Encyclopaedia of Computer Software Technology

Computer programs, the software that is becoming an ever-Iarger part of the computer system, are growing more and more complicated, requiring teams of programmes and years of effort to develop. As a consequence, a new subdiscipline, software engineering, has arisen. As the size and complexity of software has grown, the concept of reuse has become increasingly important in software engineering, since it is clear that extensive new software cannot be created cheaply and rapidly without incorporating existing program modules (subroutines, or pieces of computer code). Sophisticated techniques for testing software have therefore been designed. The need for better trained software engineers has led to the development of educational programs in separate program. The recommendation that software engineers, like other engineers, be licensed or certified is gaining increasing support, as is the momentum toward the accreditation of software engineering degree programs. Windows 95, MS-DOS, OS/2, and other common operating systems are then run as client processes under Windows NT, much in the same way CMS and MVS run under VM on IBM mainframes. A so-called hardware abstraction layer isolates the software from the details of the underlying hardware, giving Windows NT platform independence. The operating system is therefore portable from one platform to another. Windows NT is used with the upper-end Intel microprocessors and DEC's Alpha chip, a microprocessor for the VAX computer, and will undoubtedly be transported to other platforms. The present book in three volumes is welcome addition to the existing literature which is really encyclopaedic in nature. The entire information is gathered under twenty nine chapters followed by an exhaustive glossary and Index.