Design of the rational environment -- The PCTE initiative: toward a european approach to software engineering -- Engineering VAX Ada for a multi-language programming environment -- The Ada environment — a personal view -- Knowledge-based software development from requirements to code -- The SMoLCS approach to the formal semantics of programming languages -- Project Graphs and meta-programs towards a theory of Software development -- Software development based on formal methods -- Integration of program construction and verification: the PROSPECTRA methodology -- Ada compiler validation: An example of software testing theory and practice -- The Software Engineering Institute at carnegie mellon university -- Task sequencing language for specifying distributed Ada systems.

The collection of papers published in this book was initially presented at the Workshop on Software Factories and Ada, held on Capri, May 26-30, 1986. The subject of the book is software development environments. Software development is treated from three viewpoints: methodologies, language issues and mechanisms. Of particular interest are the discussions of automation of the development process and the formalization of software development specifications. Several new methodologies are described, many of which are available on the commercial market. New is in particular the formalization of the design and development process. Interesting ideas are presented on planning the design process and on supporting project management by formal tools. The reader will find a variety of interesting methodologies and mechanisms that are operational. The book is suitable for readers interested in knowing in which direction programming environment research is moving.