ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Ada&mdash;the project: the DoD high order language working group
Authors: William A. Whitaker
Venue: The second ACM SIGPLAN conference on History of programming languages (1993)

The Department of Defense (DoD) High Order Language Commonality program began in 1975 with the goal of establishing a single high order computer programming language appropriate for DoD real-time embedded computer systems. A High Order Language Working Group (HOLWG) was chartered to formulate the DoD requirements for High Order Languages, to evaluate existing languages against those requirements, and to implement the minimal set of languages required for DoD use. Other parts of the effort included administrative initiatives toward the eventual goal. Specifically, DoD Directive 5000.29 which provided that new defense systems should be programmed in a DoD &ldquo;approved&rdquo; and centrally controlled high order language and DoD Instruction 5000.31 which gave the interim defining list of approved languages. The HOLWG language requirements were widely distributed for comment throughout the military and civil communities worldwide. Each successive version of the requirements, from STRAWMAN through STEELMAN, produced a more refined definition of the proposed language. During the requirement development process, it was determined that the set of requirements generated was both necessary and sufficient for all major DoD applications (and the analogous large commercial applications). Formal evaluations were performed on dozens of existing languages. It was concluded that no existing language could be adopted as a single common high order language for the DoD, but that a single language meeting essentially all the requirements was both feasible and desirable. Four contractors were funded to produce competitive prototypes. A first-phase evaluation reduced the designs to two, which were carried to completion. In turn, a single language design was subsequently chosen. Follow-on steps included the test and evaluation of the language, control of the language and validation of compilers. The production of compilers and a program development and tool environment were to be accomplished separately by the individual Service Components. The general requirements and expectations for the environment and the control of the language were addressed in another iterative series of documents. A language validation capability (the test code suite) and associated facilities were established to assure compliance to the language definition of compilers using the name &ldquo;Ada&rdquo;. The name Ada was initially protected by a DoD-owned trademark.
How hard are n2-hard problems?
Authors: Stephen A. Bloch, Jonathan F. Buss, Judy Goldsmith
Venue: ACM SIGACT News (1994)

Many of the "n2-hard" problems described by Gajentaan and Overmars can be solved using limited nondeterminism or other sharply-bounded quantifiers. Thus we suggest that problems are not among the hardest problems solvable in quadratic time
Distributed computing in the workstation environment
Authors: Johann Mitlöhner
Venue: ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad (1993)

Exploiting unused processor time in workstation environments can result in large performance gains in user applications. A parallel each operator is shown which implements client-server based distributed processing. A time-consuming algorithm is sped up by using idle workstations in a local area network as APL servers.
The promise of multiparadigm languages as pedagogical tools
Authors: John Placer
Venue: Proceedings of the 1993 ACM conference on Computer science (1993)

This paper presents a discussion of why languages that support multiple paradigms (i.e. multiparadigm languages) have the potential to be good pedagogical tools for teaching programming skills. Several examples are given that demonstrate how different programming paradigms are expressed in a working multiparadigm language. The examples, though brief, provide a glimpse of how much expressiveness a simple multiparadigm design can embody and they suggest that the potential role of multiparadigm languages as teaching tools is promising.
Guardians in a generation-based garbage collector
Authors: R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, David Eby
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 1993 conference on Programming language design and implementation (1993)

This paper describes a new language feature that allows dynamically allocated objects to be saved from deallocation by an automatic storage management system so that clean-up or other actions can be performed using the data stored within the objects. The program has full control over the timing of clean-up actions, which eliminates several potential problems and often eliminates the need for critical sections in code that interacts with clean-up actions. Our implementation is &ldquo;generation-friendly&rdquo; in the sense that the additional overhead within a generation-based garbage collector is proportional to the work already done there, and the overhead within the mutator is proportional to the number of clean-up actions actually performed.
Influencing database language standards
Authors: Leonard Gallagher
Venue: ACM SIGMOD Record (1994)

In this first article of the regular column on data base standardization activities, I give an overview of topic areas under active development in the formal national and international standardization bodies. I solicit contributions on these active topics so that standardizers and researchers can cooperate in the near term, before irreversible decisions are made, to produce the most useful and highest quality database standards.
A short note on implementing thread exclusiveness and address space locking
Authors: Jochen Liedtke
Venue: ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review (1994)

A thread can make itself exclusive by disabling execution of all other threads running in the same address space. This brute force synchronization mechanism is useful in cases otherwise requiring numerous semaphore or mutex operations or when synchronizytion has to be added to existing software. Based on the L3 experiences, the paper describes how to implement exclusiveness by locking the relevant region of a task's address space. This optimistic method scales better than suspending and later reactivating all threads explicitly.
An evaluation of earcons for use in auditory human-computer interfaces
Authors: Stephen A. Brewster, Peter C. Wright, Alistair D. N. Edwards
Venue: Proceedings of the INTERACT '93 and CHI '93 conference on Human factors in computing systems (1993)

An evaluation of earcons was carried out to see whether they are an effective means of communicating information in sound. An initial experiment showed that earcons were better than unstructured bursts of sound and that musical timbres were more effective than simple tones. A second experiment was then carried out which improved upon some of the weaknesses shown up in Experiment 1 to give a significant improvement in recognition. From the results of these experiments some guidelines were drawn up for use in the creation of earcons. Earcons have been shown to be an effective method for communicating information in a human-computer interface.
A headsup on GUI styleguides: report on the CHI'92 styleguide SIG
Authors: Robert W. Root, Kathy M. Uyeda
Venue: ACM SIGCHI Bulletin (1993)

This article reports on a Special Interest Group meeting at CHI'92 to discuss issues associated with the development, deployment and use of design guidelines for Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). We discovered that styleguide practitioners (those who are responsible for developing commercial or inhouse guidelines) are desperately in need of moral support, advice on how to construct styleguides, and access to a sound, scientific base of HCI information that can be used to help make design decisions in the real world. The immediate challenges facing the Human Factors community are the need for solid and timely research to support guidelines, better transfer of research results to the real world, and the evolution of styleguide development into a systematic methodology that produces good guidelines and, therefore, good user interfaces.
On the role of compression in distributed systems
Authors: Fred Douglis
Venue: ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review (1993)

Compression has been used in numerous ways for many years, but recently two factors have combined in a way to push compression to the forefront of distributed systems. First, the disparity between processor speeds and I/O rates is ever-increasing, making it possible to perform compression in software to a much greater extent than was previously feasible. Second, the growth of new applications demanding enormous data rates, such as digital video and audio, makes hardware compression increasingly desirable: I discuss the importance of compression in various environments and describe how compression may be used not only to reduce the demand for disk space, disk bandwidth, and network bandwidth, but also to appear to extend physical memory.
Structured answers for a large structured document collection
Authors: Michael Fuller, Eric Mackie, Ron Sacks-Davis, Ross Wilkinson
Venue: Proceedings of the 16th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (1993)

There is a simple method for integrating information retrieval and hypertext. This consists of treating nodes as isolated documents and retrieving them in order of similarity. If the nodes are structured, in particular, if sets of nodes collectively constitute documents, we can do better. This paper shows how the formation of the hypertext, the retrieval of nodes in response to content based queries, and the presentation of the nodes can be achieved in a way that exploits the knowledge encoded as the structure of the documents. The ideas are then exemplified in an SGML based hypertext information retrieval system.
A tutorial system on inorganic chemical formulations and reactions
Authors: I. Luque Ruiz, J. L. Cruz Soto, M. A. Gomez-Nieto
Venue: ACM SIGCUE Outlook (1994)

This paper proposes a model that permits the development of a tutorial system devoted to teaching formulation and reactions in inorganic chemical. The model is based on both abstract data structures to represent this type of knowledge and the use of an Object-Oriented paradigm which permits the development of complex systems which can be used as a tutorial system for students as well as an expert system for researchers.The user interacts with the system through sentences representing inorganic chemical names (in several nomenclatures) working in a graphic environment that permits the development of powerful user interface necessary in this kind of system.
A novel framework of register allocation for software pipelining
Authors: Qi Ning, Guang R. Gao
Venue: Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages (1993)

Although software pipelining has been proposed as one of the most important loop scheduling methods, simultaneous scheduling and register allocation is less understood and remains an open problem [28]. The objective of this paper is to develop a unified algorithmic framework for concurrent scheduling and register allocation to support time-optimal software pipelining. A key intuition leading to this surprisingly simple formulation and its efficient solution is the association of maximum computation rate of a program graph with its critical cycles due to Reiter's pioneering work on Karp-Miller computation graphs [29]. In particular, our method generalizes the work by Callahan, Carr and Kennedy on scalar expansion[6], the work by Lam on modular variable expansion for software pipelined loops [20], and the work by Rau et al. on register allocation for modulo scheduled loops[28].
Scattered Data Modeling
Authors: Gregory M. Nielson
Venue: IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (1993)

A variety of methods for modeling scattered data are discussed, with an emphasis on two types of data: volumetric and spherical. To demonstrate the performance of the various methods, results from an empirical study using trivariate scattered data are presented. The author's objective is to provide information to aid in selecting a type of method or to form the basis for customizing a method for a particular application.
Distributed real-time system specification and verification in APTL
Authors: Farn Wang, Aloysius K. Mok, E. Allen Emerson
Venue: ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) (1993)

In this article, we propose a language, Asynchronous Propositional Temporal Logic (APTL), for the specification and verification of distributed hard real-time sytems. APTL extends the logic TPTL by dealing explicitly with multiple local clocks. We propose a distributed-system model which permits definition of inequalities asserting the temporal precedence of local clock readings. We show the expressiveness of APTL through two nontrivial examples. Our logic can be used to specify and reason about such important properties as bounded clock rate drifting. We then give a 220(n) tableau-based decision procedure for determining APTL satisfiability, where n is the size (number of bits) of the input formula.
Beyond the graphical user interface (abstract)
Authors: Ben Shneiderman
Venue: Proceedings of the 1993 ACM conference on Computer science (1993)

The wildly popular graphical user interfaces are a dramatic improvement over earlier interaction styles, but the next generation of user interfaces is already being fashioned. The future will be dynamic, spatial, gestural, colorful, ubiquitous, often auditory, and sometimes virtual. The dominance of visual information with hi-res images and full-motion video will push the hardware requirements, absorb network capacity, and challenge the algorithm designers. As human-computer interaction researchers accumulate experimental data and theory matures, novel input devices, information visualization displays, and interaction strategies will emerge.
Software measure specification
Authors: David A. Gustafson, Joo T. Tan, Perla Weaver
Venue: ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1993)

This paper introduces the model-order-mapping (MOM) approach for specifying software/document measures. A MOM specification requires that the important attributes of the document be identified, a model that captures the attributes be chosen, and a mapping from the document to the model be specified. A partial ordering on the model must be developed as well as an order-preserving mapping from the model to an answer set. The relationship of the approach to measurement theory is shown. Validation of the MOM specification is presented.Properties of software measures that are guaranteed by a validated MOM specification and those that can be proved from a validated specification are described.
Efficient call graph analysis
Authors: Mary W. Hall, Ken Kennedy
Venue: ACM Letters on Programming Languages and Systems (LOPLAS) (1992)

We present an efficient algorithm for computing the procedure call graph, the program representation underlying most interprocedural optimization techniques. The algorithm computes the possible bindings of procedure variables in languages where such variables only receive their values through parameter passing, such as Fortran. We extend the algorithm to accommodate a limited form of assignments to procedure variables. The resulting algorithm can also be used in analysis of functional programs that have been converted to Continuation-Passing-Style. We discuss the algorithm in relationship to other call graph analysis approaches. Many less efficient techniques produce essentially the same call graph. A few algorithms are more precise, but they may be prohibitively expensive depending on language features.
Communicative facial displays as a new conversational modality
Authors: Akikazu Takeuchi, Katashi Nagao
Venue: Proceedings of the INTERACT '93 and CHI '93 conference on Human factors in computing systems (1993)

The human face is an independent communication channel that conveys emotional and conversational signals encoded as facial displays. Facial displays can be viewed as communicative signals that help coordinate conversation. We are attempting to introduce facial displays into computer-human interaction as a new modality. This will make the interaction tighter and more efficient while lessening the cognitive load. As the first step, a speech dialogue system was selected to investigate the power of communicative facial displays. We analyzed the conversations between users and the speech dialogue system, to which facial displays had been added. We found that conversation with the system featuring facial displays was more successful than that with a system without facial displays.
Frequency counts, accumulations and cross-tabulations in APL
Authors: Gary A. Bergquist
Venue: ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad (1993)

Frequency counts (how many) and accumulations (how much) are everyday programming tasks. Yet, there are no primitive APL functions for solving these problems directly. Instead, you dig into your bag of techniques and use some clever shifting or inner/outer product method to do the job. This paper proposes a primitive syntax for generally computing frequency counts, accumulations and cross-tabulations (which are multidimensional frequency counts and accumulations). The aim of the paper is not to encourage the implementation of a new primitive function; rather, it offers a mental model: a way to view this class of problems. A user-defined function that implements the model is shown on page 28.
Analysis of multiterm queries in a dynamic signature file organization
Authors: Deniz Aktug, Fazli Can
Venue: Proceedings of the 16th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (1993)

Our analysis combines the concerns of signature extraction and signature file organization which have usually been treated as separate issues. We also relax the uniform frequency and single term query assumptions and provide a comprehensive analysis for multiterm query environments where terms can be classified based on their query and database occurrence frequencies. The performance of three superimposed signature generation schemes is explored as they are applied to one dynamic signature file organization based on linear hashing: Linear Hashing with Superimposed Signatures (LHSS). First scheme (SM) allows all terms set the same number of bits regardless of their discriminatory power whereas the second and third methods (MMS and MMM) emphasize the terms with high query and low database occurrence frequencies. Of these three schemes, only MMM takes the probability distribution of the number of query terms into account in finding the optimal mapping strategy. Derivation of performance evaluation formulas is provided together with the results of various experimental settings. Suggestions as to how to implement the given techniques in real life cases are also provided. Results indicate that MMM outperforms the other methods as the gap between the discriminatory power of the terms gets larger. The absolute value of the savings provided by MMM reach a maximum for the high query weight case. However, the extra savings decline sharply for high weight and moderately for the low weight queries with the increase in database size.
Designing the TFP Microprocessor
Authors: Peter Yan-Tek Hsu
Venue: IEEE Micro (1994)

Designed to efficiently support large, real-world, floating-point-intensive applications, the TFP (short for Tremendous Floating-Point) microprocessor is a superscalar implementation of the Mips Technologies architecture. This floating-point, computation-oriented processor uses a superscalar machine organization that dispatches up to four instructions each clock cycle to two floating-point execution units, two memory load/store units, and two integer execution units. Its split-level cache structure reduces cache misses by directing integer data references to a 16-Kbyte on-chip cache, while channeling floating-point data references off chip to a 4 Mbyte cache.
M.E.R.O.DE.: a model-driven entity-relationship object-oriented Development method
Authors: G. Dedene, M. Snoeck
Venue: ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1994)

Object Orientation has as primary goal to improve the software construction process. Object Oriented analysis, design and software construction should yield software of a high quality: software that is reliable, maintainable, extensible, adaptable. However, delivering large OO software systems in a qualitative way is a significant challenge. Scaling up requires formal precision of the semantics of the modelling techniques and languages used by the development team. And when the target system contains an abundance of parallelism, the problem of validation becomes unfeasible if it is not supported by formal techniques. With the incorporation of formal techniques in the development process, we can expect significant benefits in terms of software quality.For this reason, one might expect a high level of formality in current OOAD methods [9]. Unfortunately, most current OOAD methods are characterised by a low level of formality. The M.E.R.O.DE. methodology addresses this void. By making use of algebra, the methodology has been provided with a formal basis at several levels with a significant improvement of the quality of the software development process as a result.Before presenting M.E.R.O.DE. to the reader in the second section, the first section motivates the development of still another OOA method. The final section demonstrates how exactly the formal definition of M.E.R.O.DE. results in a gain of quality at the software specification level.
Beyond definition/use: architectural interconnection
Authors: Robert Allen, David Garlan
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1994)

Large software systems require decompositional mechanisms in order to make them tractable. Traditionally, MILs and IDLs have played this role by providing notations based on definition/use bindings. In this paper we argue that current MIL/IDLs based on definition/use have some serious drawbacks. A significant problem is that they fail to distinguish between "implementation" and "interaction" relationships between modules. We propose an alternative model in which components interact along welldefined lines of communication -- or connectors. Connectors are defined as protocols that capture the expected patterns of communication between modules. We show how this leads to a scheme that is much more expressive for architectural relationships, that allows the formal definition of module interaction, and that supports its own form of automated checks and formal reasoning.
Caching and database scaling in distributed shared-nothing information retrieval systems
Authors: Anthony Tomasic, Hector Garcia-Molina
Venue: ACM SIGMOD Record (1993)

A common class of existing information retrieval system provides access to abstracts. For example Stanford University, through its FOLIO system, provides access to the INSPECT database of abstracts of the literature on physics, computer science, electrical engineering, etc. In this paper this database is studied by using a trace-driven simulation. We focus on physical index design, inverted index caching, and database scaling in a distributed shared-nothing system. All three issues are shown to have a strong effect on response time and throughput. Database scaling is explored in two ways. One way assumes an &ldquo;optimal&rdquo; configuration for a single host and then linearly scales the database by duplicating the host architecture as needed. The second way determines the optimal number of hosts given a fixed database size.