ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Software complexity measurement
Authors: Joseph P. Kearney, Robert L. Sedlmeyer, William B. Thompson, Michael A. Gray, Michael A. Adler
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1986)

Inappropriate use of software complexity measures can have large, damaging effects by rewarding poor programming practices and demoralizing good programmers. Software complexity measures must be critically evaluated to determine the ways in which they can best be used.
Software reusability: a survey and a reusability experiment
Authors: W. Yin, M. M. Tanik, D. Y. Y. Yun, T. J. Lee, A. G. Dale
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

One way to increase software productivity is to reuse existing code, designs and specifications. This paper examines the characteristics of software reusability from the points of view of software engineering as well as knowledge engineering. Various approaches from each perspective are described and evaluated. In addition, an experiment in reusing existing program modules and code segments are performed. In the process, a prototype structure-editor with the code reusability in mind is developed.
Evaluating software development environments
Authors: N. Weiderman
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Software Engineering (1987)

The purpose of defining a methodology for evaluating software development environments is to add a degree of rigor and standardization to the process in much the same way as benchmark test suites do for evaluating certain hardware and software. The methodology developed at the Software Engineering Institute is user-oriented, comprehensive, repeatable, extensible, and partly environment independent. It has been used to evaluate several Ada environments so that they may be compared objectively according to the same criteria.The methodology is based on the underlying activities of software engineering since it focuses on the support of key software lifecycle activities rather than on adherence to a pre-existing tool taxonomy. The following paragraphs briefly describe the steps of each of the six phases of the methodology. The first three phases are independent of any particular environment and the last three are repeated for each environment evaluated.
End-user participation and the evolution of organizational information systems: an empirical assessment of Nolan's stage model
Authors: Markku Saaksjarvi
Venue: Proceedings of the twenty-first annual conference on Computer personnel research (1985)

Nolan's stage hypothesis on the growth of data processing provides a popular framework for describing the typical development patterns of organizational information systems. Up until now, a few limited tests have been published to ensure formally the reliability of the stage model. We report on an empirical study of 130 major Finnish edp user organizations where the aim was to test the power of Nolan's stage model. Several of Nolan's benchmarks were used as measures of the stage of development but special attention was given to the role of end-users in systems development. Not only were the actual stages of development measured but also estimates of the future changes in the major benchmarks were compared for typical groups of organizations. Our tests show that there are significant differences both in the stage and speed of development between organizations even with the same experience in computing. We have been able to assure that Nolan's model is a good descriptor of the average patterns of changes in data processing but it is not able to predict the development. The Nolan model seems to be confined within the limits of its own historical background.
Edmas: An Object-Oriented, Locally Distributed Mail System
Authors: Guy T. Almes, Cara L. Holman
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1987)

The Eden Project conducts research in the design and implementation of a distributed computing environment for a local area network. A specific goal in designing Eden was to provide users the advantages of both physical distribution and logical integration. Edmas, the Eden mail system, provided an early test of Eden as a base for building distributed applications. This paper discusses Edmas, and shows how Eden's advanced functionality aided us in structuring a distributed mail system, particularly in the areas of replying and distribution lists.
Interpolation with interval and point tension controls using cubic weighted v-splines
Authors: Thomas A. Foley
Venue: ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS) (1987)

Various methods have been developed to control the shape of an interpolating curve for computer-aided design applications. Some methods are better suited for controlling the tension of the curve on an interval, while others are better suited for controlling the tension at the individual interpolation points. The weighted v-spline is a C1 piecewise cubic polynomial interpolant that generalizes C2 cubic splines, weighted splines, and v-splines. Shape controls are available to &ldquo;tighten&rdquo; the weighted v-spline on intervals and/or at the interpolation points. The mathematical theory is presented together with short algorithms for parametric interpolation.
TID&mdash;a translation invariant data structure for storing images
Authors: David S. Scott, S. Sitharama Iyengar
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1986)

There are a number of techniques for representing pictorial information, among them are borders, arrays, and skeletons. Quadtrees are often used to store black and white picture information. A variety of techniques have been suggested for improving quadtrees, including linear quadtrees, QMATs (quadtree medial axis transform), forests of quadtrees, etc. The major purpose of these improvements is to reduce the storage required without greatly increasing the processing costs. All of these methods suffer from the fact that the structure of the underlying quadtree can be very sensitive to the placement of the origin. In this paper we discuss a translation invariant data structure (which we name TID) for storing and processing images based on the medial axis transform of the image that consists of all the maximal black squares contained in the image. We also discuss the performance of TID with other existing structures such as QMATs, forests of quadtrees, and normalized quadtrees. Some discussion on the union and intersection of images using TID is included.
The report of the ACM Longe-Range Planning Committee: a summary
Authors: Dorothy Deringer, David Brandin, Dexter Fletcher, Neil Jacobstein
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1986)

The Committee evaluates ACM as it exists today, and makes recommendations for the future.
A probability model for overflow sufficiency in small hash tables
Authors: R. M. Norton, D. P. Yeager
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1985)

For hash tables in which a strict physical separation exists between primary storage and storage for overflow records, with bucket capacity at least three, a complete probability model is described. A measure of hash table efficiency is introduced, called the table sufficiency index (TSI), and defined as the probability that the overflow space is sufficient assuming that the set of hashed keys has a uniform distribution. The constructed probability model may be used to compute the TSI for hash tables with parameters chosen from a restricted domain. The TSI is advocated as a tool for making decisions about the parameters of small hash tables.
A note introducing syntax through semantic routines
Authors: J. A. Ruf
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1987)

Historically, semantic routines have been treated within the confines of code generation rather than as an issue in grammar construction. The point of this paper is to illustrate when and how semantic routine placement within a grammar changes from a semantic construction to a syntactical construction.
Dynamic parallel complexity of computational circuits
Authors: G. Miller, S. Teng
Venue: Proceedings of the nineteenth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (1987)

The dynamic parallel complexity of general computational circuits (defined in introduction) is discussed. We exhibit some relationships between parallel circuit evaluation and some uniform closure properties of a certain class of unary functions and present a systematic method for the design of processor efficient parallel algorithms for circuit evaluation. Using this method: (1) we improve the algorithm for parallel Boolean circuit evaluation; (2) we give a nontrivial upper bound for parallel min-max-plus circuit evaluation; (3) we partially answer the first open question raised in [MiRK85] by showing that all circuits over finite noncommutative semi-ring and circuits over infinite non-commutative semi-ring which has finite dimension over a commutative semi-ring can be evaluated in polylogarithmic time in its size and degree using M(n) processors. Moreover, we develop a theory for determining closure properties of certain classes of unary functions.
The interface is often not the problem
Authors: Bengt Goransson, Mats Lind, Else Pettersson, Bengt Sandblad, Patrik Schwalbe
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1986)

Computer systems in the form of tools for specific functions within a work environment are becoming increasingly common. Because the users are not computer experts, and because the introduction of the new tools can dramatically change their tasks, problems arise. It is argued that even if the proper design of the MMI is very important, this will not solve all the problems. More basic problems concern what functions should be included in the system and how the users can understand what the system can do in different work situations and how the response should be evaluated in the context of the work situations. This is demonstrated by experiences from application projects. It is concluded that more research must be devoted to these problem areas. Another important result is the fact that the possibilities to develop more generally applicable computer based tools are limited. Adaption to local circumstances and needs is usually a necessity.
Non-hierarchical document clustering using the ICL distribution array processor
Authors: E. Rasmussen, P. Willett
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (1987)

This paper considers the suitability and efficiency of a highly parallel computer, the ICL Distributed Array Processor (DAP), for document clustering. Algorithms are described for the implementation of the single-pass and reallocation clustering methods on the DAP and on a conventional mainframe computer. These methods are used to classify the Cranfield, Vaswani and UKCIS document test collections. The results suggest that the parallel architecture of the DAP is not well suited to the variable-length records which characterise bibliographic data.
Deriving contingencies among diagnostic tests with Prolog by code examination
Authors: Richard Denney
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

The SSD (Standard Services Drawer) is part of a new well logging system developed by Schlumberger. A suite of 50 diagnostic tests are used for isolating failures in the SSD hardware. Causality in the hardware is reflected among the tests as contingencies: a test is contingent on another if the failure of the latter may cause the failure of the former. The design engineer uses his knowledge about contingencies among the tests to run them in an order appropriate for locating hardware failures. This paper reports the results of a cursory effort to automatically extract contingencies among these tests by direct examination of their source. PROLOG is used to describe tests and define contingencies.
Are applicative languages inefficient?
Authors: Carl G. Ponder, Patrick McGeer, Anthony P-C. Ng
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1988)

Side-effects are forbidden in applicative languages like Prolog [3], FP [2], pure Lisp [9], and SISAL [8]. Algorithms can often be reformulated applicatively with no loss of efficiency. It is not known whether this is always the case. Here are seven problems which have been resistant to efficient reformulation. The reader is invited to produce an efficient applicative program or lower-bound argument for any of these.
Computing covers for embedded functional dependencies
Authors: G. Gottlob
Venue: Proceedings of the sixth ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems (1987)

This paper deals with the problem of computing covers for the functional dependencies embedded in a subset of a given relation schema. We show how this problem can be simplified and present a new and efficient algorithm &ldquo;Reduction. By Resolution&rdquo; (RBR) for its solution. Though the problem of computing covers for embedded dependencies is inherently exponential, our algorithm behaves polynomially for several classes of inputs. RBR can be used for the solution of some related problems in the theory of database design, such as deciding whether a given database scheme is in Boyce-Codd Normal Form or decomposing a scheme into Boyce-Codd Normal Form.
An extended X.400 architectural model
Authors: M Medina
Venue: ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (1986)

This paper presents an update of a model generated in the AMIGO project supported by the CEC (Comission of the European Community) in the framework of the action COST-11ter. It collects together comments made at the meeting of the IFIP WG6.5 held in Oslo, 2-5 December 1985. Acknowledgements go to the attendees of that meeting and to the members of the AMIGO project for the contributions they made.
On APL software for credibility theory
Authors: M. J. Goovaerts
Venue: ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad (1987)

Recently APL software has been developed to cope with typical actuarial problems such as loss-reserving, tariff-rating, actuarial forecasting etc. In this contribution we give an illustration of that software treating a typical actuarial technique namely Credibility Theory.
Associative model of morphological analysis: an empirical inquiry
Authors: Harri Jäppinen, Matti Ylilammi
Venue: Computational Linguistics (1986)

This paper presents a computational model for the analysis of word forms of a highly inflectional, agglutinative language. We call the model "associative" as it directly links phonemic stimulus with its morphemic interpretation(s) under the guidance of a coherence constraint. The model has been fully implemented for Finnish. We discuss separately the abstract model and various algorithms to implement the model. We also demonstrate the implementation. The best features of the method are its efficiency and its capability of supporting open lexicons.
An experimental procedure for simulation response surface model identification
Authors: Lee W. Schruben, V. James Cogliano
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1987)

An experimental method for identifying an appropriate model for a simulation response surface is presented. This technique can be used for globally identifying those factors in a simulation that have a significant influence on the output. The experiments are run in the frequency domain. A simulation model is run with input factors that oscillate at different frequencies during a run. The functional form of a response surface model for the simulation is indicated by the frequency spectrum of the output process. The statistical significance of each term in a prospective response surface model can be measured. Conditions are given for which the frequency domain approach is equivalent to ranking terms in a response surface model by their correlation with the output. Frequency domain simulation experiments typically will require many fewer computer runs than conventional run-oriented simulation experiments.
Command execution in a heterogeneous environment
Authors: J T Korb, C E Wills
Venue: ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (1986)

As a user's computing environment grows from a single time-shared host to a network of specialized and general-purpose machines, the capability for the user to access all of these resources in a consistent and transparent manner becomes desirable. Instead of viewing commands as binary files, we expect the user to view commands as services provided by servers in the network. The user interacts with a personal workstation that locates and executes services on his behalf. Executing a single service provided by any server in the network is useful, but the user would also like to combine services from different machines to perform complex computations. To provide this facility we expand on the UNIX notion of pipes to a generalized pipeline mechanism containing services from a variety of servers. In this paper we explain the merits of a multi-machine pipeline for solving problems of accessing services in a heterogeneous environment. We also give a design and performance evaluation of a general mechanism for multi-machine pipes using the DARPA UDP and TCP protocols.
Smart recompilation
Authors: Walter F. Tichy
Venue: ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) (1986)

With current compiler technology, changing a single line in a large software system may trigger massive recompilations. If the change occurs in a file with shared declarations, all compilation units depending upon that file must be recompiled to assure consistency. However, many of those recompilations may be redundant, because the change may affect only a small fraction of the overall system. Smart recompilation is a method for reducing the set of modules that must be recompiled after a change. The method determines whether recompilation is necessary by isolating the differences among program modules and analyzing the effect of changes. The method is applicable to languages with and without overloading. A prototype demonstrates that the method is efficient and can be added with modest effort to existing compilers.
PLEXACT: an architecture design of a knowledge-based system for information systems development
Authors: Minder Chen, Jay F. Nunamaker,  Jr., Benn R. Konsynski
Venue: ACM SIGCPR Computer Personnel (1987)

This paper discusses the architecture and design of an expert system PLEXACT, (PLEXsys in ACTion), which can be used to assist users in defining their information requirements and to analyze the consistency and integrity of the requirements. PLEXACT is different from other system analysis languages and tools because of its active participation in the requirements elicitation process and its dynamic system architecture which is adaptable to different system development settings.Current system analysis methodologies are first reviewed and evaluated. An intelligent system development tool that can remedy the disadvantages of the current approaches is described. The knowledge needed for information systems development is identified and representations of this knowledge are discussed. An object-oriented and communication-based architecture, called PLEXACT, is proposed. PLEXACT is a configurable system architecture which can support expert system building for information system development. The kernel of PLEXACT includes: (1) Development Coordinator: coordinates different expert system models to solve the system problems and guide the development process. Development Coordinator consists of four components: User Modeler, Project Controller, Problem Analyzer, and Development Knowledge Base and Data Base; (2) Information Systems Modeler: builds information system development theories, methods, and tools into expert system models to capture multiple perspectives of a system at different level of abstraction. Models can work together by specifying their coupling information to Model Creator. Information Systems Modeler consists of Model Creator, Model Instantiator, System Analyst and Designer, Model-based Learner, and Modeling Knowledge Base and Data Base. Current research in knowledge-based system development tools and some implementation issues of PLEXACT are also discussed.
From contours to surfaces: testbed and initial results
Authors: Kenneth R. Sloan,  Jr., James Painter
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1987)

This paper is concerned with the problem of reconstructing the surface of three-dimensional objects, given a collection of planar contours representing cross-sections through the objects. This is an important problem, with applications in clinical medicine, bio-medical research and instruction, and industrial inspection. Current solutions to this problem have raised interesting theoretical questions about search techniques and the exploitation of domain-specific aspects of such search problems. In this paper, we survey known reconstruction techniques, describe a testbed for evaluating these techniques and present an improvement on the simple divide-and-conquer method analyzed by Fuchs, Kedem and Uselton [5].
Inference propagation in emitter, system hierarchies
Authors: T Sudkamp
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM SIGART international symposium on Methodologies for intelligent systems (1986)

Emitter and system hierarchies are represented by inference nets and propositional relationships. Emitters are the primitive objects of the domain and systems consist of relationships among emitters. Evidence gathered concerning the identification of emitters must be used to classify both emitters and systems. Evidential reasoning and inference nets are used to to combine information at each level. Methods of direct and indirect transfer of evidence between levels are presented.
Self-assessment procedure XVI: a self-assessment procedure dealing with computer organization and logic design
Authors: Glen G. Langdon,  Jr.
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1986)

A self-assessment procedure dealing with computer organization and logic design
Calculating Cumulative Operational Time Distributions of Repairable Computer Systems
Authors: Edmundo de Souza e Silva, H. Richard Gail
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1986)

We consider repairable computer systems, those for which repair can be performed to put the system back in operation. The behavior of the system is assumed to be modeled as a homogeneous Markov process. We calculate numerically the distribution of cumulative operational time, which is the distribution of the total time during which the system was in operation over a finite observation period. The method is based on the randomization technique. The main advantages include the ability to specify error tolerances in advance, numerical stability, and simplicity of implementation. We also show that other quantities of interest can be calculated as a byproduct of the method without any significant extra computational effort.
Equality-based binary resolution
Authors: Vincent J. Digricoli, Malcolm C. Harrison
Venue: Journal of the ACM (JACM) (1986)

A major event in automated reasoning was the introduction by Robinson of resolution as an inference principle that is complete for the first-order predicate calculus. Here the theory of binary resolution, based strictly on unification, is recast to incorporate the axioms of equality. Equality-based binary resolution is complete without making use of paramodulation and leads to refutations that are less than half as long as standard refutations with the equality axioms. A detailed discussion is given of the first major use of a theorem prover based on this new method.