THE AIM OF ENCOURAGING THEIR USE ON A WIDER SCALE . FURTHERMORE , TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR ENHANCING THE EFFICIENT PRODUCTION OF SOFTWARE SHOULD BE DEVELOPED AS A DIRECT AID TO REMOVING THE SO-CALLED APPLICATIONS BACKLOG .
IN RELATION TO THE CURRENT ORIENTATION OF THE EXTENSION TO THE COMMUNITY MULTI-ANNUAL DATA PROCESSING PROGRAMME , ATTENTION IS DRAWN TO THE SUBJECTS OF ADA-RELATED METHODS AND PROGRAMMING TOOLS , AS WELL AS DISTRIBUTED DATABASE TECHNIQUES . WORK ON THESE SUBJECTS WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO ROUNDING OUT THE PURELY DEVELOPMENT ORIENTED WORK THAT CAN BE SUPPORTED UNDER THAT PROGRAMME .
. " RIGOROUS APPROACH TO INDUSTRIAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ( RAISE ) " ( REF . 315 : A/84 )
THE PROJECT AIMS AT BUILDING A COMPLETE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT BASED ON AN ENHANCED VERSION OF THE VDM METHOD . PRESENT SHORTCOMINGS OF VDM WILL BE CORRECTED , A NUMBER OF TOOLS WILL BE BUILT ( FIRST IN PROTOTYPE FORM , THEN IN PRODUCTION QUALITY FORM ) , SEVERAL INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS WILL BE UNDERTAKEN , AND TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL WILL BE PRODUCED .
. " PERSONAL WORKSTATION FOR INCREMENTAL GRAPHICAL SPECIFICATION AND FORMAL IMPLEMENTATION OF NON-SEQUENTIAL SYSTEMS ( GRASPIN ) " ( REF . 125 : A/83 )
THE PROJECT AIMS AT A PERSONAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT WORKSTATION FOR INCREMENTAL GRAPHICAL SPECIFICATION AND STEPWISE FORMAL IMPLEMENTATION OF NONSEQUENTIAL SYSTEMS . THE WORKSTATION IS TO COMPRISE A TOOL SET SUPPORTING TECHNIQUES FOR SPECIFICATION AND DOCUMENTATION , TESTING AND VERIFICATION AND CODING SIMULATION . GRASPIN IS BASED ON A WELL ENGINEERED MERGE OF TWO WIDELY ACCEPTED COMPLEMENTARY METHODS : HIGH-LEVEL PETRI-NET SPECIFICATIONS OF CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES AND AXIOMATIC-ALGEBRAIC SPECIFICATIONS OF ABSTRACT DATA TYPES . SIGNIFICANT USE IS TO BE MADE OF GRAPHICS AND OF CONCEPTS SUCH AS FOCUSSING TECHNIQUES , MULTIPLE WINDOWING CONCEPTS , AND SIMULTANEOUS HANDLING OF DIFFERENT CONTEXTS .
. COMPONENT-BASED SOFTWARE SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION ( TYPE A )
OBJECTIVES
TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR CONSTRUCTING SOFTWARE FROM RE-USABLE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS .
RATIONALE/BACKGROUND
IT IS EXPECTED THAT EFFECTIVE RE-USE OF COMPONENTS WILL LEAD TO DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN SOFTWARE PRODUCTIVITY FOR APPLICATION SOFTWARE .
TECHNICAL APPROACH
DATABASES AND KNOWLEDGE BASES FOR STORAGE/RETRIEVAL OF COMPONENT DESCRIPTIONS ; THE RETRIEVAL PROCESS HAS TO BE INTEGRATED WITH THE DESIGN CYCLE , AND THIS IS AS YET A MAJOR TOPIC OF R AND D .
INTERMEDIATE OBJECTIVES
YEAR 3 - PRODUCE PROTOTYPE OF DATABASE FOR STORAGE/RETRIEVAL OF COMPONENT DESCRIPTIONS
YEAR 4 , 5 - INCORPORATE RESULTS FROM AIP SUB-PROGRAMME AND FORMAL TECHNIQUES
PRODUCE MORE ADVANCED RETRIEVAL MECHANISM , EXTENDING COMPLEXITY OF COMPONENT DESCRIPTIONS
YEAR 6 - FINAL INTEGRATION OF TECHNIQUES AND RETRIEVAL MECHANISMS .
INTERDEPENDENCIES
PCTE ( ) , SPMMS ( ) , FORMAL SPECIFICATION TECHNIQUES FOR DESCRIBING COMPONENTS , KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS .
. SOFTWARE PRODUCTION BY SUCCESSIVE PROTOTYPES ( TYPE A )
OBJECTIVES
TO DERIVE METHODS , TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING SOFTWARE FROM A FIRST PROTOTYPE OF A COMPLETE SYSTEM TO AN IMPLEMENTED PRODUCT BY A SUCCESSION OF INTERMEDIATE " PROTOTYPES " .