structured data interfacing for software systems
Structured programming has drawn considerable attention. Discussions have focused on language and data manipulations, however, and little has been done in the area of structuring data interfacing schemes for transferring data from one routine to another within a software system. Without proper rules governing the structuring of such schemes, it is difficult to trace the data interfacing flows. A structured data interfacing method, including selections of external routine usages, common file allocations, data naming techniques, and scheme construction criteria for solving the data traceability problem is suggested. As a result, the sources, destinations and types of the data in a data transferring flow are explicity traceable with the names of the data. The application of this method to a FORTRAN system is presented. Similar applications to systems in other languages will help to further the state of the art of software system development.
structured data interfacing software systems external routine usages common files fortran systems standard names software reliability common file specification