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The Font Wars were a decades-long competition in the computer industry for dominance in font technology, viewed as a key success factor for personal computing platforms. The Font Wars spurred innovative scientific research into the small, nearly subliminal forms of the printed letters on which modern civilization was based, yet which had received little scrutiny outside the printing trades. More than a business episode, the Font Wars were above all a manifestation and translation of ideas—some modern, some ancient, some theoretical, some practical—into computer software and hardware. At the heart of the Font Wars was a fundamental question: What is the best way to turn traditional printed letter forms into digital fonts for computer screens and printers? Answers to this question were researched, implemented, and launched into the marketplace, where their intense competition transformed the 500 year tradition of printing and publishing, placing the electronic literacy on the screens of billions of digital displays, computers, tablets, and smart phones around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software reuse can be defined as the process of creating software products from the existing ones rather than developing software from scratch. Thus, software reuse is normally proposed to increase software productivity and quality and leads to economic benefits. In this sense, the reuse of software requirements has received important attention because it provides a solid support to develop quality software through obtaining and reusing quality software requirements [i.e., software product line (SPL) approach used in large-sized software enterprises]. However, the small-sized enterprises-which represent up to 85 % of all software organizations in many countries around the world-cannot implement a SPL approach because it does not fit with the context, properties, and complexity of their software projects. Moreover, the software engineering community has not adequately explored a more proper approach in the context of small-sized software enterprises. The use of a software requirements catalog could be this proper approach. In this context, the aim of this paper was to introduce the requirements reuse model for software requirements catalog (RRMSRC). Also, a set of guidelines to perform the main activities defined for reusing functional requirements within small-sized software enterprises is provided. As evidence of its feasibility, RRMSRC has been used in an industrial context, and the obtained results and learned lessons are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer history displays in museum galleries and exhibitions traditionally focus on iconic machines and progressive lineages of hardware production. This approach has been widely criticized as unrepresentative of computing's wider context but is, in any case, becoming increasingly awkward as historical attention turns to the era of small, cheap, undistinguished personal computers and standardized networking. This article presents a range of more user-focused display approaches for consideration. In particular, I address the value and practicalities of period "set dressing" for hardware and hands-on interaction with software and call for greater hybridization between approaches devised for static galleries and for mobile displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is very little published literature on the display of computing technology in museums and galleries. This article reviews a variety of displays, from the early 1970s to the 1990s, to show how computing and communication technologies shifted from a taxonomic approach that inferred an element of progression to displays that take a more socially and culturally embedded approach. The article argues that by changing their focus away from computing per se to considering the history of sociocultural information networks, museum professionals can create more engaging experiences for visitors while reflecting the current concerns of the sociology of technology and historiography. Using insights drawn from the development of the Information Age gallery at the Science Museum in London, the article argues that while the shift toward information and communication networks is not without conceptual challenges, it brings to the fore the importance of infrastructure, the role of users in the coconstruction of networks, and the challenge of software in display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many safety-critical computer systems are required to monitor and control physical processes. The four-variable model, which has been used successfully in industry for almost four decades, helps to clarify the behaviors of, and the boundaries between the physical processes, input/output devices, and software. In this model, the acceptable behaviors of the software are constrained by the physical environment, system requirements, and input/output devices. If acceptable software behaviors are possible, then the system requirements are said to be implementable with respect to these constraints. The only acceptability condition proposed in the literature deems as acceptable software behaviors that can lead to undesirable system behaviors, in particular, nondeterministic system behaviors that for the same input sometimes do not produce any results and some other times produce expected results. In this sense, the acceptability condition can be seen as angelic. In this paper we strengthen the acceptability condition using the demonic calculus of relations such that no undesirable system or software behaviors are allowed and prove a necessary and sufficient implementability condition for the system requirements. As a byproduct, we also obtain a mathematical characterization of the least restrictive software specification, which, for all intents and purposes, can play the role of the software requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrity level defines a required level of confidence that a system satisfies critical properties related to relevant risk criteria. However, integrity level terms and definitions differ across industry sectors, and this hampers a common understanding and application of integrity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A summary of articles published in Computer 50 and 25 years ago, July 1968 and 1993. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]