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On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules
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Communications of the ACM archive
Volume 15 ,  Issue 12  (December 1972) table of contents
Pages: 1053 - 1058  
Year of Publication: 1972
ISSN:0001-0782
Author
D. L. Parnas  Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA
Publisher
ACM  New York, NY, USA
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ABSTRACT

This paper discusses modularization as a mechanism for improving the flexibility and comprehensibility of a system while allowing the shortening of its development time. The effectiveness of a “modularization” is dependent upon the criteria used in dividing the system into modules. A system design problem is presented and both a conventional and unconventional decomposition are described. It is shown that the unconventional decompositions have distinct advantages for the goals outlined. The criteria used in arriving at the decompositions are discussed. The unconventional decomposition, if implemented with the conventional assumption that a module consists of one or more subroutines, will be less efficient in most cases. An alternative approach to implementation which does not have this effect is sketched.


REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

 
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Gauthier, Richard, and Pont, Stephen. Designing Systems Programs, (C), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1970.
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Parnas, D. L. Information distribution aspects of design methodology. Tech. Rept., Depart. Computer Science, Carnegie- Mellon U., Pittsburgh, Pa., 1971. Also presented at the IFIP Congress 1971, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
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Parnas, D. L. On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules. Tech. Rept., Depart. Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon U., Pittsburgh, Pa., 1971.
 
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Balzer, R. M. Dataless programming. Proc. AFIPS 1967 FJCC, Vol. 31, AFIPS Press, Montvale, N.J., pp. 535-544.
 
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Mealy, G. H. Another look at data. Proc. AFIPS 1967 FJCC, Vol. 31, AFIPS Press, Montvale, N.J., pp. 525-534.
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CITED BY  654