RCS. For conserving space, RCS stores deltas, i.e. differences between successive revisions. Several delta storage methods are discussed. Usage statistics show that RCS's delta method is space and time efficient. The paper concludes with a detailed survey of version control tools.     

A survey of tools for the validation and verification of knowledge-based systems: 1985-1995

This paper presents the findings of a survey of software tools built to assist in the verification and validation of knowledge-based systems. The tools were identified from literature sources from the period 1985-1995. The tool builders were contacted and asked to complete and return a survey that identified which testing and analysis techniques were utilised and covered by their tool. From these survey results it is possible to identify trends in tool development, technique coverage and areas for future research.     

A database management system for cardiovascular disease

The Loyola Open-Heart Registry is a fully operational database that has hundreds of programs designed to input, modify, verify, maintain, update and analyze its raw data. It contains retrospectively collected data on approximately 4000 patients who underwent coronary bypass (CABG) or cardiac valve replacement (CVR) from January 1970 to May 1981. Since 1981 we have collected detailed information on approximately 1300 patients per year. The system is described in clinical and technical terms. The means of data acquisition and input are described and a flow chart for the collection of data is provided. The system's hardware is described briefly, and the nature and limitations of the software are discussed. Specific datasheets are described, and examples of output retrievals are provided. A few comments are made regarding the administrative aspects of database management. The entire paper is summarized, and our future plans and areas of development are described.     

A frame knowledge system for managing financial decision knowledge

Managing decision knowledge or expertise from domain experts is one of the most exciting challenges in today’s knowledge management field. The nature of decision knowledge in determining a firm’s financial health is context-dependent, intangible, and tacit in nature. Knowledge-based systems (KBS) have been recognized as a successful paradigm for managing financial decision knowledge attributed to possessing capabilities of reasoning and enhancing the consistency of decision-making. However, most present KBS adopt rules as the knowledge representation scheme, which cannot express the expert’s knowledge construct systematically when dealing with more numerous and disordered knowledge connotations. In addition, the standalone nature of the systems hinders them from deploying onto heterogeneous platforms and cannot accommodate to the emerging Web-enabled environment. To reduce these flaws, this study proposes a frame knowledge system in which the structural and procedural decision knowledge is encapsulated so that unnecessary interference can be avoided. A protocol analysis, before encapsulation, is conducted to elicit the tacit and unstructured knowledge from a senior CPA we cooperated with. The deployment and Web enabling issue is tackled by using Jess and Java interoperable computing. With these combined, it is possible to prompt the understandability, accessibility, and reusability of KBS. The effectiveness of the proposed system is validated in supporting the expert’s decision-making by conducting an empirical experimentation on 537 companies listed in the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation.     

Computer crime — Risk management and computer security

An analysis will be made on 95 cases of computer fraud and over 60 cases of computer crime reported in the U.K. from various private and public sources to establish the pattern of abuse and the modus operandi in various crime perpetration — who are the victims, who are the computer criminals, size of loss, penalties and detection and lessons learnt from the reported cases.The paper moves on to discuss the various options of risk control and crime prevention, risk analysis and business impact review, and how to set a budget for control of abuse.The paper closes with a discussion of the future implications from the proliferation of personal computers, office systems and distributed processing. What advantages would the future criminal gain from these activities? What would the auditor or security manager have to do to combat the potential new crime wave?     

PANGAEA—an information system for environmental sciences

PANGAEA is an information system for processing, long-term storage, and publication of georeferenced data related to earth science fields. Essential services supplied by PANGAEA are project data management and the distribution of visualization and analysis software. Organization of data management includes quality control and publication of data and the dissemination of metadata according to international standards. Data managers are responsible for acquisition and maintenance of data. The data model used reflect the information processing steps in the earth science fields and can handle any related analytical data. The basic technical structure corresponds to a three tiered client/server architecture with a number of comprehensive clients and middleware components controlling the information flow and quality. On the server side a relational database management system (RDBMS) is used for information storage. The web-based clients include a simple search engine (PangaVista) and a data mining tool (ART). The client used for maintenance of information contents is optimized for data management purposes. Analysis and visualization of metainformation and analytical data is supported by a number of software tools, which can either be used as ‘plug-ins’ of the PANGAEA clients or as standalone applications, distributed as freeware from the PANGAEA website. Established and well-documented software tools are the mini-GIS PanMap, the plotting tool PanPlot, and Ocean Data View (ODV) for the exploration of oceanographic data. PANGAEA operates on a long-term basis. The available resources are sufficient not only for the acquisition of new data and the maintenance of the system but also for further technical and organizational developments.     

对话管理中基于槽特征有限状态自动机的方法研究

对话系统的研究已经成为人机交互技术发展的新热点。而对话管理则是其中最重要的组成部分．该文在当前对话管理的各种实现方法的基础上,提出了一种基于槽特征的自动机设计方法,其中应用了状态压缩和状态集、动作集的子空间划分。并着重以确认过程为例,阐述了确认策略控制函数及其对对话过程的影响．文中还提出了一种树形的意图分层结构,并将这种分层结构应用于主题检测与主题切换,成功解决了多主题对话系统的主题切换问题．最后,实验表明该文提出的设计方案在策略控制、主题检测与主题切换等方面具有较好性能,同时也具有一定扩展性．     

招生咨询系统中的信息合成及其应用研究

文章以高校招生信息电话咨询作为实际应用对象,对人机对话系统中的不确定性推理进行了理论分析。并提出了基于证据理论的合成方法。在应用研究中给出了人机对话实验系统的基本算法。并对系统及数据库结构进行了探讨。     

HPCVIEW: A Tool for Top-down Analysis of Node Performance

It is increasingly difficult for complex scientific programs to attain a significant fraction of peak performance on systems that are based on microprocessors with substantial instruction-level parallelism and deep memory hierarchies. Despite this trend, performance analysis and tuning tools are still not used regularly by algorithm and application designers. To a large extent, existing performance tools fail to meet many user needs and are cumbersome to use. To address these issues, we developed HPCVIEW—a toolkit for combining multiple sets of program profile data, correlating the data with source code, and generating a database that can be analyzed anywhere with a commodity Web browser. We argue that HPCVIEW addresses many of the issues that have limited the usability and the utility of most existing tools. We originally built HPCVIEW to facilitate our own work on data layout and optimizing compilers. Now, in addition to daily use within our group, HPCVIEW is being used by several code development teams in DoD and DoE laboratories as well as at NCSA.     

软件研发中的项目质量管理工具与技术

重点介绍了软件研发中的项目质量管理常用的工具与技术,涉及配置管理、软件测试技术、帕累托分析、质量功能分布图等质量管理工具。     

ISDMS—a scientific data management system

This paper describes the design and development of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Scientific Data Mangement System (ISDMS). The ISDMS is an integrated system providing organization, processing, control and retrieval of scientific time series data in a large laboratory environment using Control Data Corporation (CDC) computers. Data reformatting, graphics, data manipulation, data management, engineering analysis and general utility functions are offered to engineers, scientists, and other end users. The ISDMS usage has grown steadily since its first release into production status in early 1979. The current configuration is well received by the user community and meets most requirements for studying and analysing data in a scientific environment.     

A new framework for managing IT-enabled business change

Abstract. Although information systems and technology (IS/IT) investments have always caused varying degrees of business change, the main purpose of many of today's IS/IT implementations is to change the business and/or organization in some significant way. However, most organizations' approaches to managing IS/IT developments have changed little in the last 15–20 years and are heavily dependent on methodologies of IS/IT development and associated project management principles. The philosophy being adopted by many organizations today is that there are few IS/IT projects (some infrastructure investments only) that do not cause business changes and therefore they are really 'business projects involving IS/IT'. This exploratory research set out to devise a new framework for 'IT and change' management, which is more appropriate to today's realities than traditional approaches. The initial framework was derived from 'first principles', then adapted and further developed by applying and testing it in a range of real projects in organizations. This paper summarizes the results of that work.