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Managing programming people: A personal view by Philip W Metzger
books Books received continued-
The Information Weapon by William R Synnott. Published by John Wiley & Sons. 334pp. £28.95. Successful companies today are using information technology as a competitive weapon, not just a productivity tool. Written for business and information managers, this book offers 63 strategies and a number of case studies of how to use technology competitively. According to the author, there are four forces which combine to create this weapon: vision, strategy, architecture and change. William Synnott has retired from his position as senior vice president and chief information officer at the Bank of Boston, USA. Managing Programming People." A Personal View by Philip W Metzger. Published by Prentice-Hall. 157pp. £21.75. The author defines the technical roles played by software professionals and describes the management problems associated with each group. Written from a personal point of view, the book looks at the manager, analyst, designer, programmer, tester, support staff and the customer. Metzger believes that managers set the tone for the entire group and the way they go about their jobs, and act towards other people, does make a difference. DBase III and III plus: A Troubleshooting Guide by Elizabeth Lynch. Published by Macmillan. 165pp. £6.94. DBase is capable of serving complex applications when it is used properly. This guide will help users solve problems which occur when using dBase III and dBase IIIplus. The first section shows how to overcome common problems such as loss of data, linking databases, and dealing with large numbers of variables. The second section lists all the dBase error messages with explanations of their causes and solutions.
456
Data Structured Software Maintenance." the Warnier/Orr Approach by David A Higgins. Published by Dorset House Publishing Co. 195pp. £19.80. Written for maintenance programmer/analysts and their managers, this book proposes a long-term solution to the problem of program maintenance. The Warnier/Orr method addresses the entire life cycle of a system, but program design (and modification) is the only part of the method covered here. Other topics include a definition of good, maintainable programs, logical and physical design, repair and modification of traditional programs, maintenance of large programs, and installation of the Warnier/Orr method into an organization. Code samples are provided in COBOL, BASIC and PASCAL.
Introduction to MODULA-2 by Jim Welsh and John Elder. Published by Prentice-Hall. 386pp. £12.95. The sequence of material presented in this book is suitable for a reader learning MODULA-2, or learning to program for the first time. It uses both extended Backus Naur form (EBNF) and syntax diagrams to provide a sound grounding in MODULA-2. A series of 17 case studies illustrates the design and construction of programs in this language. Jim Welsh is at the University of Queensland, Australia and John Elder is at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Application Generators using FourthGeneration Languages by Richard Watts. Published by NCC Publications. 133pp. £16.50. COBOL 85." Reference Summary by An application generator is a software Paul Layzell. Published by the Natool used for the development and tional Computing Centre. 147pp. production of application systems. It £12.95. allows the developer to produce comBased on the original COBOLreference plete DP systems without using summary produced by NCC in 1980, this book has been rewritten and up- COBOLor other procedural languages. This book shows how application dated to reflect the ANSI 1985 COBOL generators work and the ways in standard. It provides a summary of the which organizations of all sizes can permitted syntax formats, documents benefit from their use. Guidelines are the syntax rules accompanying each given for users to select the right format, and describes the functioning product for their needs. Attention is of each COBOL feature. also given to the staffing, training, A Guide to lngres by C J Date. Pub- documentation and standards needed lished by Addison-Wesley. 385pp. for the effective use of application generators. £32.95. Ingres is a relational database management system produced by Relational Technology Inc. Running Software Engineering .for Students by under a variety of operating systems Michael Coleman and Stephen Pratt. (VMS, VM/CMS and MVS/XA, Unix, Published by Chartwell-Bratt. 195pp. PC/DOS etc.), it allows users to access £4.95. any number of relational databases via This is an introductory text for stuthe two Ingres languages: Quel and dems covering both the principles and SQL. practices of software engineering. It This book covers both languages, focuses on programming and docuIngres forms-based frontend subsy- mentation with examples in BASICand stems, features for distributed processPASCAL. Chapters include: the need ing, giving examples. It will be useful for software engineering, design to those interested in database tech- methodologies, testing and debugging, nology, as well as Ingres users. and future developments in the area.
information and software technology
The Information Weapon by William R Synnott. Published by John Wiley & Sons. 334pp. £28.95. Successful companies today are using information technology as a competitive weapon, not just a productivity tool. Written for business and information managers, this book offers 63 strategies and a number of case studies of how to use technology competitively. According to the author, there are four forces which combine to create this weapon: vision, strategy, architecture and change. William Synnott has retired from his position as senior vice president and chief information officer at the Bank of Boston, USA. Managing Programming People." A Personal View by Philip W Metzger. Published by Prentice-Hall. 157pp. £21.75. The author defines the technical roles played by software professionals and describes the management problems associated with each group. Written from a personal point of view, the book looks at the manager, analyst, designer, programmer, tester, support staff and the customer. Metzger believes that managers set the tone for the entire group and the way they go about their jobs, and act towards other people, does make a difference. DBase III and III plus: A Troubleshooting Guide by Elizabeth Lynch. Published by Macmillan. 165pp. £6.94. DBase is capable of serving complex applications when it is used properly. This guide will help users solve problems which occur when using dBase III and dBase IIIplus. The first section shows how to overcome common problems such as loss of data, linking databases, and dealing with large numbers of variables. The second section lists all the dBase error messages with explanations of their causes and solutions.
456
Data Structured Software Maintenance." the Warnier/Orr Approach by David A Higgins. Published by Dorset House Publishing Co. 195pp. £19.80. Written for maintenance programmer/analysts and their managers, this book proposes a long-term solution to the problem of program maintenance. The Warnier/Orr method addresses the entire life cycle of a system, but program design (and modification) is the only part of the method covered here. Other topics include a definition of good, maintainable programs, logical and physical design, repair and modification of traditional programs, maintenance of large programs, and installation of the Warnier/Orr method into an organization. Code samples are provided in COBOL, BASIC and PASCAL.
Introduction to MODULA-2 by Jim Welsh and John Elder. Published by Prentice-Hall. 386pp. £12.95. The sequence of material presented in this book is suitable for a reader learning MODULA-2, or learning to program for the first time. It uses both extended Backus Naur form (EBNF) and syntax diagrams to provide a sound grounding in MODULA-2. A series of 17 case studies illustrates the design and construction of programs in this language. Jim Welsh is at the University of Queensland, Australia and John Elder is at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Application Generators using FourthGeneration Languages by Richard Watts. Published by NCC Publications. 133pp. £16.50. COBOL 85." Reference Summary by An application generator is a software Paul Layzell. Published by the Natool used for the development and tional Computing Centre. 147pp. production of application systems. It £12.95. allows the developer to produce comBased on the original COBOLreference plete DP systems without using summary produced by NCC in 1980, this book has been rewritten and up- COBOLor other procedural languages. This book shows how application dated to reflect the ANSI 1985 COBOL generators work and the ways in standard. It provides a summary of the which organizations of all sizes can permitted syntax formats, documents benefit from their use. Guidelines are the syntax rules accompanying each given for users to select the right format, and describes the functioning product for their needs. Attention is of each COBOL feature. also given to the staffing, training, A Guide to lngres by C J Date. Pub- documentation and standards needed lished by Addison-Wesley. 385pp. for the effective use of application generators. £32.95. Ingres is a relational database management system produced by Relational Technology Inc. Running Software Engineering .for Students by under a variety of operating systems Michael Coleman and Stephen Pratt. (VMS, VM/CMS and MVS/XA, Unix, Published by Chartwell-Bratt. 195pp. PC/DOS etc.), it allows users to access £4.95. any number of relational databases via This is an introductory text for stuthe two Ingres languages: Quel and dems covering both the principles and SQL. practices of software engineering. It This book covers both languages, focuses on programming and docuIngres forms-based frontend subsy- mentation with examples in BASICand stems, features for distributed processPASCAL. Chapters include: the need ing, giving examples. It will be useful for software engineering, design to those interested in database tech- methodologies, testing and debugging, nology, as well as Ingres users. and future developments in the area.
information and software technology