The sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.)
The sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.)
Stochastic processes
Monitors: an operating system structuring concept
Communications of the ACM
A technique for software module specification with examples
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
On a measure of program structure
Programming Symposium, Proceedings Colloque sur la Programmation
On a proposed measure of program structure
ACM SIGPLAN Notices
ACM '77 Proceedings of the 1977 annual conference
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This paper contributes to the understanding of program structure in terms of stability and reliability in a quantitative sense. Distinctions are made between program structure and control structure. The characteristics of a good system will be identified qualitatively and it is apparent that all desirable characteristics concerns system stability. Stability is defined in terms of the resistence to the amplification of changes that has been made to the system. Some quantitative analysis is made to measure the quality of program structure. The techniques used here are the method of connectivity matrix and the method of random Markovian process. Program structures are defined as abstract relationships between subportions of a program, and the content of the program or its subportions is left undefined. Using these techniques, a collection of program structures is measured and ranked, and the preference of structures based on the stability criteria is shown. Two case studies, based on models of abstract structures, are presented here to show how the above techniques can be used to pick an appropriate system structure.