HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: miket@hermes.tcs.com (Michael Turner nmscore Assoc.)
Subject: Re: SE going offshore?
Organization: Teknekron Communications Inc.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:50:11 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.142754.12335@ornl.gov> jov@styx.ornl.gov (Judd Jones) writes:
>
>Yesterday, Rustum Roy, Professor of Materials Science at Penn State,
>gave a lecture here entitled "Is American Science Policy the Enemy
>of American Technology?" (He concluded that it is.)
>
>One of his many claims was that just as the US has virtually lost
>the DRAM industry (global market share down from 100% in 1976 to
>15% today), it will also lose the software industry.
>
>His basic argument is that there are plenty of clever, well-trained
>people in developing countries willing to work for less than their
>US-based competitors. One example is the HP software shop in Bombay.
>It will be economically inevitable that this labor-intensive
>industry will be exported to places where labor is cheap.
>
>What do you think?

The US lost the DRAM industry in part because the US wasn't up to
the investment required to produce quality parts in time.  Maybe
Japan dumped, maybe it didn't, I never did figure that one out.
I was writing RAM diagnostics during this time, and the only reason
we used any American-made parts was because the vendors were leveraging
off of CPU parts.  Otherwise, we would have just used Japanese parts,
because we rarely had quality problems with them.

I don't want to get into the old flame-war about the propriety of the
"factory metaphor" in software design, but I think the two cases have
some major differences that make moving software off-shore not quite
inevitable.  Opponents of the factory metaphor say that the construction
project is the better point of comparison.  However, in the case of
software, we are talking about buildings that have a negligible
transportation component, unlike your average office building.
But We also don't (yet) have a commodity software components market,
as we do for ICs, so that analogy also fails.

Still, it couldn't hurt to invest in automation and in quality
improvement in software, just as it would have helped the US DRAM
industry to invest in automation and quality improvement in IC
fabrication.  I expect some erosion unless this happens.  But I
don't expect the sky to fall.  Or at least, not very fast.
---
Michael Turner
miket@tcs.com
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
From: drkhoe@nmt.edu (ONID)
Subject: Survey - Research
Organization: New Mexico Tech
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 03:17:18 GMT

                              QUESTIONNAIRE
                         TO EXAMINE CAFFEINE USE
                        AMONG COMPUTER SCIENTISTS
                         AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
                                     
Most of us enjoy consuming caffeine in one form or another. The purpose of
this questionnaire is to examine how much caffeine is being consumed, what
form the caffeine is being consumed in, and who is consuming it.

Please answer these questions with email to: bob@jupiter.nmt.edu
with the subject 'survey'.

**Please do not post your answers, that will waste bandwidth**

You don't have to quote the whole article, just use 6 lines or so:
EXAMPLE
	1 CS
	2 85 cans
	3 Jolt
	4 5 pots
	5 none (gives me a headache)
	6 45 Vivarin/hr.

Thank you!

1. What is your field of work/study?
    EE       CS        BothNeither

2. How much soda do you consume per day (average)?
    ________

3. What kind of soda do you drink?
    ________

4. How much coffee do you consume per day (average)?
    ________

5. How much tea?
    ________

6. Do you take any caffeinated pills? If so, how many?
    Vivarin  NoDoze    Maximum Strength Excedrin
    ______   ______    ______

bob@jupiter.nmt.edu
Bob "Chunkstyle" Broilo
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga to the Bone | SF2 Fanatics: Can you hang with the Guile combo's?
Moshing - the number one dance in America.  Kill the preacher hang the pope.
-------------------------------drkhoe@nmt.edu-------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
From: mheinric@teal.csn.org (Mark Heinrick)
Subject: Re: Teaching Software Engineering
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 05:40:45 GMT

zaphod@cs.mcgill.ca (Morris BERNSTEIN) writes:
: 
: After working as a professional software developer for a number of
: years, I've developed a deep understanding of software engineering.
: I've continued my reading, so I understand both how it should be done
: and how it is actually done, and I've developed some humble insights
: into why it tends not to be done the way it should be done.
: <stuff deleted> 
: 
: So, does anyone have any suggestions for a term project?  I don't
: particularly want to overwhelm the students with large amounts of
: work, and I don't want to require particularly fancy programming
: techniques, but I do what to give them the flavour of the process.
: 
: 
: Morris

The length of the class and the general level of experience will
determine the type of project. My own experience is that students 
do much better when they decide on a project and feel they "own"
it.

A good reference is "Models for Undergraduate Project Courses in
Software Engineering" (Shaw and Tomayko) in "Lectures in Computer
Science #536" SEI conference 1991, Tomayko (Ed.).

Best of Luck.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Heinrich
Colorado Springs, Colorado
#include <standard_disclaimer.h>
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
From: rms@miles.com (Rob Schultz)
Subject: Re: US v. the World in SE (Statistics)
Keywords: Skeptical
Organization: Miles Inc., Diagnostics Division, Elkhart, IN
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 15:59:34 GMT

In article <4309@bcstec.ca.boeing.com> swh7333@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Steve Haffner) writes:
>In article <1992Nov18.211654.15244@miles.com> I wrote:
>>                    Unofficial estimates of the number of software
>>developers and managers as of roughly 1991:  (stats deleted)
>
>I was curious about the ratio of developers to managers. 
>Imagine my surprise to find that all of the above countries
>have exactly the same ratio: 6.667 to 1!
>
>Which of the above numbers do you suppose were made up?

Interesting point (I never bothered to calculate the ratios).  The info
comes from Capers Jones' work, and describes preliminary results of his
study into the numbers and productivity rates of software developers
worldwide.  "The data ... is provisional and has not been validated as 
of 3Q91.  It is for discussion and calibration purposes only."  (From
the Applied Software Measurement course notes section on International
Software Productivity and Quality Levels.

I suspect that Capers determined that there was some average ratio between
developers and managers across most nations, determined either the number
of people involved in software or the number of developers, and simply 
ran the appropriate calculations.  So, while the numbers may be skewed
somewhat, I would tend to regard them as a good starting point for these
discussions.  What I find interesting is the ranking and relative size
of programming staffs and the quality and productivity rankings, rather 
than the absolute numbers.  Consider that even within a company, there will
be some differences in the ratio of engineering staff to management.  The
variances between companies, however, should be about the same or a little
less.  I would tend to believe that, although some cultures may be 
somewhat predisposed toward more or less management, overall the ratios
are pretty similar.

-- 
Rob Schultz   At Home:                        At work:          +1 219 262 7206
                      rms@andria.miles.com                        rms@miles.com
      {uunet|iuvax}!gator!miles!andria!rms        {uunet|iuvax}!gator!miles!rms
From: aaronf@fc.sde.hp.com (Aaron Friesen)
Subject: Re: Complexity metrics: Beyond McCabe.
Reply-To: aaronf@fc.hp.com
Organization: HP SESD, Fort Collins, CO
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.4 PL6]
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 04:58:24 GMT

Paul Johnson (paj@uk.co.gec-mrc) wrote:
: Should a metric like this take numbers of variables into account?
: Assignment statements?  If I take a chunk of code and put it into a
: function, inserting a function call in its place, have I increased
: complexity, decreased it or not affected it?

Halstead metrics deal with various things such as variables,
assignment statements and such.  It has been too many years since
I examined any of his work, but that might give you a starting
point or possibly jog someone else's memory on the subject.

--

Aaron
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
From: carnahan@possum.den.mmc.com (Rich Carnahan)
Subject: Estimating Large S/W Development Efforts
Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics, Denver
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 17:32:55 GMT

Anyone had any *real* success estimating large (>1M LOC) s/W development
efforts?  I'm interested in hearing about any creative (sic) techniques.

Cheers.

Rich

===================================================================

----------> rich <----------  carnahan@pogo.den.mmc.com 

Martin Marietta Astronautics		"I see that, once again,
Box 179                			 the clue harvest didn't
MS F4063               			 exactly yield a bumper  
Denver, Colorado        		 crop."  
80201                          			-- J. Oliver 
(303) 971-3521
From: zaphod@cs.mcgill.ca (Morris BERNSTEIN)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Estimating Large S/W Development Efforts
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:45:34 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: SOCS - Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada

In article <1992Nov20.023108.13035@spectrum.xerox.com> leisner@eso.mc.xerox.com writes:
>Rich Carnahan (carnahan@possum.den.mmc.com) wrote:
>: Anyone had any *real* success estimating large (>1M LOC) s/W development
>: efforts?  I'm interested in hearing about any creative (sic) techniques.
>: 
>
>If you considering so much code, you should take a good, hard look at what your
>doing...gcc is about 150Klines, A Vax BSD Unix kernel is even less...


While I prefer smaller, more elegent systems, some problems are
inherently complex.  There are a number of systems in the mega-LOC
range:
	Telephone Switching Systems
	Air Traffic Control
	Space Shuttle Software
	(SDI)
	...

I've seen high-level descriptions of telephone call-processing.  They
are ugly, but they're managable because they follow the specification.
There are all kinds of special cases.  Take a PBX with 1 for external
number: 91 may prefix a long-distance call, which is not allowed, but
911 must be processed without delay.


Morris
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
From: davisk@sable.rtp.dg.com (Karen Davis)
Subject: Re: TickIT
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 13:27:07 GMT
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC

In article <nigel.722041026@wrs.com>, nigel@wrs.com (Nigel Standing) writes:
|> levy@elaine.ee.und.ac.za (Dave Levy) writes:
|> 
|> >Can anyone tell me anything about TickIT?
|> 
|> I would like to get hold of a copy of "Guide to Software Quality Management
|> System Construction and Certification using ISO 9001/EN 29001/BS 5750
|> Part I (1987) dated 28 February 1992, Issue 2.0, which I believe is
|> published by TickIT. (TickIT is an organization of IT professionals and
|> is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry and the British
|> Computer Society).
|> 
|> Does anyone have an address/telephone/fax to order the above book. I have
|> tried all the local sources and no one has heard of it.
|> 
|> Thanks,
|> 
|> Nigel -
|> 


I have a copy of the book. Inside it says:
TickIT Project Office
68 Newman Street
London W1A 4SE
Tel: +44(0)71 383 4501
Fax: +44(0)71 383 4771


/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Karen M. Davis     			davisk@dg-rtp.dg.com
Data General Corporation		Phone: (919)248-5948
62 T.W. Alexander Dr.			Fax  : (919)248-5942
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709		
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\


Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
From: mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us
Subject: Re: SE going offshore?
Summary: The Written Language
Organization: :
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 17:03:45 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.133843.18058@sei.cmu.edu>, firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth) writes:
> In article <2B05650C.29402@ics.uci.edu> ejw@siam.ics.uci.edu (Jim Whitehead) writes:
 
> >...  Many software faults can be traced either to faulty specifications,
> >or incorrect interpretation of specifications.  ...  With programmers
> >working on these projects whose primary language is not English ... the
> >possibility for specification errors is very high, IMHO.
>
> Hate to tell you this, but in my experience the average graduate student
> from India speaks better english than the average US graduate.  One reason
> is that the main language of higher education in India ... is english,
> and it is taught both exactingly and well.

It may depend on what you mean by `better.'  If you mean that the Indian
student can understand and write Standard English competently, you may be
write.  Oral communication also suffers from an `accent barrier' and not
all people who can write Standard English well can be understood by someone
from Brooklyn or Atlanta or Lake Woebegone.  Heck, not all people from
Brooklyn can be understood in Atlanta!

Writing Standard English competently is only the beginning, of course.  If
you doubt that, read Bruce Catton.
-- 
 (This man's opinions are his own.)
 From mole-end				Mark Terribile

 mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ
From: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
Subject: Two tough questions!
Date: 23 Nov 92 20:33:45 GMT
Reply-To: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Organization: Field Robotics Center, CMU


Please help me with the following problems.  For reference, I am running
Sun OS 4.1.x with Maker 3.1X.

1. I am having a problem with fmbatch (actually fmprint).  When I try
to print a file using fmbatch, I get the following message:

  lpr: ps: unknown printer
  fmprintdriver.ps: Using /usr/local/share/pkg/xframe/.fminit2.0.ps

The printer the output should be directed to is called mulch.  This is
defined every place it can be.  The only place ps shows up is in 
/usr/local/share/pkg/xframe/.fminit2.0.ps/xresources/Maker.  I was on
the phone with the folks at Frame for quite a while, and the only
thing we haven't tried yet was rebooting my system.   


2. Can the condition for conditional text be the value of a user
defined variable?  Specifically, I am using fmmerge.  Certain
recipients have an address that requires two lines, while others have
an address that only needs one.  What I want to do is basically this:

$fname $lname
$company
$address1
if $address2 != NULL
  $address2
$city

etc


--
Gerry Roston (gerry@cmu.edu)    | Why has government been instituted at all?
Field Robotics Center,          | Because the passions of man will not con-
Carnegie Mellon University      | form to the dictates of reason and justice
Pittsburgh, PA, 15213           | without constraint.  Alexander Hamilton
(412) 268-3856                  | 
                                | 
The opinions expressed are mine | 
and do not reflect the official | 
position of CMU, FRC, RedZone,  | 
or any other organization.      | 
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
From: perez@csc.ti.com (edward perez)
Subject: Re: Licensing FM
Keywords: remote licensing
Reply-To: perez@csc.ti.com
Organization: Computer Science Lab, Texas Instruments
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 23:40:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.200620.11329@asl.dl.nec.com>, terry@asl.dl.nec.com writes:
>In article <1992Nov17.161422.28186@rzu-news.unizh.ch>
>suter@rsl.geogr.unizh.ch (Martin Suter) writes:
>
>> | With a little discipline, several simultaneous users can get by with
>> | one license.  I think our site has five licenses for thirty users ...
>>
>However, you need to do one other thing:  Set the system default for the
>field under the (FrameMaker level) menu:
>
>    INFO -> License... -> Give Up License When Idle:
>
>... to the smallest possible value (was 1 hour in 2.3; I'm not sure if they
>allow anything smaller now.  (I do not know exactly where you find in in the
>system defaults -- the one I've just described simply tells you what your
>default is, without setting it system-wide.)

the minimum is still 1 hour in Frame 3.1X.  you specify the license-wide max
idle time with the <MaxIdleTime 3600> field in the frameusers file (*).  the
default is 1000 hours.  the next time you bring up the License dialog AFTER you
get a license, the value from the frameusers file is obtained and transformed
to hours in the License dialog.  you cannot set the idle time to a value larger
than that specified in the frameusers file.  it would be nice to set a timeout
in minutes, but then frame would have a hard time distinguishing between 1
minute and 1 hour.  time (no pun intended) for two fields, hrs:mins, in that
dialog instead on of just one!!!

>
>BTW - Did you know you can (could?) use a FrameMaker license token from a
>remote site (possibly very remote!) simply by giving an email-style host
>address in the License Server Host field?  I've seen folks operate Frame
>in Virginia using a license from New Jersey.  (Please note that I'm not
>sure you can still do this with 3.1.)  This feature is handy if you are
>in a distributed environment and want to keep the number of statistically
>necessary licenses down to a minimum.

TI has personnel in Tsukuba, Japan.  We recently modified our 3.1X frameusers
file so that those folks can specify <license-server-host>@csc.ti.com and get
at one of our licenses in the event they run out over there.  we can do the
same.  talk about long distance computing!!

(*) the frameusers file is either in $FMHOME or your Frame workgroup directory.
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
edward roland perez          internet: perez@csc.ti.com             #
computer science laboratory     csnet: perez%ti-csl@relay.cs.net    #
texas instruments inc.          phone: 214-995-0698(w)              #
p. o. box 655474  ms 238                                            #
dallas, tx  75265                                                   #
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rjn@FC.HP.COM (Bob Niland)
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
Subject: Re: WinFrame3.0, UAE in PCL5 Driver
Date: 19 Nov 92 17:59:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: fc.Bxz5ys.v4
Reply-To: rjn@FC.HP.COM
Organization: Hewlett-Packard/WSY Ft.Collins,CO,USA
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.8 PL6]

Bob Niland (rjn@FC.HP.COM) wrote:

> UAE is: "General Protection Fault in HPPCL5A.DRV at 000E:2E91"

> I spoke to an on-line person about the UAE.  They suggested it might
> be due to a PCL5 driver bug (which is all that changed in my system),
> possibly related to using swap-to-file rather than dedicated swap space.
> I expect I'll try changing the swap and downloading a new driver.

Changing swap didn't help, and my HPPCL5A.DVR appears to be current (3/92).

Questions....

* Whose code is HPPCL5A.DVR?   MicroSoft?   HP?
  Which support org should I bug?

* What is this GPF likely to mean?

* Is FrameMaker just sending data to the driver, or is it interacting in
  more sophisticated ways, such as:
  - requesting back printer info like on-board fonts (appears to be)
  - asking the driver to perform data manipulation

Regards,                                              Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland      Internet: rjn@FC.HP.COM               3404 East Harmony Road
                CompuServe:  71044,2124               Ft Collins CO 80525-9599
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
From: rjn@FC.HP.COM (Bob Niland)
Subject: Re: WinFrame3.0, UAE in PCL5 Driver
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 03:05:29 GMT
Reply-To: rjn@FC.HP.COM
Organization: Hewlett-Packard/WSY Ft.Collins,CO,USA
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.8 PL6]

Bob Niland (rjn@FC.HP.COM) wrote:

Drifting off the topic.
In my basenote, I said...

> I have emailed the question to Frame, but I have no idea how long they
> typically take to respond (if they respond at all).

Frame does respond.  They sent an email answer to my earlier fonts question,
even tho I had only posted it to c.t.f.

I spoke to an on-line person about the UAE.  They suggested it might
be due to a PCL5 driver bug (which is all that changed in my system),
possibly related to using swap-to-file rather than dedicated swap space.
I expect I'll try changing the swap and downloading a new driver.

Regards,                                              Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland      Internet: rjn@FC.HP.COM               3404 East Harmony Road
                CompuServe : 71044,2124               Ft Collins CO 80525-9599

This article does not represent the official position of the
Hewlett-Packard Company.  The above data is provided for informational
purposes only.  It is supplied without warranty of any kind.
From: sean+@andrew.cmu.edu (Sean McLinden)
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
Subject: Re: Licensing FM
Date: 23 Nov 92 11:53:23 GMT
	<1992Nov18.033803.17768@cbnewsk.cb.att.com>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

>Software licenses:  another point in favor of flexible work hours.
>During the day people are banging heads getting licenses, but in the
>evening, 10 licenses sit idle (except for those 999 folks who didn't
>exit when they went home).

This is more of an argument for lowering licensing prices to some
reasonable level. I cannot imagine anyone at the user level actualling
liking floating licenses (as opposed to more reasonable single user
licenses or site licenses). From an economic point of view it makes
no sense at all and from a system administration point of view it is
just one more thing for the sys adm and the help desk to be concerned
about.

And in a collaborative environment why would you want "a point in favor
of flexible work hours?" I'm all for technology as a business re-engineering
tool when the benefits to improving the quality or efficiency of a process
are clear, but when you buy software which forces changes to user behaviors
to match the vendor's requirements where is the win?

In our operation we compared the functionality of tools such as FrameMaker
and Interleaf with WordPerfect and Word and the former were the clear winners.
But in business, today, a document preparation package is not an application
it is a part of the corporate infrastructure and, as such, it must be
ubiquitous to be useful. Each time that someone sits down at system to
put an idea onto paper and finds that they cannot save it because there isn't
a license available I will have lost a good idea. Perhaps, among the ones I
lost, was an idea about a new safety feature for automobiles that could save
10,000 lives, annually. I don't want to take that chance.

Sean McLinden
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
From: tomc@modcomp.uucp (Tom Cianflone)
Subject: Mentor (Context, doc) -> Frame Conversion Sites?
Organization: MODCOMP, an AEG company
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 13:27:06 GMT

I'm looking to chat with anyone who is converting to Frame as a result
of Mentor's decision to get out of the technical publishing software
business. We are a Mentor site and will be starting our conversion soon.
It would be nice to be able to exchange information with others who
are following the same path. Reply via email please. Thanks!
--
Regards, Tom Cianflone
<uunet!modcomp!tomc> -or- <tomc@modcomp.com>
From: rolf@tdv.k8.rt.bosch.de (Rolf H. Buerk IVA3. Tel. 1341)
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame
Subject: Frame3.1 under Hp-UX
Date: 17 Nov 92 15:31:19 GMT
Reply-To: rolf@tdv.k8.rt.bosch.de
Organization: Robert Bosch GmbH., Reutlingen, Germany.

We are running FrameMaker Version 3.1 on a HP 9000/300.
We want to upgrade from HP-UX 7.0 to HP-UX 9.0.
On the Frame tape there only the information HP-UX 7.0 or 8.0.

Does anybody know if the version 3.1 is running under HP-UX 9.0 ?


Thanks in advane

		Rolf


Newsgroups: comp.text.frame