ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Survey of software engineering education
Authors: L. H. Werth
Venue: ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1987)

This study summarizes the software engineering course offerings of nearly one hundred universities responding to a recent survey. Information to determine the current state of software engineering education is tabulated and analyzed in order to support curriculum development and to determine deficiencies and future needs.Characteristics of the institutions are used to compare relative numbers, types and academic levels of course offerings. A history of course startups provides insight into the growth and direction of new classes. Instructor background is examined to determine current and future faculty support needs. Similarly, the use and availability of textbooks, automated tools, and other teaching materials are investigated for cours support requirements. Information on course format and project organization provides additional understanding of the structure of current software engineering courses.
Efficient and timely mutual authentication
Authors: Dave Otway, Owen Rees
Venue: ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review (1987)

This paper describes a protocol for efficient mutual authentication (via a mutually trusted third party) that assures both principal parties of the timeliness of the interaction without the use of clocks or double encipherment. The protocol requires a total of only four messages to be exchanged between the three parties concerned.
Some consequences of the existence of pseudorandom generators
Authors: E. Allender
Venue: Proceedings of the nineteenth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (1987)

If secure pseudorandom generators exist, then probabilistic computation does not uniformly speed up deterministic computation. If sets in P must contain infinitely many noncomplex strings, then nondeterministic computation does not uniformly speed up deterministic computation. Connections are drawn between pseudorandom generation, generalized Kolmogorov complexity, and immunity properties of complexity classes.
Interactive retrieval office documents
Authors: W. B. Croft, R. Krovetz
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM SIGOIS and IEEECS TC-OA 1988 conference on Office information systems (1988)

Office information systems are being used to describe and store documents with complex structure and multimedia content. Users of these systems can potentially make very complex specifications of the structure, layout and content of the documents they wish to retrieve. Although these complex queries could be more effective in identifying relevant documents, it is important that a well-defined model of retrieval is used, both as the basis for the retrieval strategies and the user interface. In this paper, we present a system (OFFICER) for the retrieval of office documents that is based on a model of plausible inference. The OFFICER query interface allows the specification of uncertain queries and combines uncertainties in the matching of queries and documents to produce an overall ranking for the documents.
Goals for and lessons from a computer literacy course
Authors: John T. Peterson
Venue: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (1987)

The primary component of most computer literacy courses has been learning to use a computer. However, a detailed treatment of societal issues, including the view of humans as machines, is equally important. Some difficulties of implementing a literacy course are also discussed.
Resolving the query inference problem using Steiner trees
Authors: Joseph A. Wald, Paul G. Sorenson
Venue: ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS) (1984)

The query inference problem is to translate a sentence of a query language into an unambiguous representation of a query. A query is represented as an expression over a set of query trees. A metric is introduced for measuring the complexity of a query and also a proposal that a sentence be translated into the least complex query which &ldquo;satisfies&rdquo; the sentence. This method of query inference can be used to resolve ambiguous sentences and leads to easier formulation of sentences.
Safety of recursive Horn clauses with infinite relations
Authors: R. Ramakrishnan, F. Bancilhon, A. Silberschatz
Venue: Proceedings of the sixth ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems (1987)

A database query is said to be safe if its result consists of a finite set of tuples If a query is expressed using a set of pure Horn Clauses, the problem of determining whether it is safe is in general undecidable In this paper, we show that the problem is decidable when terms involving function symbols (including arithmetic) are represented as distinct occurrences of uninterpreted infinite predicates over which certain finiteness dependencies hold. We present a sufficient condition for safety when some monotonicity constraints also hold.
Dost: an environment to support automatic generation of user interfaces
Authors: Prasun Dewan, Marvin Solomon
Venue: Proceedings of the second ACM SIGSOFT/SIGPLAN software engineering symposium on Practical software development environments (1987)

This paper describes an environment that allows the user interface of an application to be generated automatically. The environment uses an approach based on the ideas of editor-oriented user interaction and object-oriented programming.
Some software issues of strategic defense systems
Authors: R. T. Yeh
Venue: Proceedings of the 1987 Fall Joint Computer Conference on Exploring technology: today and tomorrow (1987)

Much of the controversies surrounding the Strategic Defense Software (SDS) [Parnas 86] are based on the facts that such systems cannot be field tested and that current research in AI, automatic programming, and software engineering are inadequate to address these problems. While I fully agree with the assessment that no major breakthrough is expected from Software Research in the near future [Brooks 87], I do believe that we can help to tackle the technical problems facing SDS and bring positive results to bear. In this position paper, I try to present my view of the software problems associated with the strategic defense systems and suggest an approach to tackle these problems.
MIS careers&mdash;a theoretical perspective
Authors: Michael J. Ginzberg, Jack J. Baroudi
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1988)

MIS personnel historically have exhibited a disturbingly high rate of turnover, and the job of the MIS manager is increasingly oriented to personnel and staffing problems. The MIS careers literature consistently suggests that what is needed to improve this situation is (1) more attention to formal career planning, and (2) the implementation of a dual career ladder system within the DP/IS organization. A look at the broader literature on organizational careers suggests that these suggestions may not in fact make sense. By considering only a subset of the relevant concepts about careers, we have reached conclusions that are quite possibly erroneous, and have made suggestions that will not likely help. Until further research on MIS personnel and their career needs is accomplished, we will have no valid basis for prescribing solutions to MIS careers problems. Suggestions for needed research are outlined.
Towards an expert system for bibliographical retrieval: a Prolog prototype
Authors: C. Watters, M. Shepherd, S. Shute
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (1987)

A prototype Prolog system has been developed for online bibliographic retrieval. Most online bibliographic retrieval systems may be characterized by queries based on the occurrence of keywords and by databases consisting of possibly millions of records. Such systems have very fast response times but generally lack any deductive reasoning capability. An expert system for online bibliographic retrieval, developed in Prolog, would provide enhanced retrieval capabilities through the application of deductive reasoning. Such a system would permit knowledge-type queries to be asked in addition to the traditional keyword-type of queries. A concern with using Prolog to perform an online search of a million-record data base is that the response time would be unacceptable. In order to overcome this drawback two alternatives are examined: a special-purpose hardware device and an extended Prolog capability.
Rooms: the use of multiple virtual workspaces to reduce space contention in a window-based graphical user interface
Authors: D. Austin Henderson,  Jr., Stuart Card
Venue: ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) (1986)

A key constraint on the effectiveness of window-based human-computer interfaces is that the display screen is too small for many applications. This results in &ldquo;window thrashing,&rdquo; in which the user must expend considerable effort to keep desired windows visible. Rooms is a window manager that overcomes small screen size by exploiting the statistics of window access, dividing the user's workspace into a suite of virtual workspaces with transitions among them. Mechanisms are described for solving the problems of navigation and simultaneous access to separated information that arise from multiple workspaces.
Multiprocessor experiments for high-speed ray tracing
Authors: Severin Gaudet, Richard Hobson, Pradeep Chilka, Thomas Calvert
Venue: ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) (1988)

New single- and multiprocessor models for ray tracing are presented. Important features are (1) the use of custom VLSI building blocks, (2) the use of a modified hierarchical data-structure-based ray tracing algorithm with three disjoint data sets, and (3) scene access through adaptive information broadcasting. A modular design is presented that permits incremental performance enhancement up to two orders of magnitude over conventional minicomputers or workstations. Ray tracing is a surprisingly good application for a shared bus architecture because of the computational complexity of intersecting light rays with graphics objects.
Concurrent programming language&mdash;LISPTALK
Authors: Chang Li
Venue: ACM SIGPLAN Notices (1988)

LISPTALK is a concurrent language which is based on both LISP and CSP. It is a process-oriented language. Besides the idea of pure LISP and CSP, its main features are COTALK, CHANNEL-PORT, and LINK. Within a process there may exist many LISP functions which can be defined by recursion. The communication among processes uses INPUT and OUTPUT function through CHANNEL-PORT. The LINK connects the CHANNEL-PORTS of processes staticlly and synchronizes the communication. LISPTALK can be used to object-oriented programming like SMALLTALK-80. The language is also suit for vision understanding and robotics. The most interesting is the similarity between LISPTALK's structure and human brain structure.
The Sprite Network Operating System
Authors: John K. Ousterhout, Andrew R. Cherenson, Frederick Douglis, Michael N. Nelson, Brent B. Welch
Venue: Computer (1988)

A description is given of Sprite, an experimental network operating system under development at the University of California at Berkeley. It is part of a larger research project, SPUR, for the design and construction of a high-performance multiprocessor workstation with special hardware support of Lisp applications. Sprite implements a set of kernel calls that provide sharing, flexibility, and high performance to networked workstations. The discussion covers: the application interface: the basic kernel structure; management of the file name space and file data, virtual memory; and process migration.
Buffer management in relational database systems
Authors: Giovanni Maria Sacco, Mario Schkolnick
Venue: ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS) (1986)

The hot-set model, characterizing the buffer requirements of relational queries, is presented. This model allows the system to determine the optimal buffer space to be allocated to a query; it can also be used by the query optimizer to derive efficient execution plans accounting for the available buffer space, and by a query scheduler to prevent thrashing. The hot-set model is compared with the working-set model. A simulation study is presented.
Discarding Obsolete Information in a Replicated Database System
Authors: Sunil K. Sarin, Nancy A. Lynch
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1987)

A replicated database architecture is described in which updates processed at a site must be saved to allow reconcilliation of newly arriving updates in a way that preserves mutual consistency. The storage space occupied by the saved updates increases indefinitely, and periodic discarding of old updates is needed to avoid running out of storage. A protocol is described which allows sites in the system to agree that updates older than a given timestamp are no longer needed and can be discarded. This protocol uses a "distributed snapshot" algorithm of Chandy and Lamport and represents a practical application of that algorithm. A protocol for permanent removal of sites is also described, which will allow the discarding of updates to continue when one or more sites crash and are expected not to recover.
Assessment of Software Reliability Models
Authors: Robert Troy, R. Moawad
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1985)

This paper proposes a method for assessing software reliability models and its application to the Musa and Littlewood-Verrall models. It is divided into two parts.
DFSP: A Data Flow Signal Processor
Authors: Iiro Hartimo, Klaus Kronlof, Olli Simula, Jorma Skytta
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Computers (1986)

The concept of data flow computing is applied to digital signal processing (DSP). A data flow signal processor (DFSP) architecture is presented. The principles of data flow computing are carefully considered in order to conform with the special properties of DSP. The bus oriented architecture is easily configured to meet various performance requirements. The DFSP architecture is most suitable for nonrecursive algorithms. Typical tasks of this nature are transforms and FIR filters. A simulation model of the DFSP architecture has been developed. Simulation results of two application examples are given.
Pricing computer services: queueing effects
Authors: Haim Mendelson
Venue: Communications of the ACM (1985)

This article studies the effects of queueing delays, and users' related costs, on the management and control of computing resources. It offers a methodology for setting price, utilization, and capacity, taking into account the value of users' time, and it examines the implications of alternative control structures, determined by the financial responsibility assigned to the data processing manager.
Efficient algorithms for 3D scan-conversion of parametric curves, surfaces, and volumes
Authors: Arie Kaufman
Venue: Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques (1987)

Three-dimensional (3D) scan-conversion algorithms, that scan-convert 3D parametric objects into their discrete voxelmap representation within a Cubic Frame Buffer (CFB), are presented. The parametric objects that are studied include Bezier form of cubic parametric curves, bicubic parametric surface patches, and tricubic parametric volumes. The converted objects in discrete 3D space maintain pre-defined application-dependent connectivity and fidelity requirements.The algorithms introduced here emply third-order forward difference techniques. Efficient versions of the algorithms based on first-order decision mechanisms, which employ only integer arithmetic, are also discussed. All algorithms are incremental and use only simple operations inside the inner algorithm loops. They perform scan-conversion with computational complexity which is linear in the number of voxels written to the CFB. All the algorithms have been implemented as part of the CUBE Architecture, which is a voxel-based system for 3D graphics.
Communication and Synchronization Primitives for Distributed Programs
Authors: N. Natarajan
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1985)

A distributed program is a collection of several processes which execute concurrently, possibly in different nodes of a distributed system, and which cooperate with each other to realize a common goal. In this paper, we present a design of communication and synchronization primitives for distributed programs. The primitives are designed such that they can be provided by a kernel of a distributed operating system. An important feature of the design is that the configuration of a process, i.e., identities of processes with which the process communicates, is specified separately from the computation performed by the process. This permits easy configuration and reconfiguration of processes. We identify different kinds of communication failures, and provide distinct mechanisms for handling them. The communication primitives are not atomic actions. To enable the construction of atomic actions, two new program components, atomic agent and manager are introduced. These are devoid of policy decisions regarding concurrency control and atomic commitment. We introduce the notion of conflicts relation using which a designer can construct either an optimistic or a pessimistic concurrency control scheme. The design also incorporates primitives for constructing nested atomic actions.
The eastern cardiac pacemaker surveillance center of the U. S. veterans administration
Authors: D C McManus, D R Fletcher
Venue: ACM SIGBIO Newsletter (1986)

As a comprehensive center for pacemaker study, the VA Eastern Pacemaker Surveillance Center (EPSC) combines three responsibilities. First, EPSC actively monitors more than 3,500 persons in 28 states by telephone. EPSC also maintains the national VA Pacemaker Registry of over 20,000 patients. Additionally, EPSC is the VA national center for testing explanted pacemakers. The EPSC database is implemented in MUMPS on a PDP 11/44 mini-computer, using the public domain FileMan DBMS. Designed after development of multi-programmable pulse generators and dual chamber pacing, the EPSC database incorporates the expanding range of new pacing parameters. Data is entered interactively by pacemaker technicians. EPSC capabilities include a linked on-site Marquette MUSE D-300 computer system which analyzes and stores standard-lead ECGs, clinically-recorded pacemaker pulse waveforms and telephoned rhythm tracings. Comprehensive EPSC services include augmented monitoring of veterans with pacemakers and leads involved in advisory bulletins or recalls.
Formal Specification of User Interfaces: A Comparison and Evaluation of Four Axiomatic Approaches
Authors: Uli H. Chi
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1985)

Few examples of formal specification of the semantics of user interfaces exist in the literature. This paper presents a comparison of four axiomatic approaches which we have applied to the specification of a commercial user interface-the line editor for the Tandy PC-1 Pocket Computer. These techniques are shown to result in complete and relatively concise descriptions. A number of useful and nontrivial properties of the interface are formally deduced from one of the specifications. In addition, a direct implementation of the interface is constructed from a formal specification. Limitations of these specification examples are discussed along with future research work.
Software evolution management: an integrated discipline for managing software
Authors: D. P. Schwartz
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Software Engineering (1987)

Many models have been devised to represent the processes involved in developing software with hopes of providing foundations for increasingly useful environment support tools. They have met with varied success in their abilities to relate to &ldquo;reality&rdquo;. This paper presents a model called the Software Evolution Management (SEM) Model. The SEM Model focuses on the problems and situations that commonly arise in commercial software development organizations, although it is probably relevant to other situations as well. This paradigm establishes a structure within which a tracking system can be implemented that smoothly integrates many different types of management and development activities.
A Neural Network for Visual Pattern Recognition
Authors: Kunihiko Fukushima
Venue: Computer (1988)

A model of a neural network is presented that offers insight into the brain's complex mechanisms as well as design principles for information processors. The model has properties and abilities that most modern computers and pattern recognizers do not possess; pattern recognition, selective attention, segmentation, and associative recall. When a composite stimulus consisting of two or more patterns is presented, the model pays selective attention to each of the patterns one after the other, segments a pattern from the rest, and recognizes it separately in contrast to earlier models. This model has perfect associative recall, even for deformed patterns, without regard to their positions. It can be trained to recognize any set of patterns.
Dynamic query interpretation in relational databases
Authors: A. D'Atri P. Di Felice, M. Moscarini
Venue: Proceedings of the sixth ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems (1987)

A new dynamic approach to the problem of determining the correct interpretation of a logically independent query to a relational database is described. The proposed disambiguating process is based on a simple user-system dialogue that consists in a sequence of decisions about the relevance (or not) of an attribute with respect to the user interpretation
A note on relative neighborhood graphs
Authors: J. W. Jaromczyk, M. Kowaluk
Venue: Proceedings of the third annual symposium on Computational geometry (1987)

Two new algorithms finding relative neighborhood graph RNG(V) for a set V of n points are presented. The first algorithm solves this problem for input points in (R2,Lp) metric space in time &Ogr;(n &agr;(n,n)) if the Delaunay triangulation DT(V) is given. This time performance is achieved due to attractive and natural application of FIND-UNION data structure to represent so-called elimination forest of edges in DT(V). The second algorithm solves the relative neighborhood graph problem in (Rd,Lp), 1 <p<oo, metric space in time &Ogr;(n2) when no three points in V form an isosceles triangle. The complexity analysis of this algorithm is based on some general facts pertaining to properties of equilateral triangles in the metric space (Rd,Lp).
Data bases, compound objects, and networked workstations: Beyond distributed computing (Abstract)
Authors: R. K. Neff
Venue: ACM SIGMOD Record (1987)

Requirements for future data base systems are developed from the perspective of the user of a networked workstation who naturally deals with compound objects. Objects considered include full text, diagrams, maps, sound recordings, images from film and video and of art objects, spreadsheets, etc. Searching requirements and strategies over multi-objects are also considered. The context of such data base systems is the library, in its electronic or digital version. Comments are presented with respect to the digital learning environment of the future. Current related projects at Berkeley are described.
A literature survey on distributed discrete event simulation
Authors: Fred J. Kaudel
Venue: ACM SIGSIM Simulation Digest (1987)

Much literature over the past decade has examined using multiprocessors to increase the speed and lower the cost of discrete event simulation. Three orthogonal approaches have been suggested, using simulation parallelism in support functions, in model functions and on the application level. This overview brings together these past approaches into a new framework wherein all three can be used simultaneously and suggests several promising research areas.