Software Quality, Robots, and the Next Generation

Abstract

We are saddened to inform our readership that Paul Gray, PhD, Professor Emeritus at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, USA, died on May 10, 2012, as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. A remembrance of Paul will appear in the next issue.

Notes

1. The authors state “Few if any industries have created so many innovations in such a short time span as the software industry.” They also discuss the many ways in which introducing software resulted in cost reduction.

2. As mentioned previously, the book is encyclopedic.

3. It would be helpful to the reader if the authors could (assuming the data to be available) compare their sample with parameters available for the whole industry (e.g., the distribution of projects by size or by sponsor).

4. Bekey and I were both professors (although in different Schools), at the University of Southern California in the 1970s. He was then, and still is, a leading computer scientist with expertise in artificial intelligence.

5. Novels and movies abound in which robots run amok, causing damage to humans. Many people confuse these fictions with reality and are, in fact, terrified of robots.

6. For example: Input: “John doesn't like me.” Response: “Why doesn't John like you?”