More by Douglas T. Ross
The natural law of good communications takes the following, quite different, form in SA
Structured analysis (SA): A language for communicating ideas (1977)
Computer-aided design is not automatic design, although it must include many automatic design features. By automatic design we mean design procedures which are capable of being completely specified in a form which a computer can execute without human intervention.
Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960)
It is very difficult to define what is meant by computer-aided design since the complete definition is, in fact, the sum and substance of the total project effort which has only begun. It is much easier to describe, what is not computer-aided design as we mean it.
Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960)
There is a rigorous science, just waiting to be recognized and developed, which encompasses the whole of 'the software problem,' as defined, including the hardware, software, languages, devices, logic, data, knowledge, users, users, and effectiveness, etc. for end-users, providers, enablers, commissioners, and sponsors, alike.
D.T. Ross (1989)
Automatic design has the computer do too much and the human do too little, whereas automatic programming has the human do too much and the computer do too little. Both techniques are important, but are not representative for what we wish to mean by computer-aided design.
Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960)
Neither Watt's steam engine nor Whitney's standardized parts really started the Industrial Revolution, although each has been awarded that claim, in the past. The real start was the awakening of scientific and technological thoughts during the Renaissance, with the idea that the lawful behavior of nature can be understood, analyzed, and manipulated to accomplish useful ends. That idea itself, alone, was not enough, however, for not until the creation and evolution of blueprints was it possible to express exactly how power and parts were to be combined for each specific task at hand.
Structured analysis (SA): A language for communicating ideas (1977)
I introduced what I called "outside-in problem solving," which nowadays is called "top-clown." But I prefer outside-in because outside-in allows you to have many different viewpoints instead of a single top that you stupidly try to get to the bottom of, and things of that sort. Object oriented programming came out of that.
Retrospectives : The Early Years in Computer Graphics at at MIT, Lincoln Lab and Harvard (1989)
The APT and CAD Projects had one Air Force sponsorship, but it was actually a combination of about five or six projects, all going in parallel on both hardware and software matters, and I couldn't keep track of things, so I would take Polaroid pictures of the blackboard and then say what we had talked about into my dictating machine and my secretary would type it up.
Retrospectives : The Early Years in Computer Graphics at at MIT, Lincoln Lab and Harvard (1989)
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