Visualization and animation as a technique to assist in the construction of high assurance software

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:267563

Winter, V L

The software construction process consists of a mixture of informal and formal steps. By their very nature, informal steps cannot be formally verified. Empirical evidence suggests that a majority of software errors originate in the informal steps of the software development process. For this reason, when constructing high assurance software, it is essential that a significant effort be made to increase one`s confidence (i.e., to validate) that the informal steps have been made correctly. Visualization and animation can be used to provide an `intuitive proof` that the informal steps in the software construction process are correct. In addition, the formal portion of software construction often permits/demands artistic (informal) decisions to be made (e.g., design decisions). Such decisions often have unexpected/unforeseen consequences that are only discovered later in the development process. Visualization and animation techniques can be brought to bear on this aspect of the software construction process by providing a better intuitive understanding of the impact of the informal decisions that are made in program development. This increases the likelihood that undesirable decisions can be avoided or at least detected earlier in the development process.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 267563
• Report Number(s): SAND--96-1325C; CONF-9607136--1; ON: DE96011827
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
COMPUTER GRAPHICS
DECISION MAKING
DESIGN
FLOWSHEETS
PROGRAMMING
QUALITY ASSURANCE