Software ProductivityCollected here are twenty papers on software engineering by the late mathematician and software methods pioneer Harlan D. Mills. Written between 1967 and 1981, the papers document Mills's technical and managerial approaches for achieving both high productivity and improved quality. Cited time and again in books and papers on software development, they are required reading for all software developers, their managers, and students alike. Three of the essays treat mathematical topics and communicate Mills's fundamental premise that software engineers who use and understand the mathematics of programming consistently produce better software. Other essays cover topics such as chief programmer teams, top-down programming on large systems, reading programs as a managerial activity, and buying better quality software. Mills's writings and teachings have had a profound influence on software productivity worldwide. In Software Productivity, his provocative ideas reveal techniques and practices that are now in common use throughout the software engineering field. |
Contents
In Retrospect | 1 |
Search for an Easier Simpler Way 1968 | 7 |
The Iterative IF as a Primitive Instruction 1967 | 11 |
Copyright | |
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ADEN Protectorate algebra Algorithms automatic data processing BLOCK Chief Programmer Team collecting node complex computer programming control graph control logic data processing data sets debugging defined descriptors Dijkstra DO-WHILE domain equations errors found example execution Figure flowchart function composition function f functional specification given GO TO's gramming graph labels ideas IF-THEN-ELSE indigenous errors Individual Programmer input integration interface iteration Jacopini labels loop machine mathematical ment methodology ming modules names Note operations ordered pairs PL/I possible practical precision predicate node problem procedures productivity program content program correctness program function programming languages programming systems proof proper program range(f References result rigor segment sequence simply software development software engineering software system statements stepwise refinement structured programming Subheadings subprogram subspecifications syntactic syntax technical techniques Theorem Thesaurus tic-tac-toe tion top down programming Turing Machines variables write