Book Reviews

This volume is the latest in the now familiar series of State of the Art Reports by Infotech International Ltd., and follows the format successfully established in earlier reports (see review B76-1, Computer, January 1976). The heart of the report consists of the full text of some 20 invited papers. These are preceded by a 130- page analysis section consisting of key extracts from the invited papers and extracts from discussions held at the Infotech Conference on Structured Programming. The extracts are skillfully linked together with editorial comments in a framework designed to bring out the essential points and arguments in an easily readable and digestible analysis. The analysis section is divided into the following sections: Overview, Complexity in Programming, and Reliability and Correctness. The overview section deals with topics such as the meaning and aims of structured programming, the sequencing mechanisms, languages for structured programming, and issues of performance. The section on complexity in programming deals with human limitations and program modularization aspects. The reliability and correctness section deals with the nature of software reliability and the various approaches to software correctness. The report concludes with a select 76-item annotated bibliography by C. V. Ramamoorthy and H. M. So, covering key papers of historical, introductory, and research interest. An extensive cumulative subject index and bibliographic indices are also provided.