Because software specifications often serve as a formal contract between the developer and the customer, systems have been proposed that help the software client better understand specifications by automatically paraphrasing them in natural language. The REVIEW system applies natural language generation within Metaview, a metasystem that facilitates the construction of CASE environments to support software specification tasks. This paper summarizes a technical report that presents REVIEW through a case study involving the Object Model of Rumbaugh's OMT specification methodology (1991).

The authors formulate the criteria for drawing dataflow diagrams and describe the placement and routing algorithms used in a system called MONDRIAN. A generalized approach to the question of software diagrams is proposed based on the authors' experience with MONDRIAN and a metasystem approach to the creation of CASE (computer-aided software engineering) environments. A formal approach to the definition of software objects and their graphical representation is given. The use of location constraints as a basis for generalized layout algorithms is discussed.>

In this paper procedures are studied for storing, accessing, updating, and reorganizing data in large files whose organization is direct, an organization used when a fast response time is required. Distribution-dependent hashing functions and the division method are compared as methods of indirect addressing.Distribution-dependent hashing functions are characterized. These hashing functions generate addresses from a set of keys by using knowledge of the distribution of that key set within the key space or range of keys. A study of the performance measures obtained during tests of these functions on several key sets indicates that in certain cases, distribution-dependent methods perform better than the division method. This result is extended by a demonstration that distribution-dependent hashing functions can accommodate a change in the distribution of keys without being redefined. A number of insertions to and deletions from the key set can be made before a distribution-dependent hashing function gives poorer performance than the division method under identical circumstances.If many additions are made to a set of keys, it becomes necessary to reorganize, in a larger storage area, the direct file of records identified by that key set. Although processor time must be sacrificed in order to redefine a distribution-dependent hashing function, the division method requires substantially greater access time in a reorganizational situation.

This paper describes an introductory course in discrete structures for the undergraduate computer science student that has evolved at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. The philosophy of such a course and certain problems encountered in preparing and teaching it are discussed.