Coping with complexity: service specification for a network services testbed

The authors discuss their efforts to control the complexity of service specification in the modular integrated communications environment (MICE), a rapid prototyping system for network services. In MICE, services are defined in interpretively-executed fine-state logic tables. They describe attempts to reduce the complexity of service logic specification in MICE by means of a graphical structure editor and an icon-based, direct manipulation graphic interface. They conclude that while improved programmer interfaces can reduce the accidental complexity of service specification, rapid prototyping itself facilitates early understanding of those essential problems that can only be discovered through experience