EDITORIAL POINTERS.

One of the topics the journal Communications has often been asked to cover is computer-aided software engineering (CASE). The April 1992 issue offers a special section of six articles in the general area of CASE as it relates to software quality, the software development process, and management attitudes and expectations. Both research and practical experience with CASE and its enabling technologies are presented by researchers, practitioners and developers. Software metrics, software process modeling, specification reuse, and design are central themes in the issue which also includes a self-assessment of CASE specially prepared by the software engineering community for Communications. As a complement to the special section the Computing Practices article, "Evaluation of Vendor Products: CASE Tools as Methodology Companions" explores the type and extent of methodology support that CASE tools can provide. The study also assesses characteristics of support for structured analysis and design techniques in commercially available CASE tools.