Table Of ContentSoftware
Engineering
COINS III
VOLUME I
Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Computer and
Information Sciences held in Miami Beach, Florida, December, 1969
Edited by
JULIUS T. TOU
Center for Informatics Research
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Academic Press New York · London · 1970
COPYRIGHT © 1970, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM,
BY PHOTOSTAT, MICROFILM, RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, OR ANY
OTHER MEANS, WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM
THE PUBLISHERS.
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
Ill Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10003
United Kingdom Edition published by
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD.
Berkeley Square House, London W1X 6BA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER : 76 -127707
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
List of Contributors to Volume I
//f dCd!
0 r
Numbers in parentheses refer to the pages on which the authors'1 contributions begin.
Anceau, F., University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France (179)
Barbe, Penny, PROBE Consultants, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona (151)
Barton, R. S., Department of Computer Science, University of Utah, Salt
Lake City, Utah (7)
Bemer, R. W., General Electric Company, Phoenix, Arizona (121)
Campbell, G., Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, Long Island, New
York (79)
Creech, Β. Α., Burroughs Corporation, Pasadena, California (29)
Detlefsen, G. D., University of Manchester, Manchester, England (17)
Fuchel, K., Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, Long Island, New
York (79)
Heller, S., Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, Long Island, New
York (79)
Knowlton, Prentiss Hadley,* Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
(225)
Kuck, D. J., Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois, Urbana,
Illinois (45)
Lawrie, D. H., Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois,
Urbana, Illinois (45)
Liddell, P., University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France (179)
Maurer, W. D., University of California, Berkeley, California (139)
*Present affiliation: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
ix
χ LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME 1
Mermet, J., University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France (179)
Morris, D., University of Manchester, Manchester, England (17)
Payan, Ch., University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France (179)
Poole, P. C, Culham Laboratory, UKAEA, Abingdon, Berkshire, England
(167)
Ross, Douglas T., SofTech, Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts (91)
Rossiensky, Jean-Paul,* Compagnie Internationale pour l'Informatique,
Les Clayes sous Bois, France (205)
Sammet, Jean E., International Business Machines, Inc., Federal Systems
Division, Cambridge, Massachusetts (103)
Tixier, Vincent, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de L'Aéronautique, Paris, France
(205)
Tou, Julius T., Center for Informatics Research, University of Florida,
Gainesville, Florida (1)
Waite, W. M., University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado (167)
*Present affiliation: Cegos Informatique, Puteaux, France.
Preface
The COINS-69 which was held in Miami Beach on December 18-20, 1969
is the third International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences.
The first was organized by Northwestern University and the Office of Naval
Research in 1963, and the second was cosponsored by Battelle Memorial
Institute, the Office of Naval Research, and the Ohio State University in
1966. The COINS symposia were formed to provide a forum for promoting
communication among scientists, engineers, and educators in the computer
and information science field and to act as a catalyzer for stimulating creative
thinking within the community of information processing.
The theme of this COINS symposium is software engineering. This theme
has been selected because software is emerging as the core of computer and
information science. In the study of computer design problems, language
processing problems, pattern recognition problems, information retrieval
problems, and artificial intelligence problems, software plays an important
role. During the past several years, the computer and information science
field has made remarkable advances in software engineering. In organizing
the symposium we attempted to fit thirty-nine technical papers into three
days, reporting new developments in many aspects of the field. The authors
of these papers came from various parts of the United States and from
Canada, England, France, and Japan. The COINS-69 featured a banquet
speech by Congressman Roman C. Pucinski.
The papers contained in this book were presented for discussion at the
symposium. The material is published in two volumes. The first volume con
tains papers concerning computer organization, systems programming, and
programming languages; and the second volume is devoted to information
retrieval, pattern processing, and computer networks. In order to maintain
coherence between the papers and to help the reader locate items of particular
interest, the papers in both volumes are arranged in logical groups and in
dexes are provided. It is recognized that many other eminent research workers
have made significant contributions to the understanding of software engi
neering. Unfortunately, the omnipresent tyranny of time and space prohibited
the inclusion of their work in the symposium. We sincerely hope that their
papers will be presented at the next COINS symposium.
xi
Acknowledgments
Credit for any success in this symposium must be shared with many people
who contributed significantly of their time and talents. In organizing the
symposium the chairman, Julius T. Tou, received considerable help from the
symposium committee, including Wayne H. Chen and William R. D. Nickel-
son of the University of Florida, James E. Norman and Yale N. Patt of the
Army Research Office, Gordon Goldstein of the Office of Naval Research,
Milton E. Rose of the National Science Foundation, and Robert R. Johnson
of Burroughs Corporation. Much credit is due to our invited reviewers of the
symposium papers. My best thanks are also due to G. Jack Lipovski and
Mrs. Grace Searle of the University of Florida and several members of the
Research Technology Division of the Army Research Office at Durham,
North Carolina, for their valuable assistance in preparing announcements,
programs, and badges, and in arranging and conducting the symposium.
It is the authors of the individual papers whose contributions made possible
the symposium and the subsequent proceedings. The participation of Chan
cellor Robert B. Mautz of the Florida State University System and Repre
sentative Roman C. Pucinski of the U.S. Congress significantly enhanced the
stature of the symposium. To all of them, and to Academic Press, the editor
wishes to express his heartfelt appreciation.
xiii
The Challenge for the 1970s in Information Retrieval
Roman C. Pucinski
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, D.C.
As we embark on the new decade of the 1970s, we can envision some of the
huge opportunities and challenges which face us as a result of our phenomenal
and ever-increasing growth. It is a measure of our time that, whereas it has
taken our nation 195 years to reach a gross national product of one trillion
dollars, projections of our growth rate predict a total of two trillion dollars in
the short period of the next ten years. There is even reason to believe that, by
the time of the twenty-first century, a total of four trillion dollars will have
been reached. Computer capability has been and will continue to be a vital
force in this increasing growth. It is my belief that this nation has always had
the vision for such achievement but, until the advent of the computer, lacked
the tools for full implementation of that vision.
As early as 1929, Dr. Robert Goddard suggested a formula for a propul
sion system which would lift man and his rockets free of the earth's gravity.
In the ensuing years, scientists developed many ideas and much of the
machinery which could have placed a team on the moon years before the
great American achievement of 1969. It was the lack of the unifying force of
the computer sciences which held back earlier success in this venture. And
just as the transistor revolutionized electronics, so has the computer revo
lutionized the entire application of science by bringing together its disparate
branches through the medium of information retrieval and exchange. As the
coming years bring ever greater problems to mankind, the computer industry
will have the opportunity for an ever greater role in the solution of those
problems and the making of a better life on this world. Since we in the United
States have had the good fortune to develop this unique industry more effec
tively than any other nation, it is incumbent on us to accept this great challenge
and to find the most effective means for applying the whole complex of science
data processing and information retrieval to the needs of not only the 1970s
and 1980s, but as far as we can project into the twenty-first century.
XV
XVi THE CHALLENGE FOR THE 1970S IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
It is encouraging to note that many of our leaders in government, industry,
and university life have designated data processing and information retrieval
as a high national priority and a potentially significant contribution toward
the solution of many of our most crucial problems. Indeed, information re
trieval is well on its way to becoming a basic industry employing millions of
people and adding a new dimension to our growth.
All of you are well versed in the staggering statistics on the proliferation of
scientific data as well as the hopeless task our scientists are faced with in at
tempting to find pertinent information from flowing torrents of scientific
documents. We are caught in a vice on one side of which is the force of over
100,000 technical journals, over 130,000 research and development reports,
and countless other books and periodicals published each year. On the other
side is a physical limitation of the human capacity to absorb knowledge. The
eminent neurologist, Dr. Grey Walter, has stated:
During the last two generations, the rate of accumulation of knowledge has been
so colossally accelerated that not even the most noble and tranquil brain can now store
and consider even a thousandth part of it. Humanity is in a critical state compared
with which the constitution of the dinosaur and the community of the Tower of Babel
were triumphant.
Dr. Vannevar Bush, the great American scientist, characterized the urgency
of the problem with the following grim note: "Science may become bogged
down in its own products, inhibited like a colony of bacteria by its own exu
dations." Indeed, Dr. Wassily Leontief, the distinguished Harvard University
economist, pointed out recently: "If all pure research now were stopped, it
would take 10 years to incorporate what we have."
Basically what we have is knowledge: scientific and technical information.
This is the heart of the problem and these are some of the many reasons why
we must be deeply concerned about the future direction of our national effort
in the area of data processing and information retrieval. It is imperative that
our mounting investment in research be, in fact, for new and expanded work
and not for duplicate effort contained in documents drowned in an ocean of
inaccessible information. In addition, unless our scientists are given better,
faster, and more accurate information wherever needed, their valuable train
ing and creative energies will be substantially impaired. Clearly the first step
in the undertaking of a research project is the study of prior art. At the present
time, it is practically impossible to assure that such a study will be thorough
and exhaustive. Physical limitations are such that the average person reading
12 hours a day for 50 days, at the most could read about 16,000 technical books
in his lifetime. Compared to the resources of over 30 million books in the
THE CHALLENGE FOR THE 1970s IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL XVU
world today, man's capacity to absorb information appears to be limited
indeed.
Just how important is this? Let me give you a few examples. The single,
most important product responsible for our remarkable progress in automa
tion, and the seed of the electronic revolution, is the transistor. However, an
interesting fact has recently been uncovered. It appears that almost a quarter
of a century before the Bell Laboratories' discovery, a scientist by the name
of Lielienfeld had discovered substantially the same idea.
Dr. Virgil E. Bottom, Professor of Physics and Chairman of the Depart
ment of Physics and Mathematics at McMurry College, Texas, had this to
say about Mr. Lielienfeld's discovery :
His devices operate on the basis of conductivity modulation by minority carrier
injection in semiconductors, which is the basis of operation of the modern transistor...
he invented and used solid state amplifiers identical in principal with the modern tran
sistor nearly a quarter of a century before it was rediscovered and made into a practical
device.
The loss of money, material, and manpower resources from waste and
duplication is overwhelming. But what is perhaps less known is that these
losses are not confined merely to money and material but to lives as well.
Let me give you one example: in 1916, Dr. Peyton Rous and Dr. F. S. Jones
developed an important method for using tissue cells in studying viruses. In
1954, almost a half-century later, the same method was rediscovered by
Doctors Dulbecco and Vogt, leading to vaccine production and treatment of
virus diseases. I am told that millions of lives could have been saved had the
earlier method been readily available to our scientists.
These are some of the problems. But what are some of the solutions?
During the past several years it has been a rich experience for me, as a member
of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on a National Information System, to learn a
great deal about some of the problems and solutions associated with DPIR.
I had the privilege to hear testimony on the subject of information handling
from many outstanding scientists representing universities and industry from
all over the United States. Without exception, witnesses appearing before our
committee agreed to the need for cooperation and coordination. The creation
of a national information system is one solution which would serve to co
ordinate all the various information centers throughout the country and the
world. The proposed system would serve in the capacity of a switching net
work between all the independent sources of information, thus making it
possible for individuals to participate in the efforts of many. Each of our
hundreds of specialized documentation centers has an important function
XViii THE CHALLENGE FOR THE 1970s IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
and would be the major lifeline and source for a national information system.
In addition, many of the problems besetting each center would tend to di
minish because of coordination and cooperation for a common purpose.
There is an extraordinary opportunity for the art of microelectronics to
pioneer and help realize the future promise from the wealth of scientific and
technical information. Through miniature devices, a scientist's own labora
tory may be able to utilize the full range of computers, teletype equipment,
closed circuit television, and whatever new means the electronic industry may
develop, to become in effect its own word storehouse of knowledge. Such a
storehouse would provide ideas and information not only from a man's own
field but from other disciplines as well. In addition, a great contribution could
be made to underdeveloped countries by providing "instant libraries" of
technical information, possibly via satellite communication.
The full significance of the startling breakthrough we have witnessed in
recent years becomes readily apparent when we recall that only 130 years ago
people were still counting on their fingers, over 25 years ago atomic energy
was a speculation, 20 years ago computers as we know them today were
dreams, and now even the moon has succumbed to man's ingenuity.
Today we are on the threshold of another great revolution in exploration
of the vast wealth of scientific and technical information at our disposal. I am
fully aware that the establishment of a national information system is a
major undertaking. I am also aware that there are some who doubt its feasi
bility or necessity, procrastinate, and, thereby, risk forsaking the future. To
these skeptical prophets, let me read the editorial of the New York Times
about space exploration written in 1920, almost half a century ago:
A SEVERE STRAIN ON THE CREDULITY
As a method of sending a missile to the higher, and even to the highest parts of the
earth's atmospheric envelope, Professor Goddard's rocket is a practicable and there
fore promising device .... It is when one considers the multiple-charge rocket as a
traveller to the moon that one begins to doubt For after the rocket quits our air
and really starts on its longer journey, its flight will be neither accelerated nor main
tained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left. Professor Goddard with
his "chair" in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution,
does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something
better than a vacuum against which to react—to say that would be absurd. Of course
he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in his schools
To build a meaningful world community, we need men of vision and cour
age, of dedication and understanding. The achievements of the community of
scientists working in software engineering strongly indicate that there are
many such among you and that much of our future lies in your hands.
