A surface-plotting program suitable for microcomputers

Techniques for producing pictures with a microcomputer showing surfaces defined by heights on a regular rectangular grid are described. The production of contour maps and five types of isometric drawing with hidden lines removed on common types of plotting devices are considered. Examples of pictures are given.     

Analysis/design of multistory concrete buildings on microcomputers

A computer-aided, integrated, interactive system is developed for the analysis and design of high-rise concrete buildings under vertical, wind and earthquake loads on microcomputers. This system fulfills the need for: new approaches for input and output efficiency as they affect design operation, communication between users and hardwares, problem verification when large scale data input is involved. The system presented has several advantages: no restrictions are imposed on the number of buildings to be solved in the same run, it is a “user-friendly” system, it is interactively implemented, it requires no particular type of professional, it runs with any boundary condition, a typical run can be: analysis then design, or analysis only, or design only. Also, the input data can be checked very easily. In this manner, every participant in a project will provide a share towards this integration with no need to repeat work unnecessarily.Two phases are included. In the first one, geometry is computed or revised, eight loading cases in addition to wind and earthquake loads are considered and only analysis is conducted. In the second phase, the design is done with five options for every section. Members under concentric or eccentric loads, flexure, combined shear and torsion, combined shear and diagonal tension are considered.With the present system, two high-rise buildings were analyzed and designed. The first buildings three different shear walls and is subjected to wind loads. The second building is composed of interconnected frames and is under earthquake loads.     

Composite laminate optimization program suitable for microcomputers

The design of a composite panel requires some way of finding the minimum thickness laminate which will withstand the load requirements without failure. The mathematical complexity of this problem dictates the use of nonlinear optimization techniques. Although there are sophisticated optimization programs available capable of solving for the ply ratios, these programs are not often used in preliminary design because they require a large computer and some knowledge of the program's operation. As an alternative, specialized laminate optimization programs were developed which are compact and efficient enough to run on microcomputers. Only stresses at a point and inplane loads and deflections are considered. The programs are simple to use and require no knowledge of optimization. Techniques are developed in this paper that find minimum thickness laminates with either ply ratios or ply angles as design variables. Many test cases were run with these programs to demonstrate the weight savings possible over quasi-isotropic laminates. Particular interest is directed toward performance of the laminates under multiple independent loads. Initial orientations for the programs to operate on were studied, and 0/90/45/-45 laminates were found to be an effective starting point for design.     

A portable program to present courseware on microcomputers

In computer assisted instruction, certain main functions which have to be carried out by the computer can he distinguished. The performance of these functions will have different software and hardware requirements in different educational environments and both the requirements and the technology to implement them will change over time. It is therefore advantageous to make CAI systems as adaptable as possible. One approach to this is to divide the systems into independent modules each designed to achieve good portability both for software and for hardware. This paper describes such a module which is part of the Modular CAI System Delft. The program makes it possible to present on different types of microcomputers courseware designed using other modules of the system. The program is implemented in Pascal to yield maximum portability on modern microcomputers. Its future and portability are discussed.     

Software support tools for program synthesis for mini- and microcomputers

We consider the operation, the logical structure, and the implementation features of MUL'TIPROTSESSIST/SM, the software support system of the multilevel structured program design method for mini- and microcomputers. A program design technology using this support system is described.Translated from Kibernetika, No. 6, pp. 90–92, 94, November–December, 1989.     

PARM: a practical utility for drug design

To accommodate situations in which the 3D structure of the target receptor is not available, we have developed the Pseudo Atomic Receptor Model (PARM) software package. In this article we describe PARM and illustrate its use with three examples: elemenes (potential anticancer drugs), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, and human HIV-1 inhibitors TTD (1,1,3-trioxo-2H, 4H-thieno[3,4-e][1,2,4] thiadiazine derivatives). The results show that PARM can build models with favorable cross-validation statistics (Rcv2 values 0.7-0.9) and give helpful SAR insight. PARM has certain advantages: (a) it can be used for many systems, regardless of whether the 3D structure of the receptor is known; (b) PARM models were demonstrated to be highly statistically reliable; and (c) PARM analyses are robust and reproducible.     

A formal design of an Arabic Text Formatter for microcomputers

This work presents the formal design of an Arabic Text Formatter (ATF), that may help many users in the Arab world. The design procedure is based on an automata approach to describe and recognize the Arabic characters. Thus a scanner is constructed in order to deal with the input stream and to recognize the words being written as well as to produce output tokens.Actually the form of an Arabic letter depends on its position in word. Therefore, the character generator should produce the correct shape to match the rules of writing the Arabic words. Here, we employ a keyboard that has a unique form for each character, however, the justification and the proper choice of a symbol format is carried out by the designed scanner.For the scanner, the regular expressions, the nondeterministic finite automata and the deterministic finite automata are given. The system commands and their corresponding actions are also pointed out.     

MICROTEXT: a new dialogue programming language for microcomputers

MICROTEXT is a new dialogue programming language that has recently been developed by the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory. This paper presents an overview of the language, describes its mechanism of program creation and then provides some examples of its use in the context of dialogue engineering.     

Evaluation of functions on microcomputers: exp(x)

This paper is a continuation of a study of numerical software for evaluating elementary functions in a microcomputer environment. Here we describe three algorithms for evaluation of the exponential function that are based on rationals, polynomials and coarse table look-up, respectively. Focus is on the design of fast algorithms that preserve full machine precision in small scale machines which use truncated binary fixed point arithmetic with at most a sixteen-bit wordlength. Included in the paper is a comparison of the performance of these algorithms implemented in two contemporary microcomputers.     

MPEG-2节目流分析及解复用器设计

在多媒体应用中,为满足不同的应用需求,常需要对若干路音视频基本流进行系统复用,而要完成复合系统流的解码并播放又需对其解复用,因而进行码流的分析十分必要。MPE6—2系统标准作为业界遵循的规范,有传输流和节目流两种编码形式,与固定长度包结构的传输流不同,节目流包长可变,通过对MPE6—2标准的研究并结合实际节目流的比特流结构分析,实现了节目流解复用器的软件编程,应用于系统的分析和测试中。     

Language design for program manipulation

The design of procedural and object-oriented programming languages is considered with respect to how easily programs written in those languages can be formally manipulated. Current procedural languages such as Pascal, Modula-2 and Ada; generally support such program manipulations, except for some annoying anomalies and special cases. Three main areas of language design are identified as being of concern from a manipulation viewpoint: the interface between concrete and abstract syntax; the relationship between the abstract syntax and static semantics naming, scoping and typing; and the ability to express basic transformations (folding and unfolding). Design principles are suggested so that the problems identified for current languages can be avoided in the future     

Folding&g: a research program transformed into a program for teaching

The program Folding&g was developed originally as a research tool in Structural Geology. Its adjustment to the environment of Windows 98-Me has simplified its utilization and permits its use as a didactic resource for teaching the process of natural folding. The program simulates the formation of folds developed by buckling, which appear at many scales from microscopic to kilometric, and are one of the most common geological structures. Different physical parameters, including, size, viscosity, either linear or power-law, and strain rate, and one or several competent layers, are introduced by the user to build a model that is shortened laterally to obtain folds of variable geometry, their characteristics depending on the parameters chosen. The program Folding&g is designed to be used as part of the exercises in elementary and advanced courses of Structural Geology, depending on the students’ curricula. For relatively simple models, it may also be used in a course of elementary Geology, as well as to train future teachers in Natural Sciences. The use of the program increases the efficiency of learning, since it may develop the abstraction ability necessary to understand key aspects of the process it simulates, upon increasing the attention of the students, their receptivity, their judgement and reasoning. That is to say, it favors and increases meaningful learning.     

Dimensions of information systems design: A framework for a long-range research program

Even though the two IFIP WG8.1 working conferences on the comparative review and feature analysis of information systems methodologies (ISDMs) have made an important contribution, there is a need for supplementary longer-term comparative research which might gradually produce empirically-based knowledge about what are to be regarded as sound principles of IS design in various circumstances. Due to its scope, this research should take the form of broad international cooperation based on a reasonably common research framework, one close in spirit to that of Ives, Hamilton and Davis. A research framework of this kind should include as one element a profound conceptual model for IS design as a process, an area which is left relatively unanalyzed in the model of Ives et al. For that purpose the paper outlines a framework based on the sociocybernetic metamodel for IS design as a starting point for discussion and hopefully a more elaborate framework.     

Software for experimental design: the computer program EXCAD

A computer program (EXCAD) dedicated to the optimization of experimental designs to estimate parameters of a mathematical model, is presented. EXCAD computes D-optimal designs and sequentially augmented designs. D-optimal designs minimize the determinant of the variance-covariance matrix and parameters, thus obtaining the average most accurate estimate of parameters. D-optimal designs have generally as many support points as the number of parameters in the mathematical model, so sample scheduling is minimal, not extensive. Augmented designs add to an original design the point that maximizes the decrement of the determinant of the variance-covariance matrix. The general model, linearly or not linearly parametrized Y = F(X,P), that relates two independent variables and P parameters to different responses may be written in the program, while a set of prewritten models is provided.     

自分光式色敏器件理论设计

本文首先从色度学角度提出对色敏器件的要求,接着指出现有色敏器件内不适合测物体色的原因,最后提出一种自分光式色敏器件的理论。该器件采用不同厚度的硅片做滤光片,再利用两只性能相近的色敏管输出的差值作信号,这样就可获得区域响应的输出,该输出具有分光性质。该器件的最大优点是可以用程控放大器或微机修正,从而获得精确的物体色的有关参数,而无需附加分光系统。