Ad Lib, Inc. was a Canadian manufacturer of sound cards and other computer equipment founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval . The company's best known product, the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card ( ALMSC ), or simply the AdLib as it was called, was the first add-on sound card for IBM compatibles to achieve widespread acceptance, becoming the first de facto standard for audio reproduction.
54-575: After development work on the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card had concluded, the company struggled to engage the software development community with their new product. As a result, Ad Lib partnered with Top Star Computer Services, Inc., a New Jersey company that provided quality assurance services to game developers. Top Star's President, Rich Heimlich, was sufficiently impressed by a product demonstration in Quebec in 1987 to endorse
108-766: A user . The process is more encompassing than programming , writing code , in that it includes conceiving the goal, evaluating feasibility, analyzing requirements , design , testing and release . The process is part of software engineering which also includes organizational management , project management , configuration management and other aspects. Software development involves many skills and job specializations including programming , testing , documentation , graphic design , user support , marketing , and fundraising . Software development involves many tools including: compiler , integrated development environment (IDE), version control , computer-aided software engineering , and word processor . The details of
162-470: A YM3812 chip with off-the-shelf external glue logic to plug into a standard PC-compatible ISA 8-bit slot. PC software-generated multitimbral music and sound effects through the AdLib card, although the acoustic quality was distinctly synthesized. Digital audio ( PCM ) was not supported; this would become a key missing feature when the competitor Creative Labs implemented it in their Sound Blaster cards. It
216-412: A deadline. Software analysis begins with a requirements analysis to capture the business needs of the software. Challenges for the identification of needs are that current or potential users may have different and incompatible needs, may not understand their own needs, and change their needs during the process of software development. Ultimately, the result of analysis is a detailed specification for
270-592: A design can be brief (a quick sketch) or lengthy and complicated, involving considerable research, negotiation, reflection, modeling , interactive adjustment, and re-design. Designing is also a widespread activity outside of the professions of those formally recognized as designers. In his influential book The Sciences of the Artificial, the interdisciplinary scientist Herbert A. Simon proposed that, "Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones." According to
324-411: A range of applications both for the term 'art' and the term 'design'. Applied arts can include industrial design , graphic design , fashion design , and the decorative arts which traditionally includes craft objects. In graphic arts (2D image making that ranges from photography to illustration), the distinction is often made between fine art and commercial art , based on the context within which
378-511: Is a framework that provides the viewpoints on the system and its environment , to be used in the software development process . It is a graphical representation of the underlying semantics of a view. The purpose of viewpoints and views is to enable human engineers to comprehend very complex systems and to organize the elements of the problem around domains of expertise . In the engineering of physically intensive systems, viewpoints often correspond to capabilities and responsibilities within
432-408: Is a popular way of managing changes made to the software. Whenever a new version is checked in, the software saves a backup of all modified files. If multiple programmers are working on the software simultaneously, it manages the merging of their code changes. The software highlights cases where there is a conflict between two sets of changes and allows programmers to fix the conflict. A view model
486-656: Is also a part of general education, for example within the curriculum topic, Design and Technology . The development of design in general education in the 1970s created a need to identify fundamental aspects of 'designerly' ways of knowing, thinking, and acting, which resulted in establishing design as a distinct discipline of study. Substantial disagreement exists concerning how designers in many fields, whether amateur or professional, alone or in teams, produce designs. Design researchers Dorst and Dijkhuis acknowledged that "there are many ways of describing design processes," and compare and contrast two dominant but different views of
540-490: Is based on an empiricist philosophy and broadly consistent with the agile approach and methodical development. Substantial empirical evidence supports the veracity of this perspective in describing the actions of real designers. Like the rational model, the action-centric model sees design as informed by research and knowledge. At least two views of design activity are consistent with the action-centric perspective. Both involve these three basic activities: The concept of
594-449: Is correctly incorporated with the newer software. Design involves choices about the implementation of the software, such as which programming languages and database software to use, or how the hardware and network communications will be organized. Design may be iterative with users consulted about their needs in a process of trial and error . Design often involves people expert in aspect such as database design , screen architecture, and
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#1732771906027648-833: Is essential to success. This is more easily achieved if the team is small, used to working together, and located near each other. Communications also help identify problems at an earlier state of development and avoid duplicated effort. Many development projects avoid the risk of losing essential knowledge held by only one employee by ensuring that multiple workers are familiar with each component. Software development involves professionals from various fields, not just software programmers but also individuals specialized in testing, documentation writing, graphic design , user support, marketing , and fundraising. Although workers for proprietary software are paid, most contributors to open-source software are volunteers. Alternately, they may be paid by companies whose business model does not involve selling
702-411: Is evidence of anti-competitive behavior by Creative in the failure of this card. Yamaha made parts for both Creative and AdLib, with Creative being Yamaha's biggest customer at the time. The chip that Yamaha created for the AdLib card continually failed to pass testing, while Creative's Yamaha chip passed. This enabled Creative to come to market first, shortly after which AdLib's chip passed testing, but it
756-399: Is helpful for new developers to understand the project when they begin working on it. In agile development, the documentation is often written at the same time as the code. User documentation is more frequently written by technical writers . Accurate estimation is crucial at the feasibility stage and in delivering the product on time and within budget. The process of generating estimations
810-422: Is inefficient, difficult to understand, or lacking documentation on its functionality. These standards are especially likely to break down in the presence of deadlines. As a result, testing, debugging, and revising the code becomes much more difficult. Code refactoring , for example adding more comments to the code, is a solution to improve the understandability of code. Testing is the process of ensuring that
864-466: Is informed by research and knowledge in a predictable and controlled manner. Typical stages consistent with the rational model include the following: Each stage has many associated best practices . The rational model has been widely criticized on two primary grounds: The action-centric perspective is a label given to a collection of interrelated concepts, which are antithetical to the rational model. It posits that: The action-centric perspective
918-440: Is often delegated by the project manager . Because the effort estimation is directly related to the size of the complete application, it is strongly influenced by addition of features in the requirements—the more requirements, the higher the development cost. Aspects not related to functionality, such as the experience of the software developers and code reusability, are also essential to consider in estimation. As of 2019 , most of
972-432: Is often used to break down the customer's requirements into pieces that can be implemented by software programmers. The underlying logic of the program may be represented in data-flow diagrams , data dictionaries , pseudocode , state transition diagrams , and/or entity relationship diagrams . If the project incorporates a piece of legacy software that has not been modeled, this software may be modeled to help ensure it
1026-401: Is robust to heavy levels of input or usage), integration testing (to ensure that the software is adequately integrated with other software), and compatibility testing (measuring the software's performance across different operating systems or browsers). When tests are written before the code, this is called test-driven development . Production is the phase in which software is deployed to
1080-400: The design cycle is understood as a circular time structure, which may start with the thinking of an idea, then expressing it by the use of visual or verbal means of communication (design tools), the sharing and perceiving of the expressed idea, and finally starting a new cycle with the critical rethinking of the perceived idea. Anderson points out that this concept emphasizes the importance of
1134-471: The programming language ). Documentation comes in two forms that are usually kept separate—that intended for software developers, and that made available to the end user to help them use the software. Most developer documentation is in the form of code comments for each file, class , and method that cover the application programming interface (API)—how the piece of software can be accessed by another—and often implementation details. This documentation
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#17327719060271188-471: The OPL3 output slightly. A surround-sound module was developed as an optional attachment that allowed a chorus surround effect to be enabled for OPL3 outputs; however, few programs supported it. One unique aspect is that it could be initialized for certain sounds and did not affect the entire output by default. Other optional attachments such as SCSI support and modem support were in development as well. There
1242-604: The Sound Blaster family continued to dominate the PC game industry. That same year, Binnenalster GmbH from Germany acquired the assets of the company. Ad Lib was renamed AdLib Multimedia and relaunched the AdLib Gold sound card and many other products. Binnenalster sold AdLib Multimedia to Softworld Taiwan in 1994. AdLib used Yamaha 's YM3812 sound chip , which produces sound by FM synthesis . The AdLib card consisted of
1296-489: The available methodologies are best suited to specific kinds of projects, based on various technical, organizational, project, and team considerations. Another focus in many programming methodologies is the idea of trying to catch issues such as security vulnerabilities and bugs as early as possible ( shift-left testing ) to reduce the cost of tracking and fixing them. In 2009, it was estimated that 32 percent of software projects were delivered on time and budget, and with
1350-454: The card too thick for the MCA standard. Ad Lib planned a new proprietary standard before releasing the 12-bit stereo sound card called the AdLib Gold. The Gold 1000 used a later-generation Yamaha YMF262 (OPL3) and 12-bit digital PCM capability while retaining backward compatibility with OPL2 through the OPL3 chip. The onboard Yamaha YMZ263-F also performs 2× oversampling, which would affect
1404-423: The code executes correctly and without errors. Debugging is performed by each software developer on their own code to confirm that the code does what it is intended to. In particular, it is crucial that the software executes on all inputs, even if the result is incorrect. Code reviews by other developers are often used to scrutinize new code added to the project, and according to some estimates dramatically reduce
1458-671: The design process: as a rational problem-solving process and as a process of reflection-in-action. They suggested that these two paradigms "represent two fundamentally different ways of looking at the world – positivism and constructionism ." The paradigms may reflect differing views of how designing should be done and how it actually is done, and both have a variety of names. The problem-solving view has been called "the rational model," "technical rationality" and "the reason-centric perspective." The alternative view has been called "reflection-in-action," "coevolution" and "the action-centric perspective." The rational model
1512-479: The design researcher Nigel Cross , "Everyone can – and does – design," and "Design ability is something that everyone has, to some extent, because it is embedded in our brains as a natural cognitive function." The study of design history is complicated by varying interpretations of what constitutes 'designing'. Many design historians, such as John Heskett , look to the Industrial Revolution and
1566-655: The development of mass production. Others subscribe to conceptions of design that include pre-industrial objects and artefacts, beginning their narratives of design in prehistoric times. Originally situated within art history , the historical development of the discipline of design history coalesced in the 1970s, as interested academics worked to recognize design as a separate and legitimate target for historical research. Early influential design historians include German-British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner and Swiss historian and architecture critic Sigfried Giedion . In Western Europe, institutions for design education date back to
1620-408: The end user. During production, the developer may create technical support resources for users or a process for fixing bugs and errors that were not caught earlier. There might also be a return to earlier development phases if user needs changed or were misunderstood. Software development is performed by software developers , usually working on a team. Efficient communications between team members
1674-430: The engineering organization. Fitness functions are automated and objective tests to ensure that the new developments don't deviate from the established constraints, checks and compliance controls. Intellectual property can be an issue when developers integrate open-source code or libraries into a proprietary product, because most open-source licenses used for software require that modifications be released under
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1728-477: The full functionality. An additional 44 percent were delivered, but missing at least one of these features. The remaining 24 percent were cancelled prior to release. Software development life cycle refers to the systematic process of developing applications . The sources of ideas for software products are plentiful. These ideas can come from market research including the demographics of potential new customers, existing customers, sales prospects who rejected
1782-427: The means of expression, which at the same time are means of perception of any design ideas. Philosophy of design is the study of definitions, assumptions, foundations, and implications of design. There are also many informal 'philosophies' for guiding design such as personal values or preferred approaches. Some of these values and approaches include: The boundaries between art and design are blurry, largely due to
1836-600: The nineteenth century. The Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry was founded in 1818, followed by the United Kingdom's Government School of Design (1837), and Konstfack in Sweden (1844). The Rhode Island School of Design was founded in the United States in 1877. The German art and design school Bauhaus , founded in 1919, greatly influenced modern design education. Design education covers
1890-407: The number of bugs persisting after testing is complete. Once the code has been submitted, quality assurance —a separate department of non-programmers for most large companies—test the accuracy of the entire software product. Acceptance tests derived from the original software requirements are a popular tool for this. Quality testing also often includes stress and load checking (whether the software
1944-403: The performance of servers and other hardware. Designers often attempt to find patterns in the software's functionality to spin off distinct modules that can be reused with object-oriented programming . An example of this is the model–view–controller , an interface between a graphical user interface and the backend . The central feature of software development is creating and understanding
1998-743: The process of developing a design. In some cases, the direct construction of an object without an explicit prior plan may also be considered to be a design (such as in arts and crafts). A design is expected to have a purpose within a certain context, usually having to satisfy certain goals and constraints and to take into account aesthetic , functional, economic, environmental, or socio-political considerations. Traditional examples of designs include architectural and engineering drawings, circuit diagrams , sewing patterns , and less tangible artefacts such as business process models. People who produce designs are called designers . The term 'designer' usually refers to someone who works professionally in one of
2052-463: The process used for a development effort varies. The process may be confined to a formal, documented standard , or it can be customized and emergent for the development effort. The process may be sequential, in which each major phase (i.e. design, implement and test) is completed before the next begins, but an iterative approach – where small aspects are separately designed, implemented and tested – can reduce risk and cost and increase quality. Each of
2106-424: The product that developers can work from. Software analysts often decompose the project into smaller objects, components that can be reused for increased cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability. Decomposing the project may enable a multi-threaded implementation that runs significantly faster on multiprocessor computers. During the analysis and design phases of software development, structured analysis
2160-553: The product to his top customers. Sierra On-Line 's King's Quest IV became the first game to support AdLib. The game's subsequent success helped to launch the AdLib card into mainstream media coverage. As sales of the card rose, many developers began including support for the AdLib in their programs. The success of the AdLib Music Card soon attracted competition. Not long after its introduction, Creative Labs introduced its competing Sound Blaster card. The Sound Blaster
2214-466: The product, other internal software development staff, or a creative third party. Ideas for software products are usually first evaluated by marketing personnel for economic feasibility, fit with existing channels of distribution, possible effects on existing product lines, required features , and fit with the company's marketing objectives. In the marketing evaluation phase, the cost and time assumptions become evaluated. The feasibility analysis estimates
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2268-503: The project's return on investment , its development cost and timeframe. Based on this analysis, the company can make a business decision to invest in further development. After deciding to develop the software, the company is focused on delivering the product at or below the estimated cost and time, and with a high standard of quality (i.e., lack of bugs) and the desired functionality. Nevertheless, most software projects run late and sometimes compromises are made in features or quality to meet
2322-435: The same license. As an alternative, developers may choose a proprietary alternative or write their own software module. Designing A design is the concept of or proposal for an object, process , or system . The word design refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something – its design. The verb to design expresses
2376-472: The second design from 1990 used a 3.5 mm miniature mono output, which was quickly becoming the new standard in the computer and game industry. AdLib also released a version of the AdLib sound card for IBM's MicroChannel architecture , the AdLib ;MCA, which used an MCA P82C611 interface IC. Notable updates for this MCA version was the use of a volume wheel, as the original potentiometer made
2430-427: The software that implements the desired functionality. There are various strategies for writing the code. Cohesive software has various components that are independent from each other. Coupling is the interrelation of different software components, which is viewed as undesirable because it increases the difficulty of maintenance . Often, software programmers do not follow industry best practices, resulting in code that
2484-403: The software, but something else—such as services and modifications to open source software. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is tools for the partial automation of software development. CASE enables designers to sketch out the logic of a program, whether one to be written, or an already existing one to help integrate it with new code or reverse engineer it (for example, to change
2538-453: The teaching of theory, knowledge and values in the design of products, services, and environments, with a focus on the development of both particular and general skills for designing. Traditionally, its primary orientation has been to prepare students for professional design practice, based on project work and studio, or atelier , teaching methods. There are also broader forms of higher education in design studies and design thinking . Design
2592-520: The tools for estimating the amount of time and resources for software development were designed for conventional applications and are not applicable to web applications or mobile applications . An integrated development environment (IDE) supports software development with enhanced features compared to a simple text editor . IDEs often include automated compiling , syntax highlighting of errors, debugging assistance, integration with version control , and semi-automation of tests. Version control
2646-529: The various design areas. Within the professions, the word 'designer' is generally qualified by the area of practice (for example: a fashion designer , a product designer , a web designer , or an interior designer ), but it can also designate other practitioners such as architects and engineers (see below: Types of designing). A designer's sequence of activities to produce a design is called a design process, with some employing designated processes such as design thinking and design methods . The process of creating
2700-526: Was able to integrate their sound cards more tightly to reduce cost. AdLib had planned a secondary release of the Gold ;1000, the Gold MC2000, which would have supported the MicroChannel bus. However, AdLib went bankrupt before the card could be produced. Software development Software development is the process of designing and implementing a software solution to satisfy
2754-473: Was fully compatible with AdLib's hardware, and it also implemented two key features absent from the AdLib: a PCM audio channel and a game port . With additional features and better marketing, the Sound Blaster quickly overshadowed AdLib as the de facto standard in PC gaming audio. AdLib's slow response, the AdLib Gold, did not sell well enough to sustain the company. In 1992, Ad Lib filed for bankruptcy, while
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#17327719060272808-400: Was independently developed by Herbert A. Simon, an American scientist, and two German engineering design theorists, Gerhard Pahl and Wolfgang Beitz. It posits that: The rational model is based on a rationalist philosophy and underlies the waterfall model , systems development life cycle , and much of the engineering design literature. According to the rationalist philosophy, design
2862-486: Was still possible, however, to output PCM sound with software by modulating the playback volume at an audio rate, as was done, for example, in the MicroProse game F-15 Strike Eagle II and the multi-channel music editor Sound Club for MS-DOS. There are two separate revisions of the original AdLib sound card. The original design from 1987 provided mono output to a ¼-inch jack aimed for composers and musicians, while
2916-551: Was too late for it to sustain itself. Despite AdLib's efforts, the Gold 1000 failed to capture the market, and the company eventually went bankrupt due to cheaper alternatives such as the Creative Labs Sound Blaster ;16. AdLib designed the Gold 1000 mainly in-house, as such, the Gold 1000's layout has a lot of discrete circuitry and many surface-mount components in a grid array. Creative Labs
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