For Recitation, Tuesday, May 2
Read "The recovery manager of the system R database manager" by Gray et al., reading #40. This paper is another heavy duty paper, but contains important information, which is well explained. Read this paper with care. The other paper to read is pretty light-weight: "The CIRRUS banking network" by Gifford and Spector, reading #41. This paper will give you some real-world perspective on the topics we are discussing.
No one-page reading report. Work on the second design project, which is due this Thursday.
For Lecture, Wednesday, May 3
No assigned reading for today, but you should start reading Weihl's paper "Transaction-processing techniques," reading #42. This paper is assigned for tomorrow, and it is a dense paper.
For Recitation, Thursday, May 4
Hand in your design project in recitation. When you hand in the design paper, include a cover page, giving a very brief description of who did what on the project. One possible answer is "Alice, Ben, and Louis worked equally hard on all parts of the project." The cover page is there so that we can identify students who did not fully participate, or did not contribute to the design project at all.
Read with care Weihl's paper "Transaction-processing techniques," reading #42. In addition, read "What makes business programming hard?" by Woodward, reading #45. This paper is another paper you can zip through.
For Lecture, Monday, May 8
We are revisiting the topic of complexity. In preparation read Chapters 1, 2, and 4 from The Mythical Man-Month by Brooks. This book is a classic that you should have bought at the beginning of the term. Although slightly old, this book contains a unique perspective and advice on building complex systems. You will reread this book probably once in a while in the next couple of decades. A lot of people do. You should also be ready to discuss Brook's ideas in tomorrow's recitation.