Mix three very good, yet very different, OO design and analysis methodologies together with a generous serving of strong programming ideas and contributing notations and you have the makings of the standard language of blueprinting software, also known as the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The story of how UML came to be is as fascinating […]
October 1999 - Vol. 42 No. 10
Features
An ongoing experiment that may change the nature of air traffic control is being studied by the Federal Aviation Administration. The $25 million experiment, funded in partnership by government and the airlines, uses a radical new approach to the way pilots relay information to ground controllers: incorporating GPS with a technology that identifies the precise […]
Ned Kock’s article, "A Case of Academic Plagiarism" (July 1999, p. 96), was an interesting detective story that also shed some light on copyright laws, electronic publishing, and the frustration and aggravation encountered by authors who believe their work has been plagiarized. Kock ends his article by calling for a wider debate on academic plagiarism. […]
From Washington: the Ongoing Tug-of-War For E-Commerce Control
It was an unprecedented and symbolic moment: Last October, the U.S. government quietly invited 12 industry lobbyists to join the nation’s negotiating team for the pan-American free trade agreement. These lobbyists, representing the Motion Picture Association of America, America Online, the Software Publishers Association, among others, joined the citizenry’s diplomats largely because government officials wanted […]
Personal Computing: The Post-PC Era
Some believe we are moving to a post-PC era of ubiquitous computing.
From the President: The Heroes Among -Us
There are many unacknowledged heroes who have worked to bring computer technology to those who need it.
UML 2001: A Standardization Odyssey
As the UML reaches the ripe age of four, both its proponents and its critics are scanning the recent changes in the UML 1.3 revision.
Designing Component-Based Frameworks -Using Patterns in the UML
Designing systems using components and proven solutions elevates the abstractions at which engineers work.
Turning Clockwise: Using UML in the Real-Time Domain
"You mustn't forget one thing," the fairy godmother said. "Do not stay past midnight, for when the hour strikes, everything will return to the way it was before. "I promise," said Cinderella.
-UMLoquent Expression of AWACS Software Design
The UML is becoming the standard palette used by software designers to paint their thoughts.
Modeling Web Application Architectures with -UML
Modeling business logic in Web-specific components can be done in a coherent and consistent way.
What Netscape Learned from Cross-Platform Software Development
Its development strategy produced unexpected costs, a wrong turn with Java, performance compromises, and questions about future ties to Sun Microsystems.
Framework Integration Problems, Causes, Solutions
Though familiar with the most common problems and their causes, OO software developers struggle with solutions plagued by a lack of framework standards and development guidelines.
Privacy Interfaces For Information Management
A system for examining Web browsing histories helps create a set of guidelines for designing privacy interfaces.
Multipurpose Web Publishing -Using HTML, XML, and CSS
The World Wide Web Consortium devised these document-markup and style-sheet languages in the interests of Web device independence, content reuse, and network-friendly encoding.
Software Engineering Code of Ethics Is Approved
The exhaustive efforts of the ACM and IEEE–CS has resulted in the adoption of a code of professional practices for software engineers to consider—and use.
Technical Opinion: Comparing Java vs. C/C++ Efficiency Differences to Interpersonal Differences
A comparison of 40 different implementations of the same program.
Inside Risks: Risks of Relying on Cryptography
Cryptography is often treated as if it were magic security dust: "sprinkle some on your system, and it is secure; then, you’re secure as long as the key length is large enough—112b, 128b, 256b" (I’ve even seen companies boast of 16,000b.) "Sure, there are always new developments in cryptanalysis, but we’ve never seen an operationally […]
