ICSE '94 Proceedings of the 16th international conference on Software engineering
Use of the concept of transparency in the design of hierarchically structured systems
Communications of the ACM
On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules
Communications of the ACM
The structure of the “THE”-multiprogramming system
Communications of the ACM
Computer
The modular structure of complex systems
ICSE '84 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Software engineering
A procedure for designing abstract interfaces for device interface modules
ICSE '81 Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Software engineering
Designing software for ease of extension and contraction
ICSE '78 Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Software engineering
Coping with Crosscutting Software Changes Using Information Transparency
REFLECTION '01 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Metalevel Architectures and Separation of Crosscutting Concerns
An empirical study of cycles among classes in Java
Empirical Software Engineering
Iterative software engineering for multiagent systems: the MASSIVE method
Iterative software engineering for multiagent systems: the MASSIVE method
| Hi-index | 4.10 |
Can "lean" software compete in the marketplace? Can useful software be elegant? The author laments that a real jewel of a program--written in a consistent style and free of kludges, with simple, organized components--is hard to find. He also wonders why, after more than 30 years of software construction, the industry doesn't produce more jewels.Creators of elegant systems sometimes write articles to tell how they wrote the software and to suggest how others should use their methods. The author points to the T.H.E. system (named for the Technicsche Hogeschool Eindhoven, where the system was built), which has served him as a source of new ideas and insight for 25 years. He also refers to Niklaus Wirth's recent publications (see Computer, February 1995) as musts for every software designer. However, if published papers do indeed contain the secret of success, where are the jewels?Admired systems are often produced under conditions that are rare in industry. In particular, their designers are free from the constraints limiting those who must sell their products. The author discusses why the recipes of the masters haven't led to more elegant commercial software and closes with some advice for those who would like to produce better software.