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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1974)
Page 12 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1974 NASA gets computer program aid Knotty problems in the space program disappear by new compu ter methods developed at TAMU. A team of computer experts is busy producing an automatic documentation system and per forming research in software (prog ramming) reliability for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This research, project manager Susan Arseven said, intends to let one know “ . . . how to tell if a com puter program works.’ It evolved out of a need “ . . .to provide more aids to help eliminate errors in programming by trying to categorize types of mistakes that happen in programs. We re making an analysis to see if there are certain techniques and methods to use whereby the computer programmer ends up with a more reliable pro duct. In 18 months the team has writ ten over 300 programs which com prise the documentation system in stalled at Goddard and at TAMU. “The system has been designed to produce timely, up-to-date documentation at a relatively low cost, Arseven explained. “It is being extended to provide the abil ity to monitor, improve and predict computer program reliability. ” “This will be useful to all the NASA centers,’ she said. “All un manned space shots are monitored at Goddard. As a result they do a tremendous amount of data collec tion, reduction and analysis of in formation received from satellites. “Also they do the real time com puting for controlling trajectories and orbits for the unmanned space shots,” Arseven noted. “They are the back-up computer center for the manned space flights. To support these activities, NASA spends ap proximately 6 per cent of their budget annually or $200 million for computer program development. ” Documentation is constructed from information gathered during all phases of development. As soon as a programmer puts in a program, the automatic system can compile it, produce a “tidy-ed” listing, allow chart* a cross-reference, or show its connections to other programs. This information can then be used in the testing and debugging phases of de velopment of a computer program. Documentation is the major means of communication in a pro ject so it is important that documen tation is timely and reflects the most current version of project informa tion. It is kept in a central place in the computer where changes can immediately be re-documented so that the program can keep pace with the project. “With the new system you de scribe what results you want, what data is needed to produce those re sults, and the documents you wish to produce, ’’ said Arseven. "The au tomated system can make sure the data is collected, monitor standards and project status and produce the needed documents.” Principal investigator is Dr. Dick Simmons of the TAMU Data Pro cessing Center. Preregistration to begin soon Preregistration for the spring semester in only 13 days away. Preregistration, open only to students currently enrolled in the fall semester, begins at 8 a. m. Monday (Dec 2) and ends at 5 p.m. Friday (Dec. 6). New freshmen, transfer stu dents, new graduate students and old returning students will preregister during week of Jan. 15-17. Students enrolled in the fall semester may obtain registra tion card packets from the head of their department. Heads ol departments will be notified by the Registrar’s Office when to pick up the packets, Carter said. New students and students returning to TAMU altera semester’s ahscence may bet their packets from the regis trar. A student who has a physical handicap and needs help in any phase of the sign-up should contact the Registrar’s Office. Any person needihg a course at a specific time or requests free time must have approval ol his college dean to have there- quest honored. Departmental advisers have received copies of registration guidelines. Other information or assistance can be gained by contacting Willis Ritchey at 845-7117. C hicago kangaroo doubted CHICAGO (AP) - In the last live weeks, more than a dozen people claimed to have seen Kinky the kangaroo, the mar supial marauder who allegedly clobbered a couple of Chicago cops. But a disbelieving zoo official says he’ll eat the animal if any one ever finds it. “I’m just waiting for some one to report a kangaroo being seen riding a flying saucer,” laughed Saul Kitchener, assis tant director of Lincoln Park Zoo, alter another sighting was reported in Carmel, Ind., 150 miles southeast of here. “I don’t believe there is such a thing as a fugitive kangaroo and if one is captured and brought to me I’ll eat it, even if it weighs 300 pounds,” Kitch ener jested. “There isn’t enough around for kangaroo to eat this time of the year — they eat grass but they also need bushes with leaves on them. It would be possible, however, for one to survive in the relatively mile autumn weather wove been having,” he said. Over the weekend. Kinky — as the elusive kangaroo has been dubbed — was reported spotted along Indiana 234 near Carmel, an Indianapolis sub urb. One man telephoned police that the animal was a big one and was sitting on its haunches. A woman later said she saw a kangaroo hop into some woods. A helicopter hunt was futile. A kangaroo was reported a week ago around Rensselaer, Ind., where the Chicago Bears football team trains in the summer. This brought chuck les that it belonged to the Bears who were going to us it as a secret weapon. But it was no laughing mat ter for a couple of Chicago policemen who were the first to report a kangaroo at large on Oct. 13. They displayed bruises and said they were at tacked trying to catch the ani mal. Since then Kinky has been reported seen around Chicago forest preserves hopping over fences and ducking into thick ets, on residential streets where he disappears in the dusk and rattling garbage can lids in alleys. ^trpfnamb* SW Eddie Dominguez ’66 Joe Arciniega '74 Greg Price Mail If you want the real (thing, not frozen or canned . . . We call It “Mexican Food Supreme." Dallas location: 3071 Northwest Hwy. 352-8570 WHIP INFLATION NOW OPEN MON. 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