Git4Voc: Git-based Versioning for Collaborative Vocabulary Development

Collaborative vocabulary development in the context of data integration is the process of finding consensus between the experts of the different systems and domains. The complexity of this process is increased with the number of involved people, the variety of the systems to be integrated and the dynamics of their domain. In this paper we advocate that the realization of a powerful version control system is the heart of the problem. Driven by this idea and the success of Git in the context of software development, we investigate the applicability of Git for collaborative vocabulary development. Even though vocabulary development and software development have much more similarities than differences there are still important differences. These need to be considered within the development of a successful versioning and collaboration system for vocabulary development. Therefore, this paper starts by presenting the challenges we were faced with during the creation of vocabularies collaboratively and discusses its distinction to software development. Based on these insights we propose Git4Voc which comprises guidelines how Git can be adopted to vocabulary development. Finally, we demonstrate how Git hooks can be implemented to go beyond the plain functionality of Git by realizing vocabulary-specific features like syntactic validation and semantic diffs

Mapping RT-LOTOS specifications into Time Petri Nets

RT-LOTOS is a timed process algebra which enables compact and abstract specification of real-time systems. This paper proposes and illustrates a structural translation of RT-LOTOS terms into behaviorally equivalent (timed bisimilar) finite Time Petri nets. It is therefore possible to apply Time Petri nets verification techniques to the profit of RT-LOTOS. Our approach has been implemented in RTL2TPN, a prototype tool which takes as input an RT-LOTOS specification and outputs a TPN. The latter is verified using TINA, a TPN analyzer developed by LAAS-CNRS. The toolkit made of RTL2TPN and TINA has been positively benchmarked against previously developed RT-LOTOS verification tool

New benchmark results for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem.

This paper reports on computational results obtained with an updated version of the branch-and-bound procedure previously developed by Demeulemeester and Herroelen (1992) for solving the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP). The new code fully exploits the advantages of 32-bit programming provided by recent compilers running on platforms such as Windows NT and OS/2 : flat memory, increased addressable memory and fast program execution. We study the impact of three important variables on the computation time for the RCPSP: addressable computer memory, the search strategy (depth-first, best-first or hybrid) and the introduction of an improved lower bound. We compare the results obtained by a truncated branch-and-bound procedure with the results generated by the minimum slack time heuristic and report on the dependency of its solution quality on the alotted CPU time.Scheduling; Project scheduling; Advantages; Studies;

Software Configuration Management For Multiple Releases: Influence On Development Effort

Software Configuration Management (SCM) evolves together with the discipline of softwareengineering. Teams working on software products become larger and are geographically distributedat multiple sites. Collaboration between such groups requires well evaluated SCMplans and strategies to easy cooperation and decrease software development cost by reducingtime spent on SCM activities – branching and merging, that is effort utilized on creation ofrevisions (’serial’ versions) and variants (’parallel’ versions). This paper suggests that SCMpractices should be combined with modular design and code refactoring to reduce cost relatedto maintenance of the same code line. Teams which produce several variants of thesame code line at the same time should use approaches like components, modularization, orplug-ins over code alternations maintained on version branches. Findings described in thispaper were taken by teams in charge of development of radio communication systems inMotorola GEMS divisions. Each team collaborating on similar projects used different SCMstrategies to develop parts of this system

Open-source development experiences in scientific software: the HANDE quantum Monte Carlo project

The HANDE quantum Monte Carlo project offers accessible stochastic algorithms for general use for scientists in the field of quantum chemistry. HANDE is an ambitious and general high-performance code developed by a geographically-dispersed team with a variety of backgrounds in computational science. In the course of preparing a public, open-source release, we have taken this opportunity to step back and look at what we have done and what we hope to do in the future. We pay particular attention to development processes, the approach taken to train students joining the project, and how a flat hierarchical structure aids communicationComment: 6 pages. Submission to WSSSPE