(vi) Information during the process
• Listings/automatically produced flowcharts/indexing
• Index and bibliography of software units
• Directed graph of system linkages
• Current specifications
• User documentation, text editing
• Classification of mistake types
• Production records to predict future production
(vii) Diagnostic aids
(viii) Source language program convertors
(ix) File convertors
b. Control
(i) Access by programmer
(ii) Code volume
(iii) Documentation matching to program
(iv) Software and hardware configurations, and matching
(v) Customizing
(vi) Replication and distribution
(vii) Quality Control
(viii) Instrumentation
(ix) Labor distribution
(x) Scheduling and costing«
Buxton: I would be interested to know how much of the system described by Bemer is actually working.
Bemer: We have about a quarter of it presently built and working. It is a very large project. Many improvements are already seen to be necessary — such as in terminal equipment.
Opler: IBM is also developing such a system. The cost is enormous, and a vast amount of hardware is needed.
Fraser: I welcome Bemer’s system as a long term project, but I think pieces should be implemented first to see how they work. There is one point that worries me: human monitoring of production is very adaptive — the automated system may disguise some of what is happening.
Bemer: We are starting gradually, and building up. My motto is ‘do something small, useful, now.’
McIlroy: It would be immoral for programmers to automate everybody but themselves. The equivalent to what Bemer is discussing is done by all big manufacturers to assist the process of hardware design. However, in addition to the storage of information provided voluntarily by the programmer, one should take advantage in such a system of the chance to accumulate additional information without bothering the programmer.
Harr: One has to be very careful in designing such a system to ensure that one does not end up slowing down the progress of software production, and/or adding significantly to the programmer’s burden by increasing the amount of information that he has to provide.
Ross: If you don’t know what you’re doing in producing software, then automating the system can be dangerous. However, I am in principle in favour of such program production tools.
David: We have had some experience of using an on-line system for program development, in fact to aid in the production of a large military system. The on-line system, called TSS/635, was developed specifically for