AMAST Mail - October 1999
SERG Report Announcement

Subject: SERG Report Announcement
From: burns@raid.cas.mcmaster.ca (Doris Burns)
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 10:58:52 -0400


October 6, 1999


Dear Sir/Madame:

Below are abstracts for SERG Reports 380 and 381 which were recently 
completed by McMaster University's Software Engineering Group.  

Our web address for downloading reports is:

http://www.crl.mcmaster.ca/SERG/serg.publications.html

Our publication page has been revised and I hope that with the new format,
it will be easier to use.  

If you need to have the report mailed to you, there is a $10.00 fee
for both the new SERG reports and the previous CRL Reports to cover printing 
and mailing costs.  Please send a cheque payable to McMaster University. 
This fee does not apply to companies that are members of CITO, 
universities and other "not for profit" organisations.  We will send 
an invoice with the reports if you request one. If the cost to cut a 
cheque exceeds the amount of the cheque, we can keep a "running 
balance" of the  reports you have ordered and when the amount owed 
is around $30.00, an invoice will be issued.


Yours truly,
Doris Burns

				SERG Report 380
		          Structured Decision Table <=> 
	           Generalized Decision Table Conversion Tool
			            Tian Fu

Tabular notation is a very important part of the functional documentation 
method that is used to produce computer system specifications. Many types of 
tables are currently used by the Software Engineering Research Group at 
McMaster University. Generalized decision tables are one of the types. In order
to facilitate the use of tabular notation, a variety of tools were built or 
are being built to simplify tables, convert between table formats, check 
syntax, automatically generate test oracles, etc. Other types of decision 
tables are used by industry to write software specifications. Structured 
decision tables are one of the four types of tables adopted by Ontario Hydro 
for their safety critical software documentation. Like the Software Engineering 
Research Group, they also have tools to conduct syntax checking, software design 
verification, table completeness checking, table consistency checking, etc. The 
two sets of tools overlap in some areas but not others.

Structured decision tables and generalized decision tables have different formats 
and representations for expressions in the tables. One type of table may be easier 
to read and have shorter expressions in some cases than the other. In order for 
Ontario Hydro and the Software Engineering Research Group to exchange 
specifications and utilize each other's available tools, the structured decision
table <==> generalized decision table conversion tool project was initiated. The 
tool will help to ease communication and increase collaboration between the two 
parties. Based on the table holder module, the tool is developed in C using 
information hiding methodology. With the tool integration framework in mind, the 
tool is developed and tested independently, and finally integrated to the TTS 
(Table Tool System).

***********************************************************************************

				SERG Report 381
		      Use of Aliases in Tabular Expressions
			           Junhua Hu

Experience has shown that tabular expressions can improve the readability of 
document for conditional function and relation which frequently occur in 
software documentation, but tabular expressions may still be long and hard 
to read when the same substructure of a complicated data structure appears 
in several places in tabular expressions.  Parnas proposed the use of aliases 
to reduce the complexity of tabular expressions.  An alias is a short 
identifier that designates a substructure or a set of substructures.
Once an alias is defined, the short identifier can be used in tabular 
expressions.  This thesis presents how to define aliases and how to use 
aliases in tabular expressions.  This thesis also shows that the use of 
aliases can improve the readability of tabular expression. Tabular 
expressions containing aliases can be evaluated using the Alias Table
Tool and the Code Generator. The Alias Table Tool, which works as a 
preprocessor of the Code Generator, has been developed.