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Application Binary Interface: the interface by which an application program gains access to operating system and other services, designed to permit porting of compiled binary applications between systems with the same ABI.
In object-oriented programming, a class designed only as a parent from which sub-classes may be derived, but which is not itself suitable for instantiation. Often used to "abstract out" incomplete sets of features which may then be shared by a group of sibling sub-classes which add different variations of the missing pieces.
Advanced Computing Environment: a consortium to agree on an open architecture based on the MIPS R4000 chip. A computer architecture ARCS will be defined, on which either OS/2 or Open Desktop can be run.
A conventional or passive DBMS combined with a means of event detection and condition monitoring. Event handling is often rule-based, as with an expert system.
(AD = Application Development): a set of SAA-compatible IBM-sponsored products for program development, running on workstations accessing a central repository on a mainframe. The stages cover requirements, analysis and design,production of the application, building and testing, and maintenance. Technologies used include code generators and knowledge based systems, as well as languages and debuggers.
A high-level computer language sponsored by the US Department of Defense. It has a multitasking mechanism, and a number of features useful for software engineering.
Name given by Widrow to ADAptive LInear NEurons, that is neurons (seeMcCulloch-Pitts) which learn using the Widrow-Huff Delta Rule (see also Madaline).
A toolkit from Oracle allowing applications to be written portably for different windowing systems. It provides one call level interface along with a resource manager and editor across a range of "standard" GUIs, including Macintosh, Windows and the X Window System.
Abstract Data Type: a class of data structures described by means of a set of operations rather than by physical representation, such as a class in object-oriented programming..
Application environment specification: a set of specifications from OSF for programming and user interfaces, aimed at providing a consistent application environment on different hardware platforms. It includes O/S for the operating system (user commands and program interfaces), U/E for the User Environment (Motif), and N/S for Network services.
Audio IFF. A format developed by Apple for storing high-quality sampled sound and musical instrument info; also used by SGI and several professional audio packages.
Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format: an emerging OSF standard for software distribution. Programs are compiled into ANDF before distribution, and executables are produced from it for the local target system.
A specification language from Stanford University for formally specifying Ada programs. It has a Specification Analyzer and a Consistency Checking System.
A technique which can be applied to any minimization or learning process based on successive update steps (either random or deterministic) where the update step length is proportional to an arbitrarily set parameter which can play the role of a temperature. Then, in analogy with the annealing of metals, the temperature is made high in the early stages of the process for faster minimization or learning, then is reduced for greater stability.
Information Retrieval Service Definition and Protocol Specification for Library Applications. This standard specifies an OSI application layer service to allow an application on one computer to query a database on another; it is used by WAIS.
American National Standards Institute, responsible for approving U.S. standards in many areas, including computers and communications. ANSI is a member of ISO.
Application Program Interface: a term for the interface by which an application program gains access to operating system and other services, defined at source-code level.
The proprietary local area network protocol developed by Apple for their Macintosh range of processors. Current implementations exist on Localtalk and Ethertalk.
(Previously ARCS) Advanced RISC Computing Specification: the standard hardware architecture of ACE., specifying the baseline hardware requirements to create ACE-compatible systems.
An archive server database and query system operated by the McGill University School of Computer Science. Services remote requests for information on software kept on archives worldwide and available via ftp.
A CASE environment from ARTIS of Turin for the development of large event-driven distributed systems. It has code-generation and rapid prototyping features.
The subfield of computer science concerned with the concepts and methods of symbolic inference by computer, and the symbolic representation of the knowledge to be used in making inferences.
Abstract-Type and Scheme-Definition Language: developed as part of Esprit project GRASPIN, as a basis for generating language-based editors and environments. It combines an object-oriented type system, syntax-directed translation schemes and a target-language interface.
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit: an integrated circuit designed to perform a particular function by defining the interconnection of a set of basic circuit building blocks drawn from a library provided by the circuit manufacturer.
Abstract Syntax Notation 1: an ISO/CCITT standard for the description of data. It is intended to facilitate the exchange of data between application programs.
Attributed File System: the basis of the Shape_VC toolkit. Cooperative work within projects is supported by a status model controlling visibility of version objects, locking, and "long transactions" for synchronizing concurrent updates. The concept of object attributes provides a basis for storing management information with versions and passing this information between individual tools. This mechanism is useful for building integrated environments from a set of unrelated tools.
Project Athena: a distributed system project for support of educational and research computing at MIT. Much of the software developed is now in wider use, especially the X Window System
A Tools Integration Standard: an object-oriented interface to a set of services that allows the saving, accessing, and managing of information in a common repository. Developed by Atherton Technology and DEC, based on an extended version of the Software BackPlane, now proposed as an industry standard.
Application Visualisation System: a portable modular UNIX-based graphics package supported by a consortium of vendors including Convex, DEC, IBM, HP, SET Technologies, Stardent and WaveTracer.
An important algorithm for learning in feed-forward networks which makes use of a mathematical trick when the network is simulated on a digital computer, yielding in just two traversals of the network (once forward, and once back) both the difference between the desired and actual output, and the derivatives of this difference with respect to the connection weights.
Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.,of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was awarded the original contract to build the ARPANET and has been extensively involved in Internet development. It is responsible for managing NNSC, CSNET, and NEARnet.
An academic and research network connecting approximately 2500 computers, often IBM mainframes. It provides interactive electronic mail, and file transfer services via a store-and-forward technique based on IBM NJE protocols. BITNET traffic and Internet traffic are exchanged via several gateway hosts. It is now operated by CREN.
A hypertext documentation system from Oracle based on Oracle Toolkit. It allows the user to create private links and bookmarks, and to make multimedia annotations.
Berkeley Source Distribution: the versions of UNIX developed and distributed by the University of California at Berkeley. Many commercial UNIX implementations such as SunOS and Dynix are derived from it.
An extension to the C language developed primarily by B.Stroustrup at AT&.T Bell Laboratories: it supports object-oriented programming among other enhancements.
A language developed in conjunction with the UNIX operating system at AT&.T Bell Laboratories by D.Ritchie and now an ANSI standard. It has grown popular due to its simplicity, efficiency, and flexibility. C programs are often easily adapted to new environments.
Computer Aided Detector Design: a project to develop standards and methods to allow cooperation between HEP detector designers working in different institutes.
Computer Aided Engineering: a technique for using computers to help with all phases of engineering design work. As CAD, but also involving the conceptual and analytical design steps.
Computer Aided Software Engineering: a technique for using computers to help with the systematic analysis, design, implementation and maintenance of software. Adopting the CASE approach to building and maintaining systems involves software tools and training for the developers who will use them.
A committee of the ITU responsible for making technical recommendations about telephone and data communication systems for PTTs and suppliers. Plenary sessions are held every four years to adopt new standards.
Computer Graphics Metafile: a standard file format for storage and communication of graphical information, widely used on personal computers and accepted by desktop publishing systems. (ANSI/ISO 8632-1987).
Component Integration Laboratories. An effort to create a common framework for interoperability between applications on desktop platforms, formed by Apple, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Taligent, WordPerfect, and Xerox.
Constructive Cost Model: a method for evaluating the cost of a software package proposed by B.Boehm, "Software Engineering Economics" Prentice-Hall 1987.
A source code management system helps program developers keep track of version history, releases, parallel versions etc. There are several in popular use.
A proprietary software development environment for C programs, offering an integrated toolkit for developing, testing, debugging and maintainance (formerly Saber-C)
Data files are often compressed to take up less network bandwidth, memory etc. Common examples are program executables and visual images. Many algorithms and utilities exist for this.
The process of identifying, defining, recording and reporting the configuration items in a system and the change requests. Controlling the releases and change of the items throughout the life-cycle See also code management .
Common Open Software Environment. An initiative by Hewlett-Packard, Sun, IBM, Novell, Univel and SCO to move towards consistency and interopability between Unix suppliers.
Software developed on one kind of computer for use on another (usually because the other computer does not have itself adequate facilities for software development).
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (also known as Groupware): software tools and technology to support groups of people working together on a project, often at different sites.
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection: a network arbitration scheme used on Ethernet. A station with a message to send starts sending if there is no carrier detected on the transmission medium. If a collision occurs, transmission is abandoned and retried after a delay.
Computers and Science Network, operated by CREN for US computer science institutes. It provides electronic mail service via dial-up lines, plus X.25 and Internet services.
Distributed Application Architecture: under design by Hewlett-Packard and Sun. A distributed object management environment that will allow applications to be developed independent of operating system, network or windowing system.
Database management system: such systems typically manage large structured sets of persistent data, offering ad hoc query facilities to many users. They are widely used in business applications: commercial examples include Ingres, Oracle, Sybase etc.
An Oracle product that lets Windows applications that support the DDE protocol act as front end tools for Oracle. It allows applications like Excel, Word, Ami Professional, WingZ, and ToolBook to query, update, graph, and report information stored in Oracle.
Digital Document Interchange Format. A CDA specification for representing compound documents in revisable format; a DEC standard for document encoding.
Definition and Design of an open Dependable Distributed system architecture. An Esprit project investigating the achievement of dependability in open distributed systems, including real-time systems.
A CASE tool developed mainly by Karl Lieberherr (see Aug/Sep 1988 issue of JOOP, OOPSLA '89 Proceedings "Contributions to Teaching Object-Oriented Design and Programming")
A subset of reverse engineering in which domain knowledge, external information, and deduction of fuzzy reasoning are added to the observations of the subject system to identify meaningful higher level abstraction beyond those obtained directly by examining the system itself.
A user interface to system services, usually icon and menu based like the Macintosh Finder, enabling the user to run applications and use a filing system without directly using the command language of the operating system.
An ISO standard under preparation, addressing the semantics of high-quality composition in a manner independent of particular formatting systems or processes. DSSSL is intended as a complementary standard to SGML for the specification of semantics.
European Academic and Research Network. A self-managing network in the research community originally sponsored by IBM. It uses BITNET protocols and connects to BITNET in the U.S.
European Committee for Future Accelerators. This body, whose principal role is to take care of Europe's requirements for future particle accelerators, has also looked at particle physics data handling on a European-wide basis.
Emacs HyperText System: an experimental multiuser hypertext system from the University of Aalborg. It consists of a text editor (based on Epoch and GNUEmacs and written in elisp) and a graphical browser (based on XView and written in C) running under the X Window System and OpenWindows Both tools use HyperBase as database.
The ability to provide users with a well-defined interface to a set of functions in a way which hides their internal workings. In object-oriented programming, the technique of keeping together data structures and the methods (procedures) which act on them.
Experimental Physics Control Systems: a group of the European Physical Society, focussing on all aspects of controls, especially informatics, in experimental physics, including accelerators and experiments.
European Research Consortium on Informatics and Mathematics. An association of European research organizations promoting cooperative research on key issues in information technology.
A 10-megabit/second local area network developed by Xerox and now widely adopted. Hosts are connected to a coaxial cable, and transmission conflicts are avoided by backing off and re-sending later. IEEE standard 802.3 defines the hardware and transport layers of the network.
An intelligent computer program that contains a knowledge base, specialized software, and a set of algorithms or rules that infer new facts from knowledge and from incoming data.
A multilayer perceptron network in which the outputs from all neurons (see McCulloch-Pitts) go to following but not preceding layers, so there are no feedback loops.
The traditional process of moving from high-level abstractions and logical, implementation-independent designs to the physical implementation of a system.
Free Software Foundation (675 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA): dedicated to promoting the development and use of free software, especially the GNU system.
File Transfer Protocol (based on TCP/IP). Also the name of a utility program available on several operating systems which makes use of this protocol to access and transfer files on remote computers.
A general purpose, high-level programming language based on the mathematical notion of functions. A functional program consists of a set of (possibly recursive) function definitions. Its execution consists of the evaluation of a function . Programs written in a functional language are generally compact and elegant, but tend to run slowly and consume a lot of memory.
In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, such as paragraphs, headers or footnotes: SGML is an example of such a system. Specific instructions for layout of the text on the page do not appear in the markup.
An Esprit project to develop a personal software engineering environment to support the construction and verification of distributed and non-sequential software systems.
Refers to the most common way for a neural network to learn, namely supervised learning. Using a training sample which should produce known responses, the connection weights are adjusted so as to minimize the differences between the desired and actual outputs for the training sample.
A rule of thumb, simplification or educated guess that reduces or limits the search for solutions in domains that are difficult and poorly understood. Unlike algorithms, heuristics do not guarantee solutions.
HIgh Performance Parallel Interface: a 100 Mbyte/sec data transfer system with associated interfaces and switches, developed at Los Alamos National Lab and now ANSI standard X3T9/88-127.
Hierarchical Object Oriented Design: a method for Architectural Design primarily for software to be developed in Ada, leading to automated checking, documentation and source code generation.
John Hopfield in the early 1980's investigated a particular kind of neural network which is now commonly referred to as the Hopfield network or Hopfield model. In the Hopfield network, there are no special input or output neurons (see McCulloch-Pitts), but all are both input and output, and all are connected to all others in both directions (with equal weights in the two directions). Input is applied simultaneously to all neurons which then output to each other and the process continues until a stable state is reached, which represents the network output.
An experimental active multiuser database for hypertext systems from the University of Aalborg, written in C++.It is built on the client-server model enabling distributed, concurrent, and shared access from workstations in a local area network. See EHTS.
A software package for the Macintosh for storage and retrieval of information. It can handle images, and is designed for browsing. The powerful customisable interactive user interface allows new applications to be easily constructed by manipulating objects on the screen, often without conventional programming.
An approach to information management in which text is stored in a network of nodes connected by links. The nodes are meant to be viewed through an interactive browser. A link is something which connects a piece of text to a destination piece of text; the source and destination areas are usually marked on a display by highlighting or special graphics.
Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language: an emerging ANSI/ISO Standard from the SGML Users' Group's Special Interest Group on Hypertext and Multimedia (SIGhyper
Internet Engineering Task Force. A group of people who make technical and other contributions to the engineering and evolution of the Internet and its technologies. It is the principal body engaged in the development of new Internet Standard specifications.
In object-oriented programming, the ability to derive new classes from existing classes. A derived class inherits the instance variables and methods of the base class, and may add new instance variables and methods. A new method may be defined with the same names as one in the base class, in which case it overrides the original one.
A more precisely defined version of some object which was already partially defined. In object-oriented programming, a particular example of an object produced from its class template.
A thirty-two-bit number that uniquely identifies an Internet host. It is usually represented as four 8-bit numbers separated by dots e.g. 128.121.4.5. It consists of a network number and a host number, and can be subdivided in several ways.
An object-oriented toolkit developed at Stanford University for building graphical user interfaces. It is implemented in C++ and provides a library of objects and a set of protocols for composing them.
A library package on top of Xlib, extending the basic functions of the X Window System. It provides mechanisms for building widget sets and application environments..
Integrated Project Support Environment: a term for a set of management and technical tools to support software development, usually integrated in a coherent framework: equivalent to an SEE.
Information Resource Dictionary System. A set of ISO standards for CASE repositories. It governs the definition of data dictionaries to be implemented on top of relational databases (see repository, data dictionary).
Integrated Services Digital Network: a set of CCITT standards to support many types of signal traffic (speech, data, video) via a digital transmission system, eventually intended to replace current telephone systems. The Basic rate is 64 kbits/sec.
ISO Development Environment: software that implements a set of OSI upper-layer services. It supports OSI applications on top of OSI and TCP/IP networks.
An Esprit project to put a "4th generation" object-oriented system to practical use in an industrial environment. The ITHACA environment offers an application support system incorporating advanced technologies in the fields of object-oriented programming, programming languages, database technologies, user interface systems and software development tools.
A standardized image compression mechanism. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that wrote the standard. JPEG is designed for compressing either full-color or gray-scale digital images of "natural", real-world scenes. It does not work so well on non-realistic images, such as cartoons or line drawings. JPEG does not handle black-and-white (1-bit-per-pixel) images, or motion picture compression. Standards for compressing those types of images are being worked on by other committees, named JBIG and MPEG.
Knowledge Management System: a distributed hypermedia system for managing knowledge in organisations A commercial system from Knowledge Systems Inc running on workstations, based on previous research with ZOG at Carnegie Mellon University.
T. Kohonen of the University of Helsinki has been studying neural networks for many years with the idea of modelling as closely as possible the behaviour of biological systems, and his name is commonly associated with a particular kind of neural network in which there are only two kinds of neurons (see McCulloch-Pitts), input and others. All the input neurons are connected to all others, and the others are connected only to their other nearest neighbors. The training algorithm is a relatively simple one based on the geometric layout of the neurons, and makes use of annealing.
A package from National Instruments Corp originally developed to provide a graphical interface to instruments connected by the IEEE 488 (GPIB) bus. It has powerful graphical editing facilities for defining and interconnecting "virtual instruments".
An editor that is aware of the syntactic, semantic and in some cases the structural rules of a specific programming language and provides a framework for the user to enter source code. Programs or changes to previously stored programs are incrementally parsed into an abstract syntax tree and automatically checked for correctness.
A document preparation system based on TeX, popular in the HEP community. It adds a collection of commands to simplify typesetting, and lets the user concentrate on the structure of the text rather than on formatting commands.
The software life-cycle consists of phases: requirements analysis, design, construction, testing and maintenance. The development process tends to run iteratively through these phases rather than linearly; several models (spiral, waterfall etc) have been proposed to describe this process.
An implementation of UNIX written from scratch with no proprietary code for IBM PC compatibles by Linus Torvalds and distributed under the GNU public licence.
Usually abbreviated to LAN: a communications network which is geographically limited (typically to a 1 km. radius) allowing easy interconnection of terminals, microprocessors and computers within adjacent buildings. Ethernet and FDDI are examples of standard LANs.
An operating system kernel under development at Carnegie-Mellon University to support distributed and parallel computation. Mach is designed to support computing environments consisting of networks of uniprocessors and multiprocessors. Mach is the kernel of the OSF/1 system
An important part of the software life-cycle. Maintenance is expensive in manpower and resources, and software engineering techniques aim to reduce its cost.
A program from Carleton University, Ottawa that generates documentation for Objective C programs. It will also generate a class hierarchy diagram. The output format is similar to that used by StepStone.
Manufacturers Automation Protocol, a set of protocols developed by General Motors based on Token Bus (IEEE 802.4) and giving predictable response in real time.
In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, or instructions for layout of the text on the page.
Modular Approach to Software Construction Operation and Test: a method for software design aimed at real-time embedded systems from the Royal Signals and Research Establishment, UK.
The McCulloch-Pitts neuron is the basic building block of neural networks. It receives one or more inputs and produces one or more identical outputs, each of which is a simple non-linear function of the sum of the inputs to the neuron. The non-linear function is typically a threshhold or step function which is usually smoothed (i.e. a sigmoid) to facilitate learning.
Methode d'Etude et de Realisation Informatique pour les Systemes d'Enteprise: a Software Engineering method popular in France; many IPSE s are based on it.
In object-oriented programming sending a message to an object (to invoke a method) is equivalent to calling a procedure in traditional programming languages, except that the actual code executed may only be selected at run-time depending on the class of the object. Thus, in response to the message "drawSelf", the method code invoked would be different if the target object were a circle or a square.
An approach to operating systems design which puts emphasis on small modules which implement the basic features of the system and can be flexibly configured .
Multiple Instruction Multiple Data: a form of parallelism in multiprocessor computing where there are several instruction streams (programs) operating concurrently on several data streams.
A general-purpose modular block-structured language from CACI, which provides support for object-oriented programming and discrete event simulation. It is intended for building large process-based discrete event simulation models through modular and object-oriented mechanisms similar to those of Modula-2.
A high-level programming language designed by N.Wirth. It is a derivative of Pascal with well-defined interfaces between modules, and facilities for parallel computation.
In object-oriented programming, the possibility that a sub-class may be derived from multiple parents which are themselves not derived one from the other.
National Information Standards Organisation (USA). NISO Standards cover many aspects of library science, publishing, and information services, and address the application of both traditional and new technologies to information services.
A computing device which converts one or more input signals to one or more output signals by means of an interconnected set of elementary non-linear signal processors called neurons. Animal brains are examples of biological neural networks. Artificial Neural Networks are man-made computing devices modelled after their biological counterparts. The features which distinguish artificial neural networks from traditional Von Neumann (sequential) computers are: (a) the elementary processors are highly non-linear (in the limit, they are simple threshold discriminators), (b) the neurons are highly interconnencted which allows a high degree of parallelism and (c) there is no idle memory containing data and programs, but rather each neuron is pre-programmed and continuously active.
Network extensible Window System from Sun Microsystems, offering facilities similar to those of the X Window System. Communication is based on PostScript, and server functions can be extended.
Network File System: developed by Sun to allow a computer to access files over a network as if they were on local disks; now public domain, a de facto standard.
Natural Language (or Nijssen) Information Analysis Method: a method for data modelling. (see "Conceptual Scheme and Relational Database Design", Nijssen and Halpin, Prentice-Hall, 1989)
An ambitious hypertext system developed at Xerox PARC, "designed to support the task of transforming a chaotic collection of unrelated thoughts into an integrated, orderly interpretation of ideas and their interconnections".
Applied to analysis, design and programming. The basic concept in this approach is that of objects, which consist of data structures encapsulated with a set of routines, often called "methods" which operate on the data. Operations on the data must be performed via these methods, which are common to all instances of objects of a particular class. Thus, the interface to objects is well defined, and allows the code implementing the methods to be changed so long as the interface remains the same.
In object-oriented programming, an instance of a data structure defined according to the template provided by its class, and which can respond to the messages defined by its class.
A programming language for the Transputer which facilitates writing parallel programs, allowing the programmer to specify whether processes are to be executed sequentially or in parallel.
Open (formerly Office) Document Architecture: an ISO standard (8613) for describing documents. It allows text, graphics, and facsimile documents to be transferred between different systems.
A graphical tool from General Electric Advanced Concepts Center for design and analysis of systems with the OMT methodology with some C++/SQL code generation.
Object-oriented structured design: a design method elaborated from structured design and incorporating the essential features of the object-oriented approach.
A compound document architecture from CIL based on CORBA. It aims to enable embedding of features from different applications into a single working document.
Open Software Foundation. A foundation created by nine computer vendors, (Apollo, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Bull, Nixdorf, Philips, Siemens and Hitachi) to promote "Open Computing". It is planned that common operating systems and interfaces, based on developments of UNIX, the X Window System, etc. will be forthcoming for a wide range of different hardware architectures.
Open Systems Interconnection: a seven-layer reference model developed by ISO as a framework for the development of standards for interconnecting heterogeneous computers.
A language such as Adobe PostScript or Xerox Interpress which allow the appearance of a printed page to be described in a high-level device-independent way. Printing then becomes a two-stage process: an application produces a description in the language, which is then interpreted by a specific output device. Such a language can therefore serve as an interchange standard for transmission and storage of printable documents.
An object-oriented extension to MacParlog. It combines object-oriented and parallel logic programming, giving the benefits of both paradigms within a single coherent development environment.
Portable Common Tool Environment: an ECMA standard framework for software tools developed in the Esprit programme. It is based on an entity-relationship Object Management System and defines the way in which tools access this.
This term is sometimes used to refer to a single McCulloch-Pitts neuron, but may also refer to a network of neurons in which the output(s) of some neurons are connected through weighted connections to the input(s) of other neurons. The term multilayer perceptron specifically refers to a network composed of more than one layer of neurons, with some or all of the outputs of each layer connected to one or more of the inputs of another layer. The first layer is called the input layer, the last one is the output layer, and in between there may be one or more hidden layers.
Practical Extraction and Report Language. An interpreted scripting language for scanning text files, extracting information, and printing reports. It combines features of c , sed , awk and sh
In object-oriented programming, the term is used to describe variables which may refer at run-time to objects of different classes. For example, the variable "myVehicle" could refer to an object of class "motorCar" or "Truck".
Portable Operating System Interface for computer environments. A set of IEEE standards designed to provide application portability. IEEE1003.1 defines a UNIX-like operating system interface, 1003.2 the shell and utilities, and 1003.4 real-time extensions.
A page description language from Adobe Systems Inc. Its primary application is to describe the appearance of text, graphical shapes and sampled images on printed or displayed pages. A program in PostScript can communicate a document description from a composition system to a printing system in a device-independent way. Many printers now exist which interpret PostScript directly.
The process of specifying the support system: techniques, internal standards, measurements, tools, and training for a project; counseling the project team in the application of these elements and monitoring the adherence to the standards.
An agreement about how to transmit data, especially across networks. Low level protocols define the electrical and physical standards to be observed, and deal with the transmission and error detection and correction of the bit stream. High level protocols deal with the data formatting, including the form of messages, the terminal to computer dialogue, files, etc.
The creation of a model and the simulation of all aspects of a product. CASE tools support different degrees of prototyping. Some offer the end-user the ability to review all aspects of the user interface and the structure of documentation and reports before code is generated.
A notation resembling a programming language but not intended for actual compilation. It usually combines some of the structure of a programming language with an informal natural-language description of the computations to be carried out. It is often produced by CASE systems as a basis for later hand coding.
Problem Statement Language/Problem Statement Analyser: a CASE system developed by D.Teichroew. It allows computer-based development and analysis of a statement of requirements, and assistance during the design phase.
Portable Tool Interface: a standard such as PCTE, allowing interworking between different software tools via defined interfaces to the user and to the repository or object management system.
The creation or revision of a semantically equivalent representation within the same relative abstraction level. The resulting forms of representation are usually considered alternate views intended for a human audience.
A DBMS based on the relational model developed by Codd. It allows the definition of data structures, storage and retrieval operations, and integrity constraints. In such a database, the data and relations between them are organised in tables. INGRES and Oracle are well-known examples.
The first stage of software development should be to define requirements with the potential users. In modern methods these requirements should be testable, and will usually be traceable in later development stages.
The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behavior (functionality and semantics).
The possibility of using code developed for one application in another application: traditionally achieved using program libraries. Object-oriented programming offers the potential for greater reusability of code via its techniques of inheritance, genericity etc. Class libraries with intelligent browsers and application generators are under development to help in this process.
The process of analyzing an existing system to identify its components and their interrelationships, and create representations of the system in another form or at a higher level of abstraction. Usually undertaken in order to redesign the system for better maintainability.
Reduced Instruction Set Computer; one whose design is based on the rapid execution of a sequence of simple instructions rather than on the provision of a large variety of complex instructions.
Remote Procedure Call: a call to a routine that results in code being executed on a different system from the one where the request originated. An RPC system allows calling procedures and called procedures to execute on different systems without the programmer needing to explicitly code for this.
Register Transfer Language: a kind of HDL used in describing the registers of a computer or digital electronic system, and the way in which data is transferred between them.
Systems Application Architecture: IBM's family of standard interfaces which enable software to be written independently of hardware and operating systems.
Solution Based Modelling. a software development process described in the book "Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh" written by Neal Goldstein and Jeff Alger, published by Addison Wesley in 1992.
The process of entering the logical design of an electronic circuit into a CAE system by creating a schematic representation of components and interconnections.
Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments: a standard complementing IEE 488 developed by Hewlett-Packard and promoted by the SCPI Consortium, 8380 Hercules Drive, Suite P3, La Mesa, CA 91942, USA
Specification and Design Language: defined by the CCITT (recommendation Z100) to provide a tool for unambiguous specification and description of the behaviour of telecommunications systems. The area of application also includes process control and real-time applications. SDL provides a Graphic Representation (SDL/GR) and a textual Phrase Representation (SDL/PR), which are equivalent representations of the same semantics. A system is specified as a set of interconnected abstract machines.which are extensions of the Finite State Machine (FSM).
Software Engineering Environment: a set of management and technical tools to support software development, usually integrated in a coherent framework; equivalent to an IPSE.
A code management system which offers version control functionality similar to systems like RCS or SCCS with some extensions and a more UNIX-like command interface.
The outer part of an operating system, especially UNIX, which provides the user interface, as opposed to the kernel which provides the basic services to processes. The commonest UNIX shells are the c shell (csh) and the Bourne shell (sh) .
Single Instruction Multiple Data: a form of parallelism in multiprocessor computing where there is a single instruction stream (programs) operating concurrently on several data streams.
A free-form, English-like general-purpose simulation language. SIMSCRIPT II.5 from CACI has evolved from the original work on SIMSCRIPT by H.Markowitz.
A pioneering object-oriented programming system developed at the Xerox Palo Alto research centre. It includes a language (usually interpreted), a programming environment, and an extensive object library.
A C++/C programming environment providing browsing, cross-referencing, design visualization, documentation, and editing support. Developed by UBS Switzerland and marketed by takeFive Salzburg.
A systematic approach to the analysis, design, implementation and maintenance of software. It usually involves the use of CASE tools. There are various models of the software life-cycle, and many methodologies for the different phases.
Software Productivity Centre. A non-profit organization based in Vancouver, BC, Canada with the mandate to assist software developers to improve their software engineering process.
In computerised document preparation, a method of adding formatting commands to the text to control layout, such as new line, new page, center text etc. (see Generic markup).
A type of application which manipulates data in rows and columns of cells. The value in a cell is calculated by a formula which can involve other cells. Popular in commercial applications.
Although boring, standards are necessary for interworking, portability and reusability. They may be de facto standards for various communities, or officially recognised national or international standards. Some important bodies concerned in one way or another with Software standards are ISO, ANSI, DoD, ECMA, IEEE, IETF, OSF.
A diagram consisting of circles to represent states and directed line segments to represent transitions between the states. One or more actions may be associated with each transition. The diagrom represents a Finite State Machine.
A windowing interface from CWI with windows, menus, modal dialogs, mouse and keyboard input, scroll bars, drawing primitives, etc that is portable between platforms. STDWIN is available for Macintosh and the X Window System.
A Structured and Open Environment: a project supported by the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) to design, implement and distribute a SEE for research and teaching.
A reliable connection-oriented protocol originated by DARPA for internetworking, encompassing both network and transport level protocols. While the terms TCP and IP specify two protocols, TCP/IP is often used to refer to the entire DoD protocol suite based upon these, including Telnet, FTP, UDP, and RDP.
The process of exercising the product to identify differences between expected and actual results and performance. Typically testing is bottom-up: unit test, integrate test and finally system test.
A computer network arbitration scheme in which conflicts in the transmission of messages are avoided by the granting of "tokens" which give permission to send. A station keeps the token while transmitting a message, if it has a message to transmit, and then passes it on to the next station.
Technical/Office Protocol: a protocol stack for office automation developed by Boeing following the OSI model. This protocol is very similar to MAP except at the lowest levels, where it uses Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) rather than Token Bus (IEEE 802.4).
User Datagram Protocol: the Internet standard protocol for sending datagrams between user programs. This protocol neither guarantees delivery nor does it require a connection. As a result it is lightweight and efficient, but all error processing and retransmission must be taken care of by the application program. This protocol is built on top of IP and uses IP for datagram delivery (see TCP/IP). .
Computer operating system developed by Bell Labs. Since it was written in C, it was possible to port it to run on different hardware architectures. It is now offered by many manufacturers and is the subject of an international standardisation effort. See also OSF.
The practice of using computer networks to exchange items of information grouped into "newsgroups" by topic. This is supported by a number of diverse and informally applied mechanisms and conventions.
Virtual Machine / Conversational Monitor System: an IBM operating system running on 43xx and 30xx series machines, providing efficient support for large numbers of interactive users.
Visual User Interface Tool: a WYSIWYG editor from DEC for building human interfaces to applications using OSF/Motif. It provides an interactive interface to UIL and the Motif toolkit.
Wide Area Information Servers: a distributed document retrieval system supported by Apple, Thinking Machines and Dow Jones. Servers answer questions from personal workstations following a standard protocol.
In the X Window System, a window with its associated input and output functions. Widgets, provided by a library package, are used as building blocks to construct a wide variety of application environments.
Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers (or maybe Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pull-down menus). The style of user interface made popular by the Apple Macintosh and now available in other GUIs, such as OSF/Motif and NeWS.
INGRES/Windows 4GL is a graphical tool running on top of workstation native windowing systems, to help developers to build user interfaces to INGRES applications.
A general-purpose computer designed to be used by one person at a time and which offers higher performance than normally found in a PC, especially with respect to graphics, processing power and the ability to carry out several tasks at the same time.
What You See Is What You Get: a feature of document preparation systems allowing the user to work on a document displayed on a screen in exactly the same form as it will appear when printed.
An application process in the X Window System: it gains access to windowing services via the Xlib library. These are translated by the system into messages to an X server.
A specification for device-independent windowing operations on bitmap display devices, developed by MIT and now a de facto standard supported by the X consortium.
A standard networking protocol suite approved by the CCITT and ISO. This protocol suite defines standard physical, link, and networking layers (layers 1 through 3). X.25 networks are in use throughout the world.
An international consortium of vendors whose purpose is to define the X/Open Common Applications Environment designed to provide applications portability.