Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think!ames!cs!shimeall
From: shimeall@cs.nps.navy.mil (Tim Shimeall x2509)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Christmas List
Message-ID: <471@cs.nps.navy.mil>
Date: 6 Dec 89 18:21:38 GMT
References: <1989Dec6.144745.18637@acd4.UUCP>
Reply-To: shimeall@cs.nps.navy.mil (Tim Shimeall x2509)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA
Lines: 20

How about:
  1) Dijksta's "A Discipline of Programming"
  2) Howden's new testing book (I believe it's titled something like
     "Functional Testing and Program Analysis")
  3) Anderson and Lee's "Fault Tolerance: Principles and Practice"

Why these three:
  a) They discuss three separate approaches to the topic of program
     development: fault avoidance (Dijkstra), fault elimination (Howden),
     and fault tolerance (Anderson&Lee).
  b) Each of them is well written
  c) Together, they provide a good feel for the role of formal methods
     in the practical task of building a program.

(For the curious: NO these aren't books on my Christmas List -- I've
already got 1&2, and 3 is on order...  HOWEVER -- I've heard good
things about Cliff Stoll's book "Cuckoo's Egg" [Book length
description of the events described in his CACM paper "Stalking the
Wiley Hacker"].)
				Tim