An Informal Investigation into Software Engineering as Applied to a Compiler Bootstrapping Project.

Abstract

This report describes in detail the necessary steps involved and the problem areas discovered in transporting (bootstrapping) the UNIVAC 1108 SIMPL-T compiler to a CDC 6700 computer system. SIMPL-T is an elementary procedure-oriented language that conforms to the standards of structured programming and modular design. Certain informal experiments relating to software engineering were conducted during this project. A brief summary of software engineering experiments and results follows. A detailed log of the man-hours of work needed to complete this task was partitioned according to the following categories: design (22 percent), coding (23 percent), testing (45 percent), and other (10 percent). The initial manpower estimates were low by about 17 percent. Both the use of a 'program description language' and a 'high level programming language' appear to have improved programmer productivity. Also, error analysis indicated that the number of errors made per line of code for high level lines of code (SIMPL-T) and assembly lines of code (COMPASS) was about the same. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA045876

Entities

People

  • John G. Perry Jr

Organizations

  • Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Assembly
  • Assembly Languages
  • Compilers
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Host Computers
  • Language
  • Machine Languages
  • Operating Systems
  • Productivity
  • Programming Languages
  • Software Development
  • Standards

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Computer Science.
  • Regression Analysis.
  • Software Engineering.