A SURVEY OF RESEARCH IN MACHINE ASSISTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

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1989-01-01
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Abstract
In contrast to the recent research interest in development environments which support programming-in-the-large and programming-in-the-many, this report is interested in environments which can maximize the productivity of the individual developer. The goal of this report is to identify the most useful techniques for the machine-assisted generation of software programs in arbitrary domains, under the guidance of a single competent individual who is assumed to have a solid understanding of the program requirements. In other words, this report attempts to answer the question: What techniques hold the most promise for maximizing the productivity of the knowledgeable, motivated, \fIindividual\fR software developer? To answer the question, this report surveys machine-assisted software development approaches which are actively concerned with the generation and manipulation of compilable source code. Software development approaches which deal exclusively with early lifecycle activities such as requirements specification have been excluded, as have environments which exclusively emphasize project management activities. All environments discussed in this report are capable of producing source code. The body of the report contains four major sections. The first section introduces a set of evaluation criteria to serve as a basis for comparison, the second section discusses candidate environments, the third develops an idealized environment for the individual developer, and the fourth section summarizes the results, draws conclusions, and suggests future research directions.
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Computer Science
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