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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.504



THE GROUPS

alt.romance

   One of the nicest things about any relationship, be it the beginning of
   a courtship or years into a more serious commitment, are the little
   things that you do for each other, the romance.  If you're interested
   in chatting with people about what is considered romantic, talking about
   a particular romantic thing that you've done, or even just reading
   stories about what other couples have done to 'be romantic' or 'have a
   romantic liaison', then this is the group.


soc.couples

   Being in a short or long term relationship offers much in the way of
   joy, pleasure, and emotional satisfaction, but it also offers the
   chance for major arguments and other problems.  This group is where
   you can talk about the relationship you're in with others that are also
   in relationships of their own.

soc.feminism

   Soc.feminism is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of feminist
   issues.  Both men and women are encouraged to post to it and discussion
   is not limited to the pro-feminist viewpoint.

   This group differs from soc.women in that moderation keeps out the
   flames and inappropriate cross-posts.  In addition, there are several
   subjects appropriate for soc.women but not soc.feminism (e.g.  the
   sporadic "where do I find comfortable shoes?"  discussion that turns up
   in soc.women or discussions of women's health, other than policy issues
   related to it).

soc.men

   This group discusses similar issues to soc.women, but from the
   male perspective.  Topics include equal rights, child support,
   custody of children, relationships and so on.  In addition, there
   are often topics specific to men including shaving in the shower,
   post-workout skin care, and similar.  Both men and women are active
   participants in this group.

soc.motss

   While the Usenet community is pretty open minded, many of the
   aforementioned social groups tend to be populated primarily by
   the heterosexual community.  Soc.motss (Members of the Same Sex)
   is where people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or just interested and
   sympathetic can share conversation about relationships, dating, travel,
   and the like.  Discussion of the validity or appropriateness of
   homosexuality is inappropriate, however, and will not be appreciated.

soc.singles

   Of all the things that people seem to have in common, perhaps the most
   common thread of all is the bouts of being single, and the hunting and
   searching for relationships that this implies.  This group is a forum
   for all discussions even vaguely related to either being single or the
   quest for a relationship.  Indeed, it has been likened to an electronic
   cocktail party, where people have known each other (electronically,
   usually) for years.  There are also a number of people in relationships
   that share their thoughts, as well as a high level of aggression between
   some of the contributors.

soc.women

   Soc.women is an unmoderated group that discusses similar issues to
   soc.men, but from the female perspective.  Topics include equal rights,
   child support, custody of children, relationships and so on.  In addition,
   there are often topics specific to women including shaving legs, finding
   comfortable shoes, and so on.  Both men and women are active participants
   in this group.

OTHER PLACES TO LOOK

In addition to these Usenet groups, there are many other forums on
Usenet where you can make new friends and share conversations about
topics of interest to yourself.  Among them are the many "soc.culture"
groups for specific ethnic/geographic cultures, the "soc.religion" and
"talk.religion" groups for those interested in meeting friends of a
specific religious background, the "rec.*" groups oriented about a
specific recreational activity and many more.

Also, there are a number of different private mailing lists for specific
sexual and social orientations, including:

  alternates
      Contact: [e-mail]

      Purpose: Alternates is a mailing list for people who advocate, and/or
      practice an alternate sexual lifestyle. Alternates is intended as a
      forum and support group for adult men and women who espouse their
      freedom of choice and imagination in human sexual relations, no matter
      what their orientaion. Those who are offended by frank, and
      uninhibited discussions relating to sexual issues should not
      subscribe.

      Moderator/Editor: <[e-mail]>

  bears
      Contact: [e-mail] (Steve Dyer & Brian Gollum)
               ...!{harvard,ima,linus,mirror}!spdcc!bears-request

      Purpose: Mail.bears is a mailing list in digest format for gay
      and bisexual men who are bears themselves and for those who enjoy
      the company of bears.  The exact definition of a "bear" seems to
      be a personal one, but it encompasses men who are variously cuddly,
      furry, perhaps stocky, or bearded.  Mail.bears is designed to be a
      forum to bring together folks with similar interests for conversation,
      friendship and sharing of experiences.  The tone of mail.bears
      will be determined by its members, but people uncomfortable with
      discussing sexually explicit topics via electronic mail should
      not subscribe.

  cdforum
      Contact: uunet!samsung!wizvax!cdforum-request  (Stephanie Gilgut)

      Purpose: To provide support/discuss/share experiences about gender
      related issues; Crossdressing, Transvestism, Transsexualism, etc.
      This list is in Digest Format.

  feminists
      Contact: [e-mail] (Patricia Collins)

      Purpose: The feminist mailing list is intended to provide a forum
      for discussion of issues of interest to women, in a friendly
      atmosphere. The basic tenets of feminism and the day-to-day
      experiences of women do not have to be explained or defended.  Men
      and women can join, but everyone requesting to be added to the
      mailing list MUST provide the moderator with: 1) a full name; 2) a
      complete uucp path to a well-known host or a fully specified
      Internet address; 3) the correspondent's gender (for records and
      statistics only).  NO exceptions.

  men
      Contact: attunix!mail-men-request
           [e-mail] (Marcel Franck Simon)

      Purpose: This digested mailing list discusses "men's issues."
      Both women and men may join. Mail-men is a place where men and
      women can discuss men's issues in an atmosphere of openness and
      support. Men's issues are those problems and experiences that
      affect male humans.

  sappho
      Contact:  [e-mail]
        [e-mail] (Regis)

      Purpose: A forum and support group for gay and bisexual women.
      The list is not moderated, but may become so if the volume and/or
      content begins to warrant it.  A digest version is available; if
      you want it, be sure to mention it in your addition request.  Men
      who want to "listen in," for whatever reason, are requested to use
      the feminist and alternates mailing lists instead; sappho
      membership is limited to women.

SUMMARY

Please use this list of Usenet groups and mailing lists as one of the many
signposts to help you find the groups that you'll be interested in.  One
other terrific place to find more information is by asking your friends on
the net what groups they read too!
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu comp.software-eng:11614 news.answers:4233
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,news.answers
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!torn!news.ccs.queensu.ca!qucis.queensu.ca!qucis.queensu.ca!dalamb
From: [e-mail] (David Alex Lamb)
Subject: Comp.software-eng periodic postings and archives
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: comp.software-eng
Keywords: FAQ
Sender: [e-mail] (David Lamb)
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (David Alex Lamb)
Organization: Computing and Information Science, Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario,  K7L 3N6, Canada
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1992 18:19:09 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Expires: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:19:05 GMT
Lines: 156


Archive-name: software-eng/part0

Welcome to comp.software-eng, a newsgroup for discussion of software
engineering and related topics.  This message is followed by three others,
each summarizing a set of "frequently asked questions" (FAQs):
    FAQ 1: comp.software-eng questions and answers
    FAQ 2: CASE tools summary
    FAQ 3: Software engineering readings
Be warned: the only mechanism we use to compose these lists is to gather
information submitted by people around the net, post it regularly, and
incorporate feedback.  All evaluations are the opinions of those who submitted
them; your mileage may vary.  Send comments to [e-mail] (David
Alex Lamb).

This FAQ posting is very late - I have been too busy to update it
since the last posting in late September.  So: if you've sent me
something since September, and it's not here yet, rest assured I still
have your note and will eventually make the change.

I've now arranged for the FAQ to be posted automatically.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: comp.software-eng archives

The following files are available via anonymous FTP from directory
pub/software-eng on host ftp.qucis.queensu.ca (130.15.1.100).  Log in with
user ID 'anonymous' and use your mailing address as the password. Each file
has a header (in e-mail or news format) that credits the original collector.
If you cannot use FTP, send mail to [e-mail] containing
a line of the form
    send software-eng f1 f2 ...
where f1, f2, and so on are the names of the files from this list; the mail
server should respond within an hour or so plus mailing delays (which can
themselves be substantial if you're not directly on the internet).  If you
want to find out more about the archive server, send mail to the same address
with a line containing the word 'help'; if you do this you can't also request
files in the same message.  If your mailer has trouble with large files, use
the 'size <bytes>' command to set a threshold, above which the server will
split files into several messages.
  Name             Changed Description
  faqmsg       21 Sep 1992 comp.software-eng periodic postings and archives
  questmsg     21 Sep 1992 FAQ 1: comp.software-eng questions and answers
  casemsg      22 Oct 1992 FAQ 2: CASE tools summary
  readmsg      21 Sep 1992 FAQ 3: Software engineering readings
  README       21 Sep 1992 This list of files
  2167a        11 Oct 1991 DoD-Std-2167a and life cycle models
  ada           2 Aug 1991 bibliography on Ada and software engineering
  aiswe        13 May 1992 readings: artificial intelligence and soft.eng.
  bachman      10 Sep 1991 Bachman information modeling
  bookreview   10 Apr 1992 Book reviews
  cadreTeam    10 Sep 1991 Opinions re CADRE Teamwork
  CASEexp       2 Oct 1991 experience with CASE tools
  cleanroom     9 Apr 1992 Cleanroom software development
  cmtools      10 Apr 1992 Configuration management tools
  color         4 Jun 1992 Ergonomics of color displays
  cubicle      28 Feb 1992 Productivity effect of offices vs. cubicles
  designchange  7 Jul 1992 Effect of design changes
  diagramedit  15 Feb 1992 Diagram editors and tools for building them
  education    10 Apr 1992 Software Engineering education and degree programs
  environment  15 May 1992 Software Engineering environments
  facet        18 Sep 1991 Faceted classification and multiple inheritance
  fault         7 Jul 1992 Fault Tolerance references
  formal       10 Apr 1992 formal methods in the USA
  funcpoints   10 Apr 1992 function/feature points
  hood          2 Oct 1991 Hierachical Object-Oriented Design
  horror       10 Apr 1992 Computer horror stories
  hungarian    11 Oct 1991 papers on Hungarian notation
  ieee          2 Oct 1991 IEEE software engineering standards
  inspect       7 Jul 1992 Code inspection techniques
  maint         9 Apr 1992 Software maintenance laws
  manuals       6 Mar 1992 Guidelines for software manuals
  maturity     15 Feb 1992 SEI Capability Maturity Model
  ooformat     10 Jan 1992 Format for object-oriented design documents
  oomaint      10 Apr 1992 maintenance and complexity in o-o systems
  oomethod     12 May 1992 Object-oriented methodologies
  pctecais      6 Mar 1992 Comments on PCTE, CAIS-A, ATIS
  pdcase        7 Jul 1992 Public-domain CASE tools
  petri         7 Jul 1992 Petri net tools
  pmtools       7 Jul 1992 Project management and design tools
  probtrack    13 Apr 1992 Problem tracking tools
  productivity 18 Sep 1991 Feature point productivity for several countries
  proto         7 Jul 1992 Prototyping
  rcshandout    5 Oct 1992 Tutorial handouts on RCS
  readcase     13 Feb 1992 Bibliography on CASE
  readintro    15 Feb 1992 Introducing your manager/customer to SE ideas
  realtime     15 Feb 1992 Information on realtime software development
  reflist      22 May 1992 Tero Ahtee's software engineering reference list
  regress      10 Jan 1992 Regression testing tools
  restruct      7 Jul 1992 Tools for restructuring and reverse engineering
  safety       10 Jan 1992 Formal methods and software safety
  specmark     15 Feb 1992 SPEC modern architecture benchmarks
  spiral       10 Jan 1992 References on Spiral life-cycle model
  statecharts  15 Feb 1992 Reference list on Harel's statecharts
  static        7 Jul 1992 Software metrics and static analysis
  statsTool    21 Oct 1991 X-based statistics and graphing packages
  sunCperf     17 Aug 1991 SUN/C performance baseline tools
  techTransfer 10 Apr 1992 Technology transfer
  testTools    10 Jun 1992 Tools for testing
  transynth    15 Feb 1992 Transformation/synthesis systems
  uims          7 Jul 1992 User Interface Management Systems
  vdm-z        15 Feb 1992 formal methods Z and VDM
  verification 10 Apr 1992 References on program verifier design

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: WAIS server

I have created a WAIS database that indexes the comp.software-eng archives.
It's still experimental; I'm still playing with appropriate "file types" for
the various files, so you get a subsection of a file in response to a query,
instead of the whole giant file (at the moment only a few of the files are
subdivided, and not always in a useful way). The .src file follows at the end
of this message.

The following is taken from the WAIS FAQ.txt file: WAIS is available via
anonymous FTP from a variety of sources.  The main distributor is think.com,
in the wais subdirectory.
 a. a mac client?
  think.com:/wais/WAIStation0.62.hqx
 b. a unix client?
  a few UNIX based clients are available in the core distribution, which
  can be found on think.com:
  think.com:/wais/wais-8-b#.tar.Z, where # is the most recent version (4 at
  this time).  This includes the server, and clients for X Windows, GNU
  Emacs and a couple of simple shell-based clients.
 c. a dos client?
  The University of North Carolina has been a main developement site for
  WAIS software.  Several DOS clients can be found in the FTP archives on
  wais.oit.unc.edu.
 d. a NeXT client?
  A client for NeXT can be found in think.com:/wais/XXX
 e. a VMS client?
  WAIS has been ported to VMS by the folks at the University of North
  Carolina.
 f. the server?
  An example WAIS server is part of the core distribution.



(:source
   :version  3
   :ip-address "130.15.1.100"
   :ip-name "ftp.qucis.queensu.ca"
   :tcp-port 210
   :database-name "software-eng"
   :cost 0.00
   :cost-unit :free
   :maintainer "[e-mail]"
   :description "This database is the archives of newsgroup comp.software-eng.
It consists of files announced periodically in the FAQ for the group.
"
)
--
Software Technology Laboratory      [e-mail] (David Alex Lamb)
Computing and Information Science   phone: [phone]
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu comp.software-eng:11617 news.answers:4236
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,news.answers
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!torn!news.ccs.queensu.ca!qucis.queensu.ca!qucis.queensu.ca!dalamb
From: [e-mail] (David Alex Lamb)
Subject: FAQ 1: comp.software-eng questions and answers
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: comp.software-eng
Keywords: FAQ
Sender: [e-mail] (David Lamb)
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (David Alex Lamb)
Organization: Computing and Information Science, Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario,  K7L 3N6, Canada
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1992 18:19:12 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Expires: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:19:05 GMT
Lines: 306


Archive-name: software-eng/part1

This message gives brief answers to questions that have occurred in
comp.software-eng; in many cases they are also topics many readers would like
NOT to see discussed again soon.  Questions are:
   What's a CASE Tool?
   What's a 'function point'?
   What's the 'spiral model'?
   What is a 'specmark'?
   Where can I find a public-domain tool to compute metrics?
   How do I write good C style?
   What is 'Hungarian Notation'?
   Are lines-of-code (LOC) a useful productivity measure?
   Should software professionals be licenced/certified?
   How do I get in touch with the SEI?
   What is the SEI maturity model?
   Where can I get information on API?
   What's a 'bug'?
   Where can I get copies of standards??



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: What's a CASE Tool?
Date:  3 Feb 1991


(see also the archive file "casemsg") (thanks to Scott McGregor
<[e-mail]> for inspiring this question)
CASE stands for Computer Aided Software Engineering;  it can be used to mean
any computer-based tool for software planning, development, and evolution.
Various people regularly call the following 'CASE': Structured Analysis (SA),
Structured Design (SD), Editors, Compilers, Debuggers, Edit-Compile-Debug
environments, Code Generators, Documentation Generators, Configuration
Management, Release Management, Project Management, Scheduling, Tracking,
Requirements Tracing, Change Management (CM), Defect Tracking, Structured
Discourse, Documentation editing, Collaboration tools, Access Control,
Integrated Project Support Environments (IPSEs), Intertool message systems,
Reverse Engineering, Metric Analyzers.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: What's a 'function point'?
Date: 12 May 1992


(see also the archive file "funcpoints")

Function points and feature points are methods of estimating the "amount of
functionality" required for a program, and are thus used to estimate project
completion time.  The basic idea involves counting inputs, outputs, and other
features of a description of functionality.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: What's the 'spiral model'?
Date: 19 Sep 1991


(see also the archive file "spiral")
(1)  Barry Boehm, "A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement",
     ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, August 1986.
(2)  Barry Boehm "A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement" IEEE
     Computer, vol.21, #5, May 1988, pp 61-72.

Basically, the idea is incremental development, using the waterfall model for
each step; it's intended to help manage risks.  Don't define in detail the
entire system at first.  The developers should only define the highest
priority features. Define and implement those.  With this knowledge, they
should then go back to define and implement more features in smaller chunks.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: What is a 'specmark'?
Date: 19 Sep 1991


(see also the archive file "specmark") The SPECmark is the geometric mean of a
series of benchmarks done by the SPEC group. There are a couple of suites, but
in general SPECmark refers to the results of the first suite.  The suite
includes FORTRAN and C codes, mostly well known codes but slightly hacked
versions.
    SPEC
    c/o NCGA
    2722 Merrilee Drive, Suite 200
    Fairfax, VA 22031
    Phone: [phone]
    FAX:   [phone]


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Where can I find a public-domain tool to compute metrics?
Date: 17 Jan 1992


(see also the archive file "static") Volume 20 of newsgroup comp.sources.unix
contained a public-domain package called "metrics", which computes McCabe and
Halstead metrics.  There are many comp.sources.unix archives around the net.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: How do I write good C style?
Date: 19 Sep 1991


This is answered regularly in the comp.lang.c FAQ.  Try "Recommended C style
and Coding Standards", on host archive.cis.ohio-state.edu (128.146.8.52) via
anonymous ftp in directory pub/style-guide.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: What is 'Hungarian Notation'?
Date: 19 Sep 1991


(see also the archive file "hungarian") A naming convention for C code.  See
Charles Simonyi and Martin Heller, "The Hungarian Revolution", BYTE, Aug. 1991
(vol. 16, no. 8).  There are other naming conventions;  see, e.g.  "A Guide to
Natural Naming", Daniel Keller, ETH, Projekt-Zentrum IDA, CH-8092 Zurich,
Switzerland. Published in SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 25, No. 5, pages 95-102.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Are lines-of-code (LOC) a useful productivity measure?
Date: 12 May 1992


(see also the archive file "static") Not unless you are very careful.  Capers
Jones' book has a detailed and insightful discussion of Lines of Code,
including anomalies, and shows how to use it sensibly (eg in a single job
shop, with a single language, and a standard company coding style).
Pathological cases should get caught in code inspections.  References:
-    T. Capers Jones, Programming Productivity, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1986
-    Capers Jones, Applied Software Measurement: Assuring Productivity and
     Quality, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991, 494 pages ISBN 0-07-032813-7

The appendices of the latter give rules for counting procedural source code,
as well as rules for counting function points and feature points.  The
following study, cited in Boehm's _S_o_f_t_w_a_r_e _E_n_g_i_n_e_e_r_i_n_g _E_c_o_n_o_m_i_c_s, claims that
anomalies that seriously "fool" the LOC metric show up rarely in real code.
-    R. Nelson _S_o_f_t_w_a_r_e _D_a_t_e _C_o_l_l_e_c_t_i_o_n _a_n_d _A_n_a_l_y_s_i_s _a_t _R_A_D_C, Rome Air
     Development Center, Rome, NY.  1978.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Should software professionals be licenced/certified?
Date: 19 Sep 1991


This is a very controversial and political question.  Generally, certification
is something voluntary, while licencing is regulated by governments.
Certification generally means some agency warrants you meet its standards;
licencing generally means that to claim to practice a certain profession
requires a government licence, often administered through a professional
organization.  In theory both are supposed to help judge if someone is capable
of doing certain jobs.

Licencing isn't currently required for computing professionals;  some people
would like to see some jobs require it, as with established branches of
engineering.  Others don't like government intervention, and/or believe many
people who wouldn't get licenced are perfectly competent.

Computing professionals in the USA have had a certification program for years,
administered by the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals
(708-299-4227), a meta-organization with representatives from ACM, IEEE-CS,
ADAPSO, ICCA, IACE, AIM, DPMA, AISP, COMMON, ASM, CIPS, and AWC.  There are
three certificates aimed at different broad types of practitioner, and many
areas of specialization.  To keep a certificate requires at least 40 hours of
continuing education each year; credit can also be obtained for self-study,
teaching, publication, etc.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: How do I get in touch with the SEI?
Date: 10 Apr 1992


The customer relations department of the Software Engineering Institute can be
reached at:
    internet:  [e-mail]
    Phone:  [phone]
A subscriber service is available to U.S. mailing addresses. Subscribers
receive the SEI quarterly newsletter, Bridge; invitations to SEI public
events; and first notification of course offerings and new publications.  To
become a subscriber, contact Customer Relations.

To order an SEI publication, contact NTIS, DTIC, or RAI directly:
    National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
    U.S. Department of Commerce
    Sprinfield, VA 22161-2103
    Telephone: [phone]

    Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)
    ATTN: FDRA Cameron Station
    Alexandria, VA 22304-6145
    Telephone: [phone]

    Research Access Inc. (RAI)
    3400 Forbes Avenue
    Suite 302
    Pittsburgh, PA 15213
    Telephone: [phone]
    FAX: [phone]
For general information about the SEI, contact George Heidekat
([e-mail]).


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: What is the SEI maturity model?
Date: 31 Jan 1992
Originally-From: [e-mail] (Mark Paulk)


(see also the archive file "maturity")

Maturity is not an easy concept to get down to a single paragraph, but
consider this.

Premise:  The quality of a software system is largely governed by the quality
of the process used to develop and maintain the software.  Basics:  The first
step in improving the existing situation is to get management buy-in and
management action to clean up the software management processes (walk the
talk, as TQMers frequently say).  Integration:  The second step is to get
everyone working together as a team.  Measurement:  The third step is to
establish objective ways of understanding status and predict where things are
going in your process.  Continuous improvement:  Understand that this is
building a foundation for continually getting better.