Shared Software Database

该项目的目标是开发利用广域网搜索和共享软件的技术。这将使软件重用超越库；为单个项目编写的程序可能不直接使用，而是用作其他项目中类似程序的模板。首席研究员正在对软件数据库的索引和查询进行新的研究。索引信息必须自动生成，而不需要程序创建者做额外的工作。最初，他正在扩充现有的CASE工具来生成这样的索引信息。以后的研究将集成其他对软件进行分类的机制。该项目的另一部分是为广泛分布的、自治的软件数据库开发分布式查询机制。这将包括自动取消生成过多结果的查询等功能。一个帮助用户指定和优化查询的界面正在设计中。虽然这项工作的重点是共享计算机软件，但所开发的技术在共享其他信息方面可能是有用的，例如来自科学实验或有限兴趣（因此未发表）研究的数据。

The objective of this project is to develop techniques for searching for and sharing software using wide-area networks. This will enable software reuse to go beyond libraries; a program written for a single project may not be used directly, but instead be used as a template for similar programs in other projects. The principal investigator is conducting new research into indexing and querying software databases. Indexing information must be generated automatically, with no extra effort by the program creator. Initially he is augmenting an existing CASE tool to generate such indexing information. Later research will integrate other mechanisms for categorizing software. Another part of the project is to develop a distributed query mechanism for widely distributed, autonomous, software databases. This will incorporate features such as automatically canceling queries which generate too many results. An interface which helps user specify and refine queries is being designed. Although the focus of this work is on sharing computer software, the techniques developed could prove useful in sharing other information, such as data from scientific experiments or limited interest (and therefore unpublished) studies.