Laboratory for Computer Science (formerly Project MAC) Progress Report XIII, January-December 1975.
Michael L. Dertouzos · Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) · 1978
The main focus of the research reported herein has been in the reduction of the substantive and increasing costs associated with the generation, maintenance and documentation of programs. In particular, work carried out by the Knowledge-Based Systems group focused on the identification of a very high level language in which inventory control programs are specified, and on the associated compiler that translates such a program to PL/1 code. In the Domain Specific Systems Research group research commenced on the programming of microcomputers from high-level languages for such purposes as the automatic control of physical processes, maintenance and instrumentation. Developments in the Mathlab group have led to formation of the MACSYMA consortium of users. The Programming Technology group concentrated its research on the development of a Morse Code system. Through this system the group seeks to understand and develop techniques for embedding a great deal of structural knowledge (in this case about Morse Code) into computer programs. The Computer Systems Research group focused its research on the analysis and certification of large systems using the MULTICS systems as its principal model and laboratory. In addition, work was inflated on a local-network that will link the laboratory's computational resources. The Programming Methodology group continued the development of the structured programming language CLU which has a modular construction that facilitates the representations of abstractions. Finally, the newly formed Data Base group has begun work on improving the efficiency and accuracy of very large data bases.