ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
A style analysis of C programs
Authors: R E. Berry, B A.E. Meekings
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1985)

A large quantity of well-respected software is tested against a series of metrics designed to measure program lucidity, with intriguing results. Although slanted toward software written in the C language, the measures are adaptable for analyzing most high-level languages.
Computing simple circuits from a set of line segments is NP-complete
Authors: D. Rappaport
Venue: Proceedings of the third annual symposium on Computational geometry (1987)

Given a collection of line segments in the plane we would like to connect the segments by their endpoints to construct a simple circuit. (A simple circuit is the boundary of a simple polygon). However, there are collections of line segments where this cannot be done. In this note it is proved that deciding whether a set of line segments admits a simple circuit is NP-complete. Deciding whether a set of horizontal line segments can be connected with horizontal and vertical line segments to construct an orthogonal simple circuit is also shown to be NP-complete.
A globalizing transformation for attribute grammars
Authors: K. J. Räihä, Jorma Tarhio
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1986)

A transformation is presented for replacing conventional local attribute references in attribute grammars by upward remote references. The purpose of the transformation is to enhance readability of the grammar and to facilitate easy storage optimization.
A Characterization and Analysis of Parallel Processor Interconnection Networks
Authors: S. Yalamanchili, J. K. Aggarwal
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1987)

The permuting properties of various interconnection networks have been extensively studied. However, not too much attention has been focused on how the permuting properties interact with the mapping of tasks to processors in realizing the communication requirements between tasks. In this paper we focus on characterizing the abilities of some interconnection networks in realizing intertask communication that can be specified as permutations of the task names. From the point of view of the intertask communications requirements, the perceived permuting capabilities may depend upon the specific assignment of tasks to processors. Distinct network permutations may actually result in equivalent intertask communication patterns depending upon the mapping of tasks to processors. Characterizations of networks are developed based upon the theory of permutation groups. A number of properties as well as limitations of these networks become evident from this characterization. Finally, a class of switching networks is identified, that possess many useful properties that make them preferable to multistage interconnection networks in specific applications.
Formatting space-related displays to optimize expert and nonexpert user performance
Authors: M. J. Burns, D. L. Warren, M. Rudisill
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1986)

NASA Space Station missions will include crewmembers who are highly experienced in the use of the Space Station computer system, as well as others who are novices. Previous research into novice-expert differences has strongly implied that user interface changes that aid novices tend to impair experts and vice versa. This experiment investigated the impact reformatting alphanumeric information on current Space Shuttle computer displays had on the speed and accuracy of experts and nonexperts in two different search tasks. Large improvements in speed and accuracy were found for nonexperts on the reformatted displays. Experts had fewer errors but no response time difference on the reformatted displays. Differences in expert and nonexpert search strategies and implications for the design of computer displays are discussed.
Fuzzy Logic
Authors: Lofti A. Zadeh
Venue: Computer (1988)

The author presents a condensed exposition of some basic ideas underlying fuzzy logic and describes some representative applications. He covers basic principles; meaning representation and inference; basic rules of inference; and the linguistic variable and its application to fuzzy control.
A Study of Pipelining in Computing Arrays
Authors: H V Jagadish, R G Mathews, T Kailath, J A Newkirk
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1986)

In this paper, we take a hard look at scheduling considerations in computing arrays. A simple sufficient condition is developed for determining whether a computing array can be pipelined. If the array cannot be pipelined in the form given, the condition also indicates the direction in which to proceed to make it pipelineable. The overall framework and methodology take a good part of the load off the logical architect of the array, and make the translation from the logical to the physical architecture a mechanical process.
A New Benes Network Control Algorithm
Authors: K. Y. Lee
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1987)

A new Benes network control algorithm is presented. Unlike the original looping algorithm, the new algorithm is not recursive. In this algorithm (N x N) Benes network is viewed as a concatenation of two subnetworks SN1 and SN2. The first (log N - 1) stages of a Benes network correspond to SN1, and the remaining log N stages correspond to SN2. SN1 is controlled by a full binary tree of set partitioning functions, called a Complete Residue Partition Tree, and SN2 is bit controlled. The new control algorithm sets switches one stage at a time, stage by stage.
Two piece jig-saw puzzle robot assembly with vision, position and force feedback
Authors: G. C. Burdea
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

This paper presents a robotic assembly of two 3-D jig-saw puzzle pieces, using vision, position and force feedback. Geometrical aspects are discussed together with force history of the experiments. An installation using 7565 I.B.M. robot with a CCD camera on the robot arm is described. Successful experiments proved the possibility of assembling parts with complex contours when force feedback is used during fine assembly. A videotape of the demonstration is available. RR 107/1987.
A prototyping tool for graphical software engineering tools
Authors: I. Miyamoto
Venue: ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1987)

The paper introduces (1) a meta system, ERA Meta-Graph System, to define graphical modeling formalisms and to prototype their rule-based graphical editors, and (2) an example usage of the system to prototype some rule-based diagram editors for software designing process.
Orthogonal Latin squares: an application of experiment design to compiler testing
Authors: Robert Mandl
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1985)

Orthogonal Latin squares&mdash;a new method for testing compilers&mdash;yields the informational equivalent of exhaustive testing at a fraction of the cost. The method has been used successfully in designing some of the tests in the Ada Compiler Validation Capability (ACVC) test suite.
The architecture and preliminary evaluation results of the experimental parallel inference machine PIM-D
Authors: N. Ito, M. Sato, E. Kuno, K. Rokusawa
Venue: ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News (1986)

A parallel inference machine based on the dataflow model and the mechanisms to support two types of logic programming languages are presented. The machine is constructed from multiple processing elements and structure memories interconnected through a low-latency hierarchical network. The preliminary evaluation results of the experimental machine are also presented. The evaluation results show that the machine can exploit parallelism in programs.
Automatic generation of graphs from free-form text using APL
Authors: L. Owen Hill, David A. Zein
Venue: Proceedings of the international conference on APL: APL in transition (1987)

This paper supplements the material of Reference 1. In [1], we describe techniques and algorithms for extracting statistical and numeric data from free-form text files using APL. The files have arbitrary structure. In this paper, we will show sample files, each having its unique structure, and then demonstrate how the APL program generates graphic files in both batch and interactive modes. In the batch mode, the procedure of generating graphic files from free-form text is automated to the extent that minimum human intervention is required. In this mode, hundreds of files with different formats are processed daily. The interactive mode allows the user to modify the data used to drive the graphic part of the program using a full-screen session. The APL program is the 'workhorse' in a VM (virtual Machine) multi-programming environment, where several programs that use different languages interact. For example, in addition to APL2, we use REXX, SCRIPT, GDDM the (Graphical Data Display Manager), FORTRAN, PLI, and XEDIT. The automation is brought about by the use of a network of disconnected virtual machines, also known as service machines, within the IBM network of computers.
On improving channel routability
Authors: Roberto Tamassia, Ioannis G. Tollis
Venue: ACM SIGDA Newsletter (1988)

The interaction between placement and routing in circuit layout has received considerable attention in the literature. We present a survey of algorithms for improving the routability of a channel by laterally shifting the modules on shores.
Evaluation of the VAXTM Ada:2E compiler and APSE by means of a real program
Authors: G V Frigo
Venue: ACM SIGAda Ada Letters (1987)

This paper describes the design, implementation and check up of a non-trivial Ada reg; program involving tasking and generic packages in the context of an evaluation of the VAX Ada compiler and Ada Programming System Environment. The exercise took place at the end of 1985 at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN).
Autonomous Vehicle Control Using Al Techniques
Authors: D. Keirsey, J. Mitchell, B. Bullock, T. Nussmeier, David Y. Tseng
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1985)

A review of early work on a project to develop autonomous vehicle control technology is presented. The primary goal of this effort is the development of a generic capability that can be specialized to a wide range of DoD applications. The emphasis in this project is development of the fundamental Al-based technology required by autonomous systems and the implementation of a testbed environment to evaluate and demonstrate the system capabilities.
On threshold pivoting in the multifrontal method for sparse indefinite systems
Authors: Joseph W. H. Liu
Venue: ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS) (1987)

A simple modification to the numerical pivot selection criteria in the multifrontal scheme of Duff and Reid for sparse symmetric matrix factorization is presented. For a given threshold value, the modification allows a broader choice of block 2 X 2 pivots owing to a less restrictive pivoting condition. It also extends the range of permissible threshold values from [0, 1/2) to [0, 0.6404). Moreover, the bound on element growth for stability consideration in the modified scheme is nearly the same as that of the original strategy.
Pipelining and performance in the VAX 8800 processor
Authors: Douglas W. Clark
Venue: ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News (1987)

The VAX 8800 family (models 8800, 8700, 8550), currently the fastest computers in the VAX product line, achieve their speed through a combination of fast cycle time and deep pipelining. Rather than pipeline highly variable VAX instructions as such, the 8800 design pipelines uniform microinstructions whose addresses are generated by instruction unit hardware. This design approach helps achieve a fast cycle time, which is the prime determinan of performance. Some preliminary measurements of cycles per average instruction are reported.
Universal framework for information activities
Authors: Esa Auramäki, Mauri Leppanen, Vesa Savolainen
Venue: ACM SIGMIS Database (1987)

This paper defines a new fundamental, conceptual component of an information system. This component, together with the principles of systems-theoretical control structure and linguistic abstraction, is employed in constructing a universal hierarchical framework for the information activities in an organization. The framework lays the foundations for the analysis, modelling and evaluation of different kinds of informations systems, and their positions and relations of information activities in an organization. It thus offers a comprehensive model of information systems and a basis for research problem settings on all framework levels, e.g., on the information systems development (ISD) level and the ISD model construction level. The framework is shown to compete favorably with the earlier frameworks constructed by ANSI, ISO, Ives, et al., Nolan and Wetherbe, and Zahran.
Specifying the security properties of communications systems
Authors: Michael Witt, Nina Lewis
Venue: ACM SIGSAC Review (1987)

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate discussion of techniques for specifying the security related services offered at a protocol layer interface. While some "strawman" specifications are presented, the main intent is to convince the reader that this is an interesting area for further investigation.
Sagas
Authors: Hector Garcia-Molina, Kenneth Salem
Venue: ACM SIGMOD Record (1987)

Long lived transactions (LLTs) hold on to database resources for relatively long periods of time, significantly delaying the termination of shorter and more common transactions. To alleviate these problems we propose the notion of a saga. A LLT is a saga if it can be written as a sequence of transactions that can be interleaved with other transactions. The database management system guarantees that either all the transactions in a saga are successfully completed or compensating transactions are run to amend a partial execution. Both the concept of saga and its implementation are relatively simple, but they have the potential to improve performance significantly. We analyze the various implementation issues related to sagas, including how they can be run on an existing system that does not directly support them. We also discuss techniques for database and LLT design that make it feasible to break up LLTs into sagas.
Some heuristics for playing Mastermind
Authors: K Yue
Venue: Issue 98 (October 1986) (1986)

Several articles have appeared in SIGART Newsletter on the game of Mastermind during the recent three to four years (1 - 8). In particular, P. Norvig described a heuristic for obtaining an approximation to the optimal solution(1). In this article, several simple heuristics to play Mastermind are analyzed.
Post-Failure Reconfiguration of CSP Programs
Authors: Sol M. Shatz
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1985)

In this paper a technique called process merging is introduced. This technique allows the merging of two communicating sequential processes into a new single process. Thus, this technique can be used to reconfigure a distributed program after a faulty processing element has been detected. The technique is most applicable to dedicated multiple microprocessor systems where the need for continuous operation is critical. A process merging algorithm which operates on distributed programs using the CSP notation is presented in detail and its operation is discussed. In order to illustrate the merging technique, the algorithm's behavior is demonstrated using two classical distributed programs: the Bounded Buffer, Producer, Consumer program and the Dining Philosophers program. Finally, the merging technique is examined with respect to its demands on overall system operation and overhead. This examinatiQn leads to suggestions for future research.
Requirements for a practical software engineering environment
Authors: V. Masurkar
Venue: Proceedings of the 24th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (1987)

This paper, primarily, presents the facilities that satisfy the user requirements for a modern software engineering environment under development on VS at Wang Laboratories, Inc. Requirements analysis is emphasized as a cornerstone for the future direction in building a practical product. Finally, based on user needs and trends, the environment is seen as providing the entire spectrum of software product life-cycle activities with an underlying active relational database.
A Pipelined Image Analysis System Using Custom Integrated Circuits
Authors: E. Persoon
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (1988)

The requirements of a computer vision system in relation to industrial applications are studied. It is concluded that for the iconic image-processing part, a pipeline system built around a custom integrated circuit is preferred. This custom integrated circuit makes it possible to realize four basic operations in a compact way: shape recognition, mask generation, programmable image delay, and subsample filtering. An example that has been processed by a hardware realization of such a pipeline system is provided.
Establishing meaningful legal rights for intellectual property&mdash;The birth and care of the intellectual property baby
Authors: D. A. Roth
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

Intellectual property is the baby born from creative efforts. This infant must be carefully and timely nourished so that it will mature into intellectual property RIGHTS. The strength of these RIGHTS has a direct bearing on the liklihood of the creation's commercial success. As an illustration, a new superconducting ceramic alloy is intellectual property, but the patent on it is an intellectual property right.
Embedded menus: selecting items in context
Authors: Larry Koved, Ben Scneiderman
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1986)

In many situations, embedded menus represent an attractive alternative to the more traditional explicit menus, particularly in touchtext, spelling checkers, language-based program editors, and graphics-based systems.
A Solution to the Polynomial Hensel Code Conversion Problem
Authors: A. Mukhopadhyay
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1987)

The polynomial Hensel code of a rational function a(x)/ b(x) ? F(x), F is a field, is the pair (c(x) d-1(x) mod Xr, n); r is a positive integer and a(x)/ b(x) = (c(x))xn such that c(x) and d(x) have nonzero constant terms. Such a representation scheme was proposed, in analogy with the Hensel code representations of rational numbers, to facilitate arithmetic operations on rational functions and control intermediate expressions well. The difficulty with this scheme was the conversion of such a code to rational function form. In this correspondence, we have given sufficient conditions under which this can be done and have described an algorithm for effecting the conversion. We have also discussed an application, namely, the reduction of a rational function to its simplest form.
Algorithm specification in a very high level language
Authors: M. B. Gokhale
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

The Problem Specification (PS) nonprocedural language is a very high level language for algorithm specification. PS is suitable for nonprogrammers, who can specify a problem using mathematically-oriented equations; for expert programmers, who can prototype different versions of a software system for evaluation; and for those who wish to use specifications for portions (if not all) of a program. PS has data types and modules similar to Modula-2. The compiler generates C code. In this paper, we first show PS by example, and then discuss efficiency issues in scheduling and code generation.
Extended algebra and calculus for nested relational databases
Authors: Mark A. Roth, Herry F. Korth, Abraham Silberschatz
Venue: ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS) (1988)

Relaxing the assumption that relations are always in First-Normal-Form (1NF) necessitates a reexamination of the fundamentals of relational database theory. In this paper we take a first step towards unifying the various theories of &not;1NF databases. We start by determining an appropriate model to couch our formalisms in. We then define an extended relational calculus as the theoretical basis for our &not;1NF database query language. We define a minimal extended relational algebra and prove its equivalence to the &not;1NF relational calculus. We define a class of &not;1NF relations with certain &ldquo;good&rdquo; properties and extend our algebra operators to work within this domain. We prove certain desirable equivalences that hold only if we restrict our language to this domain.
Issues in defining an equations representation standard
Authors: Alan Katz
Venue: ACM SIGSAM Bulletin (1987)

This memo is intended to identify and explore issues in defining a standard for the exchange of mathematical equations. No attempt is made at a complete definition and more questions are asked than are answered. Questions about the user interface are only addressed to the extent that they affect interchange issues. Comments are welcome. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Nonconstructive tools for proving polynomial-time decidability
Authors: Michael R. Fellows, Michael A. Langston
Venue: Journal of the ACM (JACM) (1988)

Recent advances in graph theory and graph algorithms dramatically alter the traditional view of concrete complexity theory, in which a decision problem is generally shown to be in P by producing an efficient algorithm to solve an optimization version of the problem. Nonconstructive tools are now available for classifying problems as decidable in polynomial time by guaranteeing only the existence of polynomial-time decision algorithms. In this paper these new methods are employed to prove membership in P for a number of problems whose complexities are not otherwise known. Powerful consequences of these techniques are pointed out and their utility is illustrated. A type of partially ordered set that supports this general approach is defined and explored.
A case study in signal processing microprogramming using the URPR software pipelining technique
Authors: R. A. Mueller, B. Su, M. R. Duda, B. L. Plomondon
Venue: ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter (1986)

There are a growing number of micro-architectures that employ pipelined array units for high-speed floating point applications. To obtain the performance required in such applications, effective loop optimization is crucial. The loop optimization problem for micro-architectures with pipelined processing units is similar to the problem of array processor loop optimization. The URPR method has been proven to be an effective, low-complexity approach to optimizing loops in array processor programs, so we conducted a case study of the method applied to a representative pipelined microarchitecture based on the AMD29500 chip family. The results of applying two URPR compaction algorithms and a new compaction algorithm to the 29500-based micro-architecture are presented. With the new compaction algorithm, we were able to realize microcode as efficient as the complex microcode manually derived by AMD.