The Software Paradigm
Brian Warboys · 1995
Note from the briefing for this talk. "Fundamental since software is the defining technology and prescribes the extent of automation designed into a system." The nature of modern computer systems is such that a single paradigm is an insufficient model. The paper attempts to show that what is required is for projects to create a design framework which tolerates change (and failure) in the design process. Within this framework the appropriate paradigm should be selected for appropriate design components. 1 Introduction Two case studies will be used throughout to illustrate and illuminate the issues. They are arbitrarily selected from numerous possiblities. They happened to be on my desk when I wrote this paper. The first is based on the report (Computer 1993) on the series of fatal accidents which occurred between June 1985 and January 1987 from fatal doses of radiation from the Therac-25 computerised radio therapy machine. References to this case study are labelled `Therac.n.' ...