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A technique for software module specification with examples
Open accessAbstract
This paper presents an approach to writing specifications for parts of software systems. The main goal is to provide specifications sufficiently precise and complete that other pieces of software can be written to interact with the piece specified without additional information. The secondary goal is to include in the specification no more information than necessary to meet the first goal. The technique is illustrated by means of a variety of examples from a tutorial system.
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Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Buxton , J.N. and Randell, B . (Eds.) , Software Engineering Methods. Report of a conference sponsored by the NATO Science Committee , Rome , Italy , 27-31 October 1969 . Buxton, J.N. and Randell, B. (Eds.), Software Engineering Methods. Report of a conference sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, Rome, Italy, 27-31 October 1969.
- 10.1145/355588.365103 · DOI
- 10.1145/362452.362489 · DOI
- 10.1145/365153.365162 · DOI
- Parnas , D.L. , Sample Specification for the Man Machine Interface . Presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Graphics and the Man Machine Interface , April 1971 , Erlangen, West Germany (to be included in the proceedings of that institute). Parnas, D.L., Sample Specification for the Man Machine Interface. Presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Graphics and the Man Machine Interface, April 1971, Erlangen, West Germany (to be included in the proceedings of that institute).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Exception handling: issues and a proposed notation
Goodenough, J. B. (1975) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/361227.361230 · Cited by 496
Abstract data views: an interface specification concept to enhance design for reuse
Cowan, D. D., & Lucena, C. J. P. (1995) · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · doi:10.1109/32.372150 · Cited by 103
Metadata
- Authors
- Parnas, D. L.
- Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Parnas, D. L.
- ORCID
- Parnas, D. L.
- Venue
- Communications of the ACM
- Published
- 1972-05
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 330-336
- ISSN
- 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7317
- OpenAlex
- W2165121897
- Cited by
- 726
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 118.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications of the ACM (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Keywords
- software interface, specification completeness, tutorial system, software design
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- Parnas, D. L. (1972). A technique for software module specification with examples. Communications of the ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/355602.361309
