The impact of fourth generation languages on systems development

The purpose of this study was to identify the nature and scope of systems development projects in which 4GL's are being used, to compare these projects with projects in which procedural languages are being used, and to describe the benefits and limitations of 4GL's. Project managers with experience managing both traditional and 4GL projects returned questionnaires describing the size, cost, duration, scope and characteristics of these applications. The results indicated that project managers made a clear distinction between the types of projects that are appropriate for development using procedural languages and 4GL's. Procedural projects had higher transactions volumes, cost more, required more person-days, and were generally larger in scale. In contrast, 4GL projects had more variable outputs, less security requirements, less chance of audit, and less complexity. The perfect 4GL project was an inquiry and reporting system with less structured outputs, dynamic scheduling requirements, and low transactions volumes. MIS professionals recognize the benefits and limitations of 4GL's and are generally making good decisions about their use.     

Third-generation versus fourth-generation software development

A case study examines how fourth-generation languages do well and how they come up short compared to their predecessors. Two fourth-generation tools dBase III and PC/Focus were used, and a solution in Cobol was developed to use as a benchmark for third-generation-language performance. For each solution, development effort, code size, and performance characteristics were examined. It was found that even though the code sizes were smaller with both fourth-generation tools, Cobol was clearly superior in performance. It took longer to develop the solution in Cobol than in dBase III but less time than in PC/Focus     

How to choose a fourth generation system development environment

This second article on fourth generation system building describes the features necessary for a set of products to constitute a viable system development environment (SDE). The requirements for the fourth generation language, diagnostics, database management and hardware management are described. Several products of interest to those purchasing an SDE or wishing to learn more about the fourth generation language scene are listed and some advice on selection is given.     

ADTEST: a test data generation suite for Ada software systems

Presents the design of the software system ADTEST (ADa TESTing), for generating test data for programs developed in Ada83. The key feature of this system is that the problem of test data generation is treated entirely as a numerical optimization problem and, as a consequence, this method does not suffer from the difficulties commonly found in symbolic execution systems, such as those associated with input variable-dependent loops, array references and module calls. Instead, program instrumentation is used to solve a set of path constraints without explicitly knowing their form. The system supports not only the generation of integer and real data types, but also non-numerical discrete types such as characters and enumerated types. The system has been tested on large Ada programs (60,000 lines of code) and found to reduce the effort required to test programs as well as providing an increase in test coverage     

Software development for reliable software systems

The process of software development has a major influence on the reliability of a software system. The reliability of a software system can be improved by eliminating all the errors that occur during its development. This paper presents, from a tutorial point of view, a methodology of software development that can minimize the number of errors in a system when the system is being developed. The three phases of software development viz. requirements analysis, design, and implementation are examined to find out what needs to be done in each phase, how the end result of each phase can be verified for correctness, and how the form in which information is passed between each phase can be improved. This discussion is directly applicable to the development of small software systems and programs.     

Advances in test generation for testing software and systems

Among the software quality assurance techniques, testing stands out as one of the most frequently used techniques in practice. Consequently, testing is also widely studied in research. An important aspect in testing that receives much attention is the problem of automated test generation. This introductory paper summarizes the papers selected from the 25th IFIP International Conference on Testing Software and Systems (ICTSS 2013), which all deal with this topic. The field is briefly introduced by pointing out to some of the existing survey articles and relating the selected papers in this issue to each other and to the known body of knowledge.     

Model-driven development of interactive groupware systems: Integration into the software development process

Modeling interactive groupware systems is a complex and multi-disciplinary task. It is necessary to provide designers and engineers with a set of methods, notations and tools to specify the different aspects to consider when designing this type of systems. In this work we present a methodological framework based on the integration of several notations and processes for modeling some of these aspects, in particular: interaction, collaboration and functionality. The objective of this work is to provide a more complete support to the design of groupware systems, considering different viewpoints and modeling perspectives of the several stakeholders involved in the development of such applications.     

Robotics software frameworks for multi-agent robotic systems development

Robotics is an area of research in which the paradigm of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) can prove to be highly useful. Multi-Agent Systems come in the form of cooperative robots in a team, sensor networks based on mobile robots, and robots in Intelligent Environments, to name but a few. However, the development of Multi-Agent Robotic Systems (MARS) still presents major challenges. Over the past decade, a high number of Robotics Software Frameworks (RSFs) have appeared which propose some solutions to the most recurrent problems in robotics. Some of these frameworks, such as ROS, YARP, OROCOS, ORCA, Open-RTM, and Open-RDK, possess certain characteristics and provide the basic infrastructure necessary for the development of MARS. The contribution of this work is the identification of such characteristics as well as the analysis of these frameworks in comparison with the general-purpose Multi-Agent System Frameworks (MASFs), such as JADE and Mobile-C.     

Safety of computer control systems: challenges and results in software development

This paper reviews some results in improving software safety in computer control systems. The discussion covers various aspects of the software development process, as opposed to the product features. Software diversity, off-the-shelf software, failure mode and effect analysis, rigorous and formal software development are discussed.     

用例模型与装配式软件系统的开发

用例是获取需求的主要工具，用例模型成了与用户交流的手段。装配式软件是一种能提高软件适应性和生命力的系统，它是建立在基于组件的工程基础之上，以便系统维护时可以按组件装配、拆卸和替换。讨论了用例模型中的用例如何与组件建立映射关系，并给出装配式软件开发的具体过程。     

The applicability of software engineering in information systems development

The development of computer-based information systems involves more than the building of a complicated software system because each information system is embedded in a social and organizational environment. Software Engineering, which relies mainly on engineering approaches and places emphasis on formal methods, is inadequate to steer information systems development projects. Particular advances in Software Engineering will be best utilized within a broad framework which is capable of dealing with both technical and social/organizational issues.     

Mutant generation for embedded systems using kernel-based software and hardware fault simulation

Context

Mutation testing is a fault-injection-based technique to help testers generate test cases for detecting specific and predetermined types of faults.

Objective

Before mutation testing can be effectively applied to embedded systems, traditional mutation testing needs to be modified. To inject a fault into an embedded system without causing any system failure or hardware damage is a challenging task as it requires some knowledge of the underlying layers such as the kernel and the corresponding hardware.

Method

We propose a set of mutation operators for embedded systems using kernel-based software and hardware fault simulation. These operators are designed for software developers so that they can use the mutation technique to test the entire system after the software is integrated with the kernel and hardware devices.

Results

A case study on a programmable logic controller for a digital reactor protection system in a nuclear power plant is conducted. Our results suggest that the proposed mutation operators are useful for fault-injection and this is evidenced by the fact that faults not injected by us were discovered in the subject software as a result of the case study.

Conclusion

We conclude that our mutation operators are useful for integration testing of an embedded system.     

第四代移动通信的关键技术及其发展动态

随着我国科学技术的快速发展,居民的物质生活水平逐步提高,人们对通信技术也有了更高要求,第四代移动通信技术便应运而生。目前,第四代移动通信技术对于人们来说还是一个新鲜事物,对其技术的领先优势还不十分了解。本文从该系统的基本概念谈起,逐步介绍4G网络的主要特点和网络安全关键技术,最后探索4G网络未来的发展前景。上述工作的进行,旨在让人们对第四代移动通信系统有一个全面、清晰的认识,从而为进一步开发4G网络,为人类的生产、生活做出应有的贡献。     

3G与WiMAX联合组网研究

介绍了第三代移动通信系统（3G）和无线城域网WiMAX系统联合组网的优势和应用场景,对基于3G系统的接入控制和计费的WiMAX系统联合组网方案进行了详细阐述,给出了体系架构、关键信令流程和加密安全（AAA）等机制。     

Automating application software generation

Many approaches have been proposed to enhance software productivity and reliability. These approaches typically fall into three categories: the engineering approach, the formal approach and the knowledge-based approach. But the optimal gain in software productivity cannot be obtained if one relies on only one of these approaches. This paper describes the work in knowledge-based software engineering conducted by the authors for the past 10 years. The final goal of the research is to develop a paradigm for software engineering which integrates the three approaches mentioned above. A knowledge-based tool which can support the whole process of software development is provided in this paper.     

第四代移动通信技术浅析

对第四代移动通信技术(4G)的产生背景、发展历史、概念和技术特点进行了介绍。对4G的网络架构和关键技术进行了分析和讨论,详细分析了OFDM技术、MIMO技术、软件无线电技术、切换技术、智能天线和基于Ipv6的核心网技术,并结合一些调研数据,对4G的最新进展以及4G对计算机技术发展的影响进行了一定的分析,并对未来的技术发展进行了展望。