The Future of Software Engineering: Panel Discussions

Top researchers debate whether any real progress has been made during the past decades and how to distinguish between good and bad software. This booklet allows the reader to compare and contrast dominant voices in software engineering. It may serve as an aid for lecturers in explaining to engineering students how to see the wood for the trees in the complicated field of software engineering. The researchers address concurrency, program verification, and the contradistinction between software today versus how it should be in the future. Is it possible to increase the level of abstraction without paying a price in program performance? What is the difference between engineering verification and real verification? What is the role of program specifications in today's development practice? Panelists: Barry Boehm, Manfred Broy, Erich Gamma, Michael A. Jackson, David L. Parnas, Niklaus Wirth, Pamela Zave, Yuri Gurevich, Rustan Leino, Bertrand Meyer, and Andreas Zeller.

This book focuses on defining the achievements of software engineering in the past decades and showcasing visions for the future. It features a collection of articles by some of the most prominent researchers and technologists who have shaped the field: Barry Boehm, Manfred Broy, Patrick Cousot, Erich Gamma, Yuri Gurevich, Tony Hoare, Michael A. Jackson, Rustan Leino, David L. Parnas, Dieter Rombach, Joseph Sifakis, Niklaus Wirth, Pamela Zave, and Andreas Zeller. The contributed articles reflect the authors‘ individual views on what constitutes the most important issues facing software development. Both research- and technology-oriented contributions are included. The book provides at the same time a record of a symposium held at ETH Zurich on the occasion of Bertrand Meyer‘s 60th birthday.