Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!hsi!stpstn!cox
From: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Software Industrial Revolution
Message-ID: <5313@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jul 90 23:52:39 GMT
References: <30852@cup.portal.com> <102100011@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <31097@cup.portal.com> <1568@oravax.UUCP> <8488@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <81688@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <8529@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <5312@stpstn.UUCP>
Reply-To: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Organization: Stepstone
Lines: 51

>In article <8529@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> kandt@AI-Cyclops.JPL.NASA.GOV writes:
:I reassert that any artifact that we build can provide components for
:later reuse.  I also assert that if we have built a component we can
:adequately describe it in a formal or informal notation so that its
:complete behavior is understandable by a human.  I also know that
:providing such information for later reuse requires much labor at great
:cost.  This is the impediment to software reuse.  The issue is "given
:that you can describe a domain, how do build a information repository in
:a cost-effective manner."
:
:As an example, take the domain of data structures.  It is a relatively
:simple domain.  It is well understood.  There are both formal and
:informal methods for describing modeling representations and storage
:structures.  We understand the complexity of them all, including special
:cases and programming tricks.  Yet to date, there is not one reusable
:data structure depository.  Why is that?  Because the costs of putting
:all the knowledge contained in existing data structure books and
:articles would be incredible.

Of course, as you're no doubt aware, the costs of the software crisis
are even more incredible, and increasing fast as we bleakly trudge into 
the Age of Information. In fact, if the Age of Manufacturing is any
indication, the costs of *not* solving it are likely to be a matter
of not only technical interest or even personal prosperity, but 
national prosperity. 

I share your enthusiasm for formal/informal methods of specifying
representations and storage structures, as well as your appreciation
for their costs. What you've called a depository, I'd prefer to call
a software components marketplace to emphasize that a successful solution
must be an active place where producers and consumers continually 
interact, rather than a stagnant pool, database, repository, etc.

But such a marketplace brings humanity face to face with a problem
we've never faced before; managing a marketplace (i.e. a place of
competing and cooperative interests) in which the products are so
completely intangible, not to mention easy to rip off, as small
granularity software components. Therefore Stepstone has been actively
pursuing formal/informal specification/testing technologies for several
of years as a solution to the intangibility problem, which we view not
merely as a matter of technical or even commercial interest, but a
matter of global/national significance in the Age of Information.

I go into all this in greater detail in an article under review for
IEEE Software magazine, November 1990, titled "Planning the Software
Industrial Revolution; The Impact of OO Technologies". Send a mailing
address if you'd like a draft copy.
-- 

Brad Cox; cox@stepstone.com; CI$ 71230,647; 203 426 1875
The Stepstone Corporation; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482