211 research outputs found
A Unified Format for Language Documents
We have analyzed a substantial number of language documentation
artifacts, including language standards, language specifications,
language reference manuals, as well as internal documents of
standardization bodies. We have reverse-engineered their intended
internal structure, and compared the results. The Language Document
Format (LDF), was developed to specifically support the
documentation domain. We have also integrated LDF into an
engineering discipline for language documents including tool
support, for example, for rendering language documents, extracting
grammars and samples, and migrating existing documents into LDF. The
definition of LDF, tool support for LDF, and LDF applications are
freely available through SourceForge
Efficacy of Reported Issue Times as a Means for Effort Estimation
Software effort is a measure of manpower dedicated to developing and maintaining and software. Effort estimation can help project managers monitor their software, teams, and timelines. Conversely, improper effort estimation can result in budget overruns, delays, lost contracts, and accumulated Technical Debt (TD). Issue Tracking Systems (ITS) have become mainstream project management tools, with over 65,000 companies using Jira alone. ITS are an untapped resource for issue resolution effort research. Related work investigates issue effort for specific issue types, usually Bugs or similar. They model their developer-documented issue resolution times using features from the issues themselves. This thesis explores a novel issue effort estimation and prediction approach using developer-documented ITS effort in tandem with implementation metrics (commit metrics, package metrics, refactoring metrics, and smell metrics). We find consistent correlations between ITS effort and implementation metrics, ranging from weak to moderate strength. We also construct and evaluate several exploratory models to predict future package effort using our novel effort estimation, with inconclusive results
On the use of metaphors in designing educational interfaces
Metaphors are present in a wide range of everyday activities. They usually work by understanding or explaining complex subjects by terms from more familiar domains. Metaphors in everyday context are often used unconsciously, as their sources are basic entities and perceptual experiences. They can, however, be used deliberately in educational discourse to explain difficult concepts and introduce new ideas in an intelligible manner. This approach falls under constructivism, which claims that an effective learning strategy is to scaffold on the previous knowledge and conceptual representations. However, there are some limitations of introducing a new concept indirectly via a metaphor. We consider these issues here in the domains of physics education, human-computer interfaces and human-robot interactions. We argue that metaphors are most effective for novices, when one needs to grasp a general idea about a concept and understand its functions without a detailed analysis. In this respect, metaphor can be a powerful tool for bridging gaps in understanding between familiar terms and abstract ideas that are yet to be learned
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