Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!haven.umd.edu!mimsy!jogger.cs.umd.edu!straub From: straub@jogger.cs.umd.edu (Pablo A. Straub) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Modifiability Message-ID: <35461@mimsy.umd.edu> Date: 11 Jun 91 14:12:53 GMT References: <1991Jun11.004620.3157@netcom.COM> Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu Reply-To: straub@cs.umd.edu (Pablo A. Straub) Distribution: comp.software-eng Organization: U. of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, College Park, MD 20742 Lines: 16 In article <1991Jun11.004620.3157@netcom.COM> Jim Showalter writes: > [... on the problem of designing performance vs. tuning performace] > >One of the reasons I'm such a strong proponent of languages and tools that >allow a rigorous specification of interfaces (at various levels of scale, >including the subsystem level) is that such interfaces tend to focus one's >attention on that which is essential at that particular level of detail. >(This is nothing radical--it's the fundamental basis for abstraction...) I agree. Of course, the only way to specify rigorously an interface is using a language in which both syntax and semantics are unambiguosly specified. That is, formal specifications are a must. >**************** JIM SHOWALTER, jls@netcom.com, (408) 243-0630 *************** Pablo Straub, straub@cs.umd.edu