Bertrand Meyer

Title: Components That You Can Trust

Biographical Sketch:
Bertrand Meyer is Professor of Software Engineering at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and Scientific Advisor of ISE, the company he co-founded in 1985. He is the author of a number of books including "Object-Oriented Software Construction, 2nd edition", "Eiffel: The Language" and "Reusable Software". He has been involved in the design of numerous libraries and tools applying the principles of "Design by Contract" and object technology.

Abstract of Talk:
Component-based development, one of the most promising paths of progress for the world of software engineering, is fraught with risks if it isn't accompanied by a constant concern for quality. Components of demonstrably high quality may, on the other hand, bring a critical contribution to the improvement of both software products and the software process. This lecture will address the challenge of building "trusted components" whose quality can be guaranteed. It will discuss both the "low road" of certifying components built with current technologies and the "high road" of proving component properties.