A SURVEY OF RESEARCH IN MACHINE ASSISTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Date
1989-01-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
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.
Description
Keywords
Computer Science