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Research and Advances

Abstraction mechanisms in hypertext

Abstraction is the means by which information can be stored and retrieved from an information structure at different levels of detail and from different perspectives. As such, abstraction mechanisms in hypertext are interesting to evaluate from a theoretical perspective as they become various first-order logic formulae.
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Research and Advances

Reflections on NoteCards: seven issues for the next generation of hypermedia systems

NoteCards, developed by a team at Xerox PARC, was designed to support the task of transforming a chaotic collection of unrelated thoughts into an integrated, orderly interpretation of ideas and their interconnections. This article presents NoteCards as a foil against which to explore some of the major limitations of the current generation of hypermedia systems, and characterizes the issues that must be addressed in designing the next generation systems.
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Research and Advances

Model management and structured modeling: the role of an information resource dictionary system

Models have historically occupied an ambiguous position within organizations. Management acceptance of management science and operations research models for decision-making has lagged far behind technical advances in these areas. Structured modeling has emerged as a unifying approach to the modeling process with potential to reduce this ambiguity. Structured modeling is primarily oriented to the individual, however. A way of incorporating structured modeling into the organizational framework via existing information resource channels is discussed. A relational model is presented for an information resource dictionary system (IRDS). This IRDS model is then extended to accommodate representation of structured models. This extension of the IRDS can answer queries about structured modeling as well as model instances. The concept of an active IRDS is introduced and an example presented of how an active IRDS can be linked with an optimization algorithm. The conclusion is that the IRDS is a suitable vehicle for incorporating model management and structured modeling as part of an organization's information resource management environment.
Research and Advances

Introduction to special section on software testing

The field of software testing spans mathematical theory, the art and practice of validation, and methodology of software development. To cover this range would require a textbook (or several texts), not a trio of articles. But the work presented in this special section is a kind of "test set." Each paper is a significant contribution within one of the three broad areas. The reader must now make the assessment that is critical to any review of test points: are they representative? My own answer is 'no'; these articles are provocative and revealing rather than routine summaries. And perhaps that is what software testing is all about: good tests are the ones that provide new insights, not the ones that cover well worn ground.
Research and Advances

The category-partition method for specifying and generating fuctional tests

A method for creating functional test suites has been developed in which a test engineer analyzes the system specification, writes a series of formal test specifications, and then uses a generator tool to produce test descriptions from which test scripts are written. The advantages of this method are that the tester can easily modify the test specification when necessary, and can control the complexity and number of the tests by annotating the tests specification with constraints.
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Research and Advances

Garbarge collection for Prolog based on WAM

The Warren abstract machine (WAM) has become a generally accepted standard Prolog implementation technique. Garbage collection is an important aspect in the implementation of any Prolog system. A synopsis of the WAM is presented and then marking and compaction algorithms are shown that take advantage of WAM's unique use of the data areas. Marking and compaction are performed on both the heap and the trail; both use pointer reversal techniques, which obviate the need for extra stack space. However, two bits for every pointer on the heap are reserved for the garbage collection algorithm. The algorithm can work on segments of the heap, which may lead to a significant reduction of the total garbage collection time. The time of the algorithms are linear in the size of the areas.
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Research and Advances

MIS careers—a theoretical perspective

MIS personnel historically have exhibited a disturbingly high rate of turnover, and the job of the MIS manager is increasingly oriented to personnel and staffing problems. The MIS careers literature consistently suggests that what is needed to improve this situation is (1) more attention to formal career planning, and (2) the implementation of a dual career ladder system within the DP/IS organization. A look at the broader literature on organizational careers suggests that these suggestions may not in fact make sense. By considering only a subset of the relevant concepts about careers, we have reached conclusions that are quite possibly erroneous, and have made suggestions that will not likely help. Until further research on MIS personnel and their career needs is accomplished, we will have no valid basis for prescribing solutions to MIS careers problems. Suggestions for needed research are outlined.
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Research and Advances

An insertion algorithm for a minimal internal path length binary search tree

This paper presents an insertion algorithm for maintaining a binary search tree with minimal internal path length. The insertion algorithm maintains minimal internal path length by displacing keys when necessary, in an inorder fashion, until a vacant position is found in the last incomplete level of the tree. The algorithm produces trees that are optimal for searching while exhibiting a runtime behavior that is between logarithmic and linear in the number of nodes in the tree, with linear time being its worst-case behavior.
Research and Advances

On visual formalisms

The higraph, a general kind of diagramming object, forms a visual formalism of topological nature. Higraphs are suited for a wide array of applications to databases, knowledge representation, and, most notably, the behavioral specification of complex concurrent systems using the higraph-based language of statecharts.

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