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Software systems evolve over time, and modifications require understanding relations among components of the software system. The Evolution Support Environment (ESE) system provides a framework for capturing and making available semantic information about software components of an evolving software system. Our goal in the design of the ESE system is to provide integrated support for management of software architecture configuration, life-cycle configuration, and version control. Software architecture configuration management allows tracking of interconnections among software components that make up a system. Life-cycle management allows traceability among specifications, design, code, and test cases during software development. Adding version control allows specific versions of software objects and their associated objects, such as specifications and test cases, to be retrieved. We describe the design and implementation of the ESE system and discuss our experience with the use of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genesis is a software-engineering-based programming environment geared to support big software projects. We first discuss a reusability-driven development methodology that advocates software development based on reusability considerations. Then, we discuss the tools and techniques provided in Genesis to support this methodology. We suggest techniques for improving the retrievability, composability, and understandability of software resources. Retrievability is improved by the use of the Entity Specification Language for tying resources through attributes and relations. Composability is improved through a mechanism called functional composition that provides considerably more generality than Unix® pipes for composing programs. Understandability is improved by the use of program abstractors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the necessity of a good methodology for the development of reliable software, especially with respect to the final software validation and testing activities. A formal specification development and validation methodology is proposed. This methodology has been applied to the development and validation of a pilot software, incorporating typical features of critical software for nuclear power plant safety protection. The main features of the approach include the use of a formal specification language and the independent development of two sets of specifications. Analyses on the specifications consists of three-parts: validation against the functional requirements consistency and integrity of the specifications, and dual specification comparison based on a high-level symbolic execution technique. Dual design, implementation, and testing are performed. Automated tools to facilitate the validation and testing activities are developed to support the methodology. These includes the symbolic executor and test data generator/dual program monitor system. The experiences of applying the methodology to the pilot software are discussed, and the impact on the quality of the software is assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the formal specification of program modules which control access to resources shared among concurrent processes. The concept of stale space is defined for such program modules and the formal specification is given in terms of a program module invariant and input-output assertions defined on the state space. Examples are provided to illustrate the construction of specifications with this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some analysis techniques for real-time asynchronous concurrent systems are presented. In order to model clearly the synchronization involved in these systems, an extended timed Petri net model is used, The system to be studied is first modeled by a Petri net. Based on the Petri net model, a system is classified into either: 1) a consistent system; or 2) an inconsistent system. Most real-world systems fall into the run class which is further subclassified into i) decision-free systems; ii) safe persistent systems; and iii) general systems. Procedures for predicting and verifying the system performance of all three types are presented. It is found that the computational complexity involved increases in the same order as they are listed above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a system for analyzing program structures. The system extracts relational information from C programs according to a conceptual model and stores the information in a database. We show how several interesting software tasks can be performed by using the relational views. These tasks include generation of graphical views, subsystem extraction, program layering, dead code elimination, and binding analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In distributed databases, deadlocks may Occur due to conflicts in data file lockings. A system is in a deadlock if and only if there is a directed cycle in its demand graph. However, due to the inherent communication delay in a distributed system, it is not easy to construct a consistent demand graph for a distributed system. In this paper, three deadlock detection protocols are discussed. The first protocol uses two communication phases. The second protocol uses a single communication phase. Based on the second protocol, a one- phase hierarchical deadlock detection protocol is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It its the eleventh year of "Transactions on Software Engineering" periodical. There is a need for survey papers. The periodical is soliciting in-depth survey papers in the emerging research areas in software engineering. Student papers are also solicited. The members of the editorial board are listed.

The note announces the addition of Jack Mostow and Peter Ng to the Editorial Board of the periodical "IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering." Jack Mostow is a professor of computer science at Rutgers University and was previously associated with the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute as a research scientist in the area of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Peter Ng is a professor of computer science at the University of Missouri in Columbia and is also Chairman of its Department of Computer Science. Their appointments were approved by the Editorial Board and the Publications Board, Transactions Advisory Committee and Executive Committee of the IEEE Computer Society.

Focuses on the plans of the author as editor-in-chief of the periodical "IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering".

Some papers from the 1978 computer science conference, COMPSAC 78 Conference, are presented in this issue of the "IEEE Transaction on Software Engineering". Computer science of which software engineering is a very important component, is a multifaceted discipline and the computer applications are providing the major avenues of its growth, just as physical and biological sciences have been the beacon lights of the growth of mathematical sciences. The papers in this issue and those presented at COMPSAC 78 portray this emerging thrust of software application experience.