Abstract:
The current approach to the general solution of payroll problems is to construct a package for which the user has to provide parameters defining his problem. To avoid problems and complexities like those involved in setting up parameters for packages, it was decided that the automatic generating system should communicate directly with the user in determining his requirements. This decision was influenced by the idea that "the ultimate objective in automatic programming is a system that can carry on a natural language dialogue with the user (especially a non-programmer) about his requirements and then produce an appropriate program for him. However, the system is not so ambitious as to allow a free dialogue with the user, rather, he is presented with a set of questions in English which he has to answer. Further drawbacks and problems with packages are that the user has in general no control over the final product. The solutions are unnecessarily large as they contain routines for facilities which are not required, and they are also extremely difficult to alter. The system designed overcomes these disadvantages by generating a unique solution tailored to the requirements of a user. The solution is consequently easy to understand and is therefore simple to alter if required. All of these points are amplified in Chapter 2, which provides an overview of the problem and the solution approach. The system has been designed as a set of programs, the chief of which are a Question-Answering Program, a Format Editor, and a Program Generator.
