From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_20 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 30 Apr 93 17:19:56 GMT From: world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: How archaic are ASSET/DSRO/VCOE? Message-ID: List-Id: What follows is an abstract from a technical report coming out of one of the academic software research centers. Index Structures for Selective Dissemination of Information The number, size and user population of bibliographic and full text document databases are rapidly growing. With a high document arrival rate, it becomes essential for users of such databases to have access to the very latest documents; yet the high document arrival rate also makes it difficult for users to keep themselves updated. It is desirable to allow users to issue queries that are constantly evaluated, called standing orders, so that they will be automatically informed of new additions that may be of interest. Such service is traditionally called Selective Dissemination of Information. The huge number of users and the timeliness requirement of the service pose a challenge. In this paper, we propose several index structures for standing orders and algorithms that efficiently match documents against large number of orders. We also present analysis and simulation results to compare their performance under different scenarios. (Copies of the report are available through me for $500). ============================================================================== Why can't the defense community expect a similar capability from the DoD funded software reuse centers? A service that truly facilitates reuse by reaching out to the customer. Instead, we have a system where you have to ask permission to be able to use a retrieval system that few people speak highly of. Their technology is outdated, and somewhat embarassing (for all of the tax dollars going into these centers) when compared to what's going on in the rest of the world. With systems like this indexing scheme, natural language interfaces to reusable libraries, and hypertext access to CD-ROM collections, it is becoming more and more apparent that the real goal of the DoD reuse centers is not to promote software reuse, but to promote control of reusable software. The DoD does not need three software reuse centers. It is pure waste. (Of course, ASSET/DSRO/VCOE could be doing these things. But since they hate publicizing what they do, who knows what they are doing.) Greg Aharonian -- ************************************************************************** Greg Aharonian Source Translation & Optimiztion P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178