The Effect of Software Structure on Software Reliability, Modifiability, and Reusability: A Case Study and Analysis,

Abstract

This report discusses program structuring concepts and language features that enhance reusability, modifiability, and reliability. The authors have studied these issues by analyzing and restructuring an existing (and well-used) set of reusable subroutines for manipulating data structures without being committed to a specific implementation of them (e.g., arrays vs. lists). The analysis illustrates how to isolate high level properties of an object (in this case, a data structure) from its low level representation so that reusability, modifiability, and reliability are enhanced. Example programs illustrate the concept of hierarchical program design, data refinement, levels of abstraction, and problems in dealing with exception conditions detected by lower level modules in hierarchically structured programs. (Modified author abstract)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1974
Accession Number
AD0787307

Entities

People

  • John B. Goodenough
  • Robert V. Zara

Organizations

  • SofTech, Inc.

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Case Studies
  • Computer Program Reliability
  • Language
  • Procedures (Computers)
  • Reliability

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Systems Analysis and Design