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Software Crisis
Software crisis is a term used in the early days of computing science for the difficulty of writing useful and efficient computer programs in the required time. The software crisis was due to the rapid increases in computer power and the complexity of the problems that could not be tackled. With the increase in the complexity of the software, many software problems arose because existing methods were inadequate. The term "software crisis" was coined by some attendees at the first NATO Software Engineering Conference in 1968 at Garmisch, Germany. Edsger Dijkstra's 1972 Turing Award Lecture makes reference to this same problem: The causes of the software crisis were linked to the overall complexity of hardware and the software development process. The crisis manifested itself in several ways: * Projects running over-budget * Projects running over-time * Software was very inefficient * Software was of low quality * Software often did not meet requirements * Projects were unmanagea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computing Science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (including the design and implementation of hardware and software). Computer science is generally considered an area of academic research and distinct from computer programming. Algorithms and data structures are central to computer science. The theory of computation concerns abstract models of computation and general classes of problems that can be solved using them. The fields of cryptography and computer security involve studying the means for secure communication and for preventing security vulnerabilities. Computer graphics and computational geometry address the generation of images. Programming language theory considers different ways to describe computational processes, and database theory concerns the management of repositories of data. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Procedural Programming
Procedural programming is a programming paradigm, derived from imperative programming, based on the concept of the ''procedure call''. Procedures (a type of routine or subroutine) simply contain a series of computational steps to be carried out. Any given procedure might be called at any point during a program's execution, including by other procedures or itself. The first major procedural programming languages appeared circa 1957–1964, including Fortran, ALGOL, COBOL, PL/I and BASIC. Pascal and C were published circa 1970–1972. Computer processors provide hardware support for procedural programming through a stack register and instructions for calling procedures and returning from them. Hardware support for other types of programming is possible, but no attempt was commercially successful (for example Lisp machines or Java processors). Procedures and modularity Modularity is generally desirable, especially in large, complicated programs. Inputs are usua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Hoare
Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare (Tony Hoare or C. A. R. Hoare) (born 11 January 1934) is a British computer scientist who has made foundational contributions to programming languages, algorithms, operating systems, formal verification, and concurrent computing. His work earned him the Turing Award, usually regarded as the highest distinction in computer science, in 1980. Hoare developed the sorting algorithm quicksort in 1959–1960. He developed Hoare logic, an axiomatic basis for verifying program correctness. In the semantics of concurrency, he introduced the formal language communicating sequential processes (CSP) to specify the interactions of concurrent processes, and along with Edsger Dijkstra, formulated the dining philosophers problem. He is also credited with development (and later criticism) of the null pointer, having introduced it in the ALGOL family of languages. Since 1977, he has held positions at the University of Oxford and Microsoft Research in Cambridge. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Randell
Brian Randell (born 1936) is a British computer scientist, and Emeritus Professor at the School of Computing, Newcastle University, United Kingdom. He specialises in research into software fault tolerance and dependability, and is a noted authority on the early pre-1950 history of computing hardware. Biography Randell was employed at English Electric from 1957 to 1964 where he was working on compilers. His work on ALGOL 60 is particularly well known, including the development of the Whetstone compiler for the English Electric KDF9, an early stack machine. In 1964, he joined IBM, where he worked at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center on high performance computer architectures and also on operating system design methodology. In May 1969, he became a Professor of Computing Science at the then named University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked since then in the area of software fault tolerance and dependability. He is a member of the Special Interest Group on Compute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technological Singularity
The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I. J. Good, I.J. Good's #Intelligence explosion, intelligence explosion model, an upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an "explosion" in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence.Vinge, Vernor"The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era", in ''Vision-21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace'', G. A. Landis, ed., NASA Publication CP-10129, pp. 11–22, 1993. The first person to use the concept of a "singularity" in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
System Accident
A system accident (or normal accident) is an "unanticipated interaction of multiple failures" in a complex system. This complexity can either be of technology or of human organizations, and is frequently both. A system accident can be easy to see in hindsight, but extremely difficult in foresight because there are simply too many action pathways to seriously consider all of them. Charles Perrow first developed these ideas in the mid-1980s. William Langewiesche in the late 1990s wrote, "the control and operation of some of the riskiest technologies require organizations so complex that serious failures are virtually guaranteed to occur." Safety systems themselves are sometimes the added complexity which leads to this type of accident. Maintenance problems are common with redundant systems. Maintenance crews can fail to restore a redundant system to active status. They are often overworked or maintenance is deferred due to budget cuts, because managers know that they system wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Brooks
Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book ''The Mythical Man-Month''. In 1976, Brooks was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for "contributions to computer system design and the development of academic programs in computer sciences". Brooks received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and the Turing Award in 1999. Education Born on April 19, 1931, in Durham, North Carolina, he attended Duke University, graduating in 1953 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, and he received a Ph.D. in applied mathematics (computer science) from Harvard University in 1956, supervised by Howard Aiken. Brooks served as the graduate teaching ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Failed And Overbudget Custom Software Projects
This is a list of notable custom software projects which have significantly failed to achieve some or all of their objectives, either temporarily or permanently, and/or have suffered from significant cost overruns. For a list of ''successful'' major custom software projects, see Custom software#Major project successes. Note that failed projects, and projects running over budget, are not necessarily the sole fault of the employees or businesses creating the software. In some cases, problems may be due partly to problems with the purchasing organisation, including poor requirements, over-ambitious requirements, unnecessary requirements, poor contract drafting, poor contract management, poor end-user training, or poor operational management. Permanent failures Because software, unlike a major civil engineering construction project, is often easy and cheap to change after it has been constructed, a piece of custom software that fails to deliver on its objectives may sometimes be m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AI Winter
In the history of artificial intelligence, an AI winter is a period of reduced funding and interest in artificial intelligence research.AI Expert Newsletter: W is for Winter The term was coined by to the idea of a . The field has experienced several s, followed by disappointment and criticism, followed by funding cuts, followed by renewed interest years or even decades later. The term first appeared in 1984 as the topic of a pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Object-oriented Programming
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of procedures (often known as ''methods''). A common feature of objects is that procedures (or methods) are attached to them and can access and modify the object's data fields. In this brand of OOP, there is usually a special name such as or used to refer to the current object. In OOP, computer programs are designed by making them out of objects that interact with one another. OOP languages are diverse, but the most popular ones are class-based, meaning that objects are instances of classes, which also determine their types. Many of the most widely used programming languages (such as C++, Java, Python, etc.) are multi-paradigm and they support object-oriented programming to a greater or lesser degree, typically in combination with imper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Software Quality Management
Software quality management (SQM) is a management process that aims to develop and manage the quality of software in such a way so as to best ensure that the product meets the quality standards expected by the customer while also meeting any necessary regulatory and developer requirements, if any. Software quality managers require software to be tested before it is released to the market, and they do this using a cyclical process-based quality assessment in order to reveal and fix bugs before release. Their job is not only to ensure their software is in good shape for the consumer but also to encourage a culture of quality throughout the enterprise. Quality management activities Software quality management activities are generally split up into three core components: quality assurance, quality planning, and quality control. Some like software engineer and author Ian Sommerville don't use the term "quality control" (as quality control is often viewed as more a manufacturing term tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NATO Software Engineering Conferences
The NATO Software Engineering Conferences were held in 1968 and 1969. The conferences were attended by international experts on computer software who agreed on defining best practices for software grounded in the application of engineering. The result of the conferences were two reports, one for the 1968 conference and the other for the 1969 conference, that defined how software should be developed. The conferences played a major role in gaining general acceptance for the term software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' .... References {{software-stub History of software Information technology organizations based in Europe History of NATO 1968 conferences 1969 conferences 1968 software 1969 software ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
