Biological anthropologists generally agree that humans evolved reasoning to facilitate hunting together as a group; however, there are many other species that hunt in packs, and yet reasoning is unique to humans. Therefore, in order to explain reasoning, it is not enough to consider how it was beneficial to us; we also need to consider what enabled reasoning to emerge specifically in humans as opposed to any other species.

I have a hypothesis which attempts to explain how this happened.

What is the most important quality of software?

Correctness, they say.

And what is the second most important quality of software?

Readability, they say.

That is right, but only in theory.

Abstract

An automated software testing technique is presented which spares us from having to stipulate our expectations in test code, and from having to go fixing test code each time our expectations change.

The term "dependency" is used very often in software engineering, but depending on context, it may mean slightly different things. To avoid confusion, here are the different meanings of the term, and their explanations.

Abstract

In technical design of software systems as conventionally practiced, call graphs often contain cycles. We show that cyclic call graphs are highly problematic for a number of reasons, the most important being that they require careful handling on a case-by-case basis by custom-written code, thus preventing the standardization, and therefore the automation, of system assembly. We discuss refactoring strategies for systematically eliminating call cycles, including a universally applicable technique for trivially eliminating a certain common type of call cycle. We conclude that since call cycles can be avoided or eliminated, they can be comprehensively disallowed, thus paving the way for the automation of system assembly.

Abstract

This paper examines the long-standing need within the software engineering discipline for technical design that is authoritative. A design process is authoritative if there exist technical means of materializing the design document as a working product, thus guaranteeing that the end result is indeed as described by the design. We notice the scarcity and inadequacy of existing solutions for software design, we look at solutions in other engineering disciplines, and we conclude with realizations on what it would take to come up with a solution that works for software.