Computer science
Computer scientist gallery, updated
After several months of inaction I have updated my “Gallery of Computer Scientists” [1]. It benefits from many recent meetings where the density per square meter of Turing award winners and other brilliant computer scientists was hard to beat, most notably the two extraordinary Turing centenary celebrations — the ACM event in San Francisco, and … Read more
A fundamental duality of software engineering
A couple of weeks ago I proposed a small quiz. (I also stated that the answer would come “on Wednesday” — please understand any such promise as “whenever I find the time”. Sorry.) Here is the answer. The quiz was: I have a function: For 0 it yields 0. For 1 it yields 1. For … Read more
Precedent
Alexander Kogtenkov pointed out to me that precursor work to my papers on the Alias Calculus [1] [2] had been published by John Whaley and Martin Rinard [3]. There are some significant differences; in particular my rules are simpler, and their work is not explicitly presented as a calculus. But many of the basic ideas … Read more
Quiz (1): What is this function?
For various reasons there have been no articles in recent weeks; now we are restarting on a regular basis! A the first topic for this new season, here is a little quiz. I have a function: For 0 it yields 0. For 1 it yields 1. For 2 it yields 4. For 3 it yields … Read more
EIS: Putting into Practice the Single Model Principle
The fundamental idea behind EIS is to support the seamless form of software development promoted and permitted by Eiffel, where all phases of a project’s lifecycle are closely linked and the code provides the ultimate reference. Since other documents are often involved, in particular a requirements document (SRS, Software Requirements Specification), it is essential to record their precise associations with elements of the software text.
Domain Theory: precedents
Both Gary Leavens and Jim Horning commented (partly here, partly on Facebook) about my Domain Theory article [1] to mention that Larch had mechanisms for domain modeling and specification reuse. As Horning writes: The Larch Shared Language was really all about creating reusable domain theories, including theorems about the domains. See, for example [2] and … Read more
Aliasing and framing: Saint Petersburg seminar next week
In last Thursday’s session of the seminar, Kokichi Futatsugi’s talk took longer than planned (and it would have been a pity to stop him), so I postponed my own talk on Automatic inference of frame conditions through the alias calculus to next week (Thursday local date). As usual it will be broadcast live. Seminar page: here, … Read more
Seminar sessions in Saint Petersburg: CafeOBJ and the frame issue
The Saint Petersburg software engineering seminar has two sessions today (29 March 2012, 18 local time, see here for the date and time in your area), broadcast live: By Kokichi Futatsugi from KAIST (Japan): Combining Inference and Search in Verification with CafeOBJ. By me: Automatic inference of frame conditions through the alias calculus. See details … Read more