Software Engineering session overview and introductory comments

Abstract

For the fourth consecutive year, the National ACM Conference is giving attention to the field of Software Engineering. This year builds on what has gone before—“Structured Program Planning and Design: Standardization Needs” (ACM '79 - Detroit), “More on Structured Design” (ACM '80 - Nashville), and the “Software Engineering Tutorial” (ACM '81 - Los Angeles)—providing for some measure of continuity. This session contains original papers stressing techniques for implementing reliable, maintainable, well-engineered software. Presented are state-of-the-art applications of software engineering techniques addressing architectural, structural, behavioral, and informational considerations. The Ariel Pashtan paper “Object Oriented Operating Systems: An Emerging Design Methodology” emphasizes architectural considerations. This survey analyzes eight major operating systems. These operating systems undergo a functional decomposition with a view toward the behavioral and informational requirements by way of the object model concept. Pashtan shows us how object implementation techniques may be applied and leaves us to consider “whether 'thinking in terms of objects' will become a standard design methology for operating systems”.