Studies in Cost-Effective Software Portability

这项研究解决了软件可移植性方面尚未解决的问题。软件单元(应用程序或组件)的可移植性是指其能够以比完全再开发低得多的成本被移植并适应新的硬件/软件环境的能力。可移植软件还应尽可能地利用目标环境的特定功能。应用程序和环境的持续激增使可移植性成为一个日益重要的需求，但在许多情况下，这一需求在很大程度上没有得到满足。目标是开发和验证新的方法，以在设计过程中提高软件单元的可移植性，并改善对计算环境中的可移植性的支持。这些方法将提高传统软件的可移植性，并将可移植性扩展到实时和并发软件等新的软件类别。我们工作的一部分是探索可移植性和可重用性之间的关系。我们研究的另一个重要部分是对指定和测量可移植性要求和属性的方法的调查。这项研究将采用分析和实验相结合的方法。计划的活动包括对现有战略和方法的调查；对选定的新软件类别的可移植性问题的分析；制定方法以明确可移植性要求和属性，以及量化可移植性的成本和收益的度量标准；使用这些规范和衡量标准对特定软件类别的潜在战略进行比较；以及通过选定的实验实现对前景良好的战略进行评估。

This research addresses unsolved problems in software portability. Portability of a software unit (application program or component) is its ability to be transported and adapted to a new hardware/software environment at a cost significantly less than complete redevelopment. As far as possible, portable software should also take advantage of the specific capabilities of the target environment. The continuing proliferation of both applications and environments has made portability an increasingly critical need which, in many cases, is largely unfulfilled. The goal is to develop and validate new methods to improve portability of software units during the design process, and to improve support for portability in computing environments. These methods will improve portability for conventional software, and extend portability to new software classes such as real-time and concurrent software. Part of our work is to explore relationships between portability and reusability. Another important part of our study is the investigation of methods to specify and measure portability requirements and attributes. The research will use both analytical and experimental methods. Planned activities include a survey of existing strategies and methods; analysis of portability problems for selected new classes of software; development of methods to specify portability requirements and attributes, and metrics to quantify the costs and benefits of portability; comparison of potential strategies for specific classes of software using these specifications and metrics; and evaluation of promising strategies by selected experimental implementations.