Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!dptg!pegasus!psrc From: psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Chaos theory for software engineering? Keywords: chaos Message-ID: <4125@pegasus.ATT.COM> Date: 2 Oct 89 04:12:00 GMT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 19 Yeah, I know, the last thing software people need is more chaos.-) But seriously, I'm partway through CHAOS: THE MAKING OF A NEW SCIENCE by Gleick, and some of it sounds a lot like what we do. Chaos theory deals with dynamic systems, consisting of many bodies whose behavior is too complex to model, and where small changes in the initial conditions can lead to enormous changes in the final state. Yup, sounds like the software *I'm* responsible for.-) My first impression is that this stuff isn't applicable to software engineering. Rough approximations or general descriptions of our systems aren't much help. But I'm not the brightest person in the field. Has anyone found any references to applying chaos theory to software? Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind. (I'm too busy to edit summaries; just post on this one, please.)