From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.5 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,LOTS_OF_MONEY, TO_NO_BRKTS_PCNT autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: ff6c8,ce0c3bcc57cd43aa,start X-Google-Attributes: gidff6c8,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,ce0c3bcc57cd43aa,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,ce0c3bcc57cd43aa,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,ce0c3bcc57cd43aa,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,ce0c3bcc57cd43aa,start X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public From: cseic@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us (Center for Computer Systems Engineering Information Clearinghouse) Subject: CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending July 17, 1998 Date: 1998/07/22 Message-ID: <6p51d8$h76@ns1.sw-eng.falls-church.va.us> X-Deja-AN: 374182412 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII Organization: none Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.ada,comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.sw.components Date: 1998-07-22T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs Week Ending: July 17, 1998 ************************************************************************ CONTENTS: DOD EXTENDS NETSCAPE ENTERPRISE LICENSE BUILT-IN TESTS AND REUSE IN OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING NFC: READINESS REQUIRES CONTINGENCY PLANNING WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE TESTS Y2K FIXES MISSING SOURCE CODE Y2K SING ALONG ************************************************************************* DOD EXTENDS NETSCAPE ENTERPRISE LICENSE Topic: Software Engineering The Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA's) Enterprise Software License Division has extended the Department of Defense's (DoD's) licensing agreement with Netscape Communications Corporation through September 30, 1999. This license agreement, negotiated under the Agency's Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering (I-CASE) contract, provides Netscape client and server software products to the entire DoD, covering over two million users. DoD employees, contractors working on-site at DoD facilities, and contractors working off-site on DoD-furnished equipment, can run these Netscape products on their work, portable, or personal/home workstations. They will be able to access the Netscape servers covered under this contract anywhere they are deployed within the worldwide DoD environment. The Netscape products included under the new licensing agreement are Netscape Communicator Client (Professional Edition with and without FORTEZZA), Enterprise Server with LiveWire Enterprise Server with and without FORTEZZA, Messaging Server with and without FORTEZZA, Collabra Server with and without FORTEZZA, Directory Server with and without FORTEZZA, Certificate Server, and two new servers added under the contract extension - Mission Control and Security Services. Additional Netscape products not currently covered under the DoD-Wide Netscape Enterprise Licensing Agreement can still be purchased under the I-CASE contract at prices lower than those on the GSA schedule. The I-CASE contract also makes products from approximately 110 other vendors available to government users at prices below GSA schedule. For further information about the products available through the Netscape DoD-Wide Enterprise Licensing Agreement or the I-CASE contract, please contact DISA's Enterprise Software License Division at 703-681-2088 or licenses@ncr.disa.mil. Source: Richard Reinhardt, Enterprise Software License Division, 703-681-2103, reinharr@ncr.disa.mil ************************************************************************ BUILT-IN TESTS AND REUSE IN OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING Topic: Software Engineering The authors of this article in the July issue of Software Engineering Notes question whether the capability of object-oriented programming (OOP) has developed completely, or whether new methodologies can be developed that will further its evolution. They answer their own question in this article. They have developed a new kind of software test, a built-in test (BIT), which is explicitly described in the source code of software as member functions. Software with BITs has two operation modes: normal mode for execution, and test mode for debugging, testing, and maintenance. The BITs are on standby in normal mode and can be activated in test mode. This paper introduces the concept of BITs, and provides standard structures that incorporate the BITS into conventional object-oriented software (OOS). The authors discuss reuse methodologies for BITs that are developed at object and system levels in OOS. The authors believe that extending the inheritable structure and reusability of OOS from code to test using the BIT methods can enhance the capability of object-oriented mechanisms such as encapsulation, inheritance, and reusability. They state that OOP supplemented by BITs can form a new self-testable programming method. Source: Yingxu Wang (wangy@sbu.ac.uk), Graham King (Graham.King@solent.ac.uk), Dilip Patel (dilip@sbu.ac.uk), Ian Court, Geoff Staples, Margaret Ross, and Shushma Patel, "On Built-In Tests and Reuse in Object-Oriented Programming", Software Engineering Notes, v23 n 4, pp. 60-64 http://www.acm.org ************************************************************************* NFC: READINESS REQUIRES CONTINGENCY PLANNING Topic: Y2k According to an article in the July 13th issue of Government Computer News, the National Finance Center has finished making its date code fixes. The USDA center fixed 23.5 million lines of code, which was primarily written in COBOL and "chock full" of dates. It has fixed its mission-critical applications on schedule, and will begin validation testing. Later this month, NFC will test its readiness to operate for an extended time under diesel power. They will bring up every machine, light, and terminal. If there is any possibility of computer-induced electrical outages after 2000, they intend to park several diesel trucks near the center. John Ortego, the center's director, said that readiness required a lot of contingency planning. The center processes the payroll for 100,000 Agriculture employees; the IRS and Library of Congress; the Commerce, Justice, and Treasury Departments; and handles processing for 2.3 million participants in the federal Thrift Savings Plan. This summer NFC's Y2k staff will begin copying entire applications running on two IBM ES/9000 mainframes and loading them onto a separate IBM System/390 time machine for forward date testing. The time machine has a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor processor rated at 61 million instructions per second, a terabyte of attached storage, two robotic tape silos, and an IBM 3745 front-end communications processor for testing 500 interfaces to external systems. NFC is already scheduling clients for testing on their time machine. The center used windowing logic rather than date field expansion. The added logic can handle two-digit or four-digit dates, but that won't work for all cases. There are a few special cases that NFC is aware of, and if systems that affect them haven't been replaced, the center will handle them manually. NFC has already spent $8 million, and may spend another $2 to test and retest readiness through 1999. Many of their younger staff were not trained in COBOL. NFC got around this problem by providing in-house training and pairing them with experienced COBOL programmers. Source: Florence Olsen, "NFC's ready to 'take on' 2000", Government Computer News, July 13, 1998 http://www.gcn.com/gcn/1998/July13/cov1.htm ************************************************************************ WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE TESTS Y2K FIXES Topic: Y2k White Sands Missile Range tested its Y2k fixes by rolling its computers' internal clocks forward past the Year 2000. This vast system of computers was able to successfully track a jet aircraft without a glitch. Five clock changes were made in the computers that controlled the jet as it traveled 15,000 feet above the range at a speed of nearly 500 mph. The clock was rolled forward to Jan. 1, 2000; Leap Day; the day after Leap Day; the last day of the year; and the first day of 2001. White Sands expects to share what they have learned with other organizations. They spent nine months and nearly $1 million preparing for this test. A simulation was conducted before the F4 Phantom jet, which was modified to be flown as a drone, took off. Until the computers' clocks were reset in real time, no one knew for certain whether the patches would work. White Sands officials had to scan 10,000 software packages and examine more than 4,000 computers to fix date-code problems. They tried Y2k tools, but rejected them because they generated as much, or more, code than the programs they were analyzing. They identified and fixed programs manually in order to meet the Army's compliance deadline. Rona Stillman, chief scientist for computers and telecommunications at the General Accounting Office feels that rolling the date forward on computer systems can be dangerous, and that the system can make changes that cannot be rolled back. Range officials also were concerned about the danger of accidentally ending software licenses tied to certain time periods, and about other unseen effects in their test results, which they will be studying for some time. Source: Anne A. Armstrong (anne_armstrong@fcw.com), "Y2K test hits mark at missile range", Federal Computer Week, July 6, 1998 http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1998/0706/fcw-newsmissile-7-6-1998.html ************************************************************************** MISSING SOURCE CODE Topic: Y2k/Software Engineering As much as 3% of your total source code may be missing, according to leading Y2k consultants. Some of it may be mission-critical. The Source Recovery Company (SRC) LLC, based in Framingham, MA specializes in reverse-engineering executable code back to the source code. SRC's technology can recover Assembler or COBOL code in the IBM environment for any MVS, VSE, or VM program. They claim that their Assembler Recovery/SRC 2.0 may be the first service to disassemble Assembler code to the macro level. For more information about this service, see http://www.source-recovery.com. Source: Ian Hayes and William Ulrich, "Locating 'MIA' Source Code", Software Magazine, July 15, 1998 http://www.sentrytech.com/Y2K/Y2Kjul98/y2k078nf.htm ************************************************************************** Y2K SING ALONG Topic: Y2k Two Digits for a Date (to the tune of "Gilligan's Island," more or less): Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale Of the doom that is our fate. That started when programmers used Two digits for a date. Two digits for a date. Main memory was smaller then; Hard disks were smaller, too. "Four digits are extravagant, So let's get by with two. So let's get by with two." "This works through 1999," The programmers did say. "Unless we rewrite by then It all will go away. It all will go away." But management had not a clue: "It works fine now, you bet! A rewrite is a straight expense; We won't do it just yet. We won't do it just yet." Now when 2000 rolls around It all goes straight to hell, For zero's less than 99, As anyone can tell. As anyone can tell. The mail won't bring your pension check It won't be sent to you When you're no longer 68, But minus 32, But minus 32. The problems we're about to face Are frightening, for sure. And reading every line of code's The only certain cure. The only certain cure Source: Ian Hayes and William Ulrich, "Locating 'MIA' Source Code", Software Magazine, July 15, 1998 http://www.sentrytech.com/Y2K/Y2Kjul98/y2k078nf.htm *********************************************************************** The DISA CFCSEIC welcomes suggestions for and pointers to software engineering-related articles. 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