INVESTIGATION OF FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING IN DEFENSE APPLICATIONS

THE DOD SOFTWARE INITIATIVE CLEARLY IDENTIFIED THE CHALLENGES FOR FUTURE SYSTEMS. THEY WILL HAVE TO BE LARGER AND MORE COMPLEX, DEVELOPED AND DELIVERED MORE RAPIDLY, AND MAINTAINED OVER LONGER PERIODS. TRADITIONAL PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES, HOWEVER, APPEAR TO HAVE REACHED THEIR LIMITS, MAKING MUCH LARGER SOFTWARE SYSTEMS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN. AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH, CALLED FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING, HAS BEEN PROPOSED TO OVERCOME THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE DIFFICULTIES OF TRADITIONAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES. THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROJECT ARE TO EVALUATE THE FEASABILITY OF FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING IN DEFENSE-RELATED APPLICATIONS AND TO ACCESS THE MAINTAINABILITY OF FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMS. FOR THE FIRST PHASE, FOUR SMALL PROGRAMS WILL BE DEVELOPED TO IDENTIFY THE TYPES OF APPLICATIONS WHERE FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING MAY PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGES. THIS WORK WILL INCLUDE STANDARDIZING A NOTATION FOR FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMS, REFINING A METHODOLOGY FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT, AND MONITORING ERRORS AND CHANGES MADE DURING THE PROGRAMMING PROCESS. IN THE SECOND PHASE A TRANSLATOR/PROCESOR WILL BE DEVELOPED TO RUN AND TEST THE EXAMPLE PROGRAMS. IN ADDITION,A LARGER PROGRAM, ON THE ORDER OF 10,000 CONVENTIONAL HIGH- LEVEL LANGUAGE STATEMENTS, WILL BE DEVELOPED IN PHASE II TO MORE THOROUGHLY EVALUATE THE MAINTAINABILITY OF FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMS.