CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending April 17, 1998

CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending April 17, 1998

[CFCSEIC]

Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs***DRAFT***
Week Ending:  April 17, 1998

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CONTENTS:
IBM ROLLS OUT NEW Y2K TOOLS
COMPONENT MANAGEMENT IS A NEED WHOSE TIME HAS COME
Y2K BUT HIDDEN IN JAVASCRIPT
EDITORIAL MAKES THE CASE FOR USE CASES

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IBM ROLLS OUT NEW Y2K TOOLS

Topic:   Y2k

An article in the April 6th issue of InfoWorld discusses some new tools 
developed by IBM to help users who are falling behind in their Y2k 
projects.  These new tools are designed to help users attack all phases 
of in-progress millenium projects, offering relatively quick fixes to Y2k 
problems.  One of the more strategic tools, the Millenium Language 
Extensions (MLE), is designed to automate date-century windowing.  
According to IBM officials, the extensions are stitched into the 
compiler, where they will make changes to the data fields without 
intruding on the code's logic.  A second tool, the Millenium Date 
Compression Tool (MDCT), can update applications while they run, although 
some industry observers believe that this technique is both controversial 
and risky.  According to them, MDCT repairs the object code while the 
application is running, but doesn't repair the source code.  One source 
who is quoted, would not recommend the use of a run-time solution today, 
but states that by December of next year, this particular solution would 
work for companies that are going to be forced to take desperate 
measures.  IBM is also introducing a number of other Y2k tools, in 
addition to the two mentioned above.

Source:  Ed Scannell, "IBM to ease Y2k headaches", InfoWorld, Apr. 6, 
1998, v20, n14  
http://www.inquiry.com/pubs/infoworld/1998/issue14/T02-14.html

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COMPONENT MANAGEMENT IS A NEED WHOSE TIME HAS COME

Topic:  Reuse/Software Engineering

According to the author of this article, which appears in the May, 1998, 
edition of DBMS, component-based development in the middleware world is a 
hot topic.  He believes that server-side components are giving developers 
a mechanism to create and reuse applications, but they also need an 
integrated view of the various components distributed on a network, and 
the ability to manage the life cycles of these components.  The author 
feels that this type of component-based development differs from the 
traditional object-oriented programming model because it mixes in some 
distributed objects, and reuses objects by embedding them inside an 
application.  This maintains the components in a server-side environment, 
allowing developers to mix and match components to acquire new expertise 
or functionality.  Component standards, such as COM/DCOM and CORBA give 
developers a standard mechanism for linking components together, and 
extending them to meet the exact needs of an application.  In addition, 
legacy code is being wrapped so that it resembles standard components, 
and can interact with new client-server applications.  While these 
standards make it possible for components to communicate over a network, 
they do not provide management layers.  Fortunately, a number of 
client/server and Web application development vendors are developing 
tools to carry out this task.

Source:  David S. Linthicum, "Conducting Components:  Component 
Management is a need whose time has come - so get ready.", DBMS, May 
1998  http://www.inquiry.com/pubs/dbms/1998/05may98/9805d07.html

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Y2K BUG HIDDEN IN JAVASCRIPT

Topic:   Y2k/Software Engineering

An article in the March 25th issue of Inter@ctiveWeek  warns of a hidden 
problem buried in JavaScript.  The problem is not evident, because 
JavaScript can correctly represent years at the beginning of the next 
century.  According to Netscape, the language will use full, four-digit 
years, such as 2000 and 2001, at the proper time.  But until then, it 
uses a two-digit year, such as 97 or 98, which the originators of 
JavaScript thought would be adequate to get the language through the 
1990s.  JavaScript programmers may be counting on the language to yield 
the correct year after 1999, but their programs may contain a hidden 
two-digit date field.  When a program returns a four-digit date which 
can't be loaded into the two-digit field, it will spill the two digits 
into the next available field, destroying the integrity of the data in 
the program.  If an intranet site uses JavaScript to calculate time 
periods, available vacation and sick days, or retirement benefits for 
employees, it is almost certain to run into a date conflict as the 
millenium mark is crossed.

Source:  Charles Babcock, "JavaScript Programmers, Heed the Warnings", 
Inter@ctiveWeek, Mar. 25, 1998  
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/inwk/0510/296113.html

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EDITORIAL MAKES THE CASE FOR USE CASES

Topic:  Software Engineering

In an editorial in the March, 1998, issue of Object Magazine, 
Editor-in-Chief Robert John Hathaway III takes on the use case critics.  
He believes that use cases are the primary driver of requirements 
gathering and process definition in the object-oriented domain.   In 
surveys conducted by Object Magazine in January and February of this 
year, 66.2% of respondents said they use use cases, and 87.1% said they 
would like to.  Hathaway believes that use cases have clearly become 
accepted as one of the best ways to handle requirements gathering and 
process in various environments, ranging from systems software to 
large-scale IT applications.  In the past, requirements typically took 
the form of a set of stated necessities for a system; it was uncommon to 
see object diagrams or scenarios at all; and testing was performed in an 
ad hoc manner, took substantial amounts of time, and was difficult to 
validate.  Today, it is more common to see use cases, which formalize the 
use of object diagrams, and use case-driven testing, which insures that 
systems meet requirements.  The author is seeking feedback and experience 
with use cases in real projects, and can be reached at bhathaway@sigs.com.

Source:  Robert John Hathaway III, "The Ubiquity of Use Cases", Object 
Magazine, Mar. 1998  http://www.objectmagazine.com/editorial

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IBM and Y2K (Was: Re: CFCSEIC News Briefs...)

[Patrick Logan]

In comp.object CFCSEIC <cseic@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us> wrote:

: Source:  Ed Scannell, "IBM to ease Y2k headaches", InfoWorld, Apr. 6, 
: 1998, v20, n14  
: http://www.inquiry.com/pubs/infoworld/1998/issue14/T02-14.html

Interesting, given that in *1986* IBM responded with hostility to an
article about the need to fix Y2K problems ASAP!

My 401K thanks you, IBM.  8^P

-- 
Patrick Logan    (H) mailto:plogan@teleport.com 
                 (W) mailto:patrickl@gemstone.com 
                 http://www.gemstone.com