June 1984 - Vol. 27 No. 6
Features
From Washington: NSF takes the initiative
The National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee for Advanced Scientific Computing Resources was formed to provide leadership for large-scale scientific computing…
Programming pearls: graphic output
In previous columns we've studied the innards of programs. In this column we'll take a broader view of the programmer's task and consider the kind of output a program…
Computer matching: should it be banned?
Since discovering the technique of computer matching several years ago, government managers have been invoking this computer tool in the attempt to root out waste and…
Laser optical disk: the coming revolution in on-line storage
Commercially available only recently, the optical disk drive uses a laser beam to burn impressions onto a plastic disk. Employing a highly focused beam rather than a…
An assessment of the prototyping approach to information systems development
A two-phased research project comparing the prototyping approach with the more traditional life cycle approach finds that prototyping facilitates communication between…
Updating a database in an unsafe environment
Normally, when an application makes use of a database, considerable resources are invested in maintaining the integrity of that database. However, in situations where use…
A large font virtual terminal interface: a software prosthesis for the visually impaired
A large font software interface running under UNIX1 is of great assistance to the severely visually impaired in the interactive use of computers. The interface, which…
Talking to UNIX in English: an overview of UC
UC is a natural language help facility which advises users in using the UNIX operating system. Users can query UC about how to do things, command names and formats,…
Anomalies in parallel branch-and-bound algorithms
We consider the effects of parallelizing branch-and-bound algorithms by expanding several live nodes simultaneously. It is shown that it is quite possible for a parallel…