An overview of Mirjam and WeaveC

In this chapter, we elaborate on the design of an industrial-strength aspectoriented programming language and weaver for large-scale software development. First, we present an analysis on the requirements of a general purpose aspect-oriented language that can handle crosscutting concerns in ASML software. We also outline a strategy on working with aspects in large-scale software development processes. In our design, we both re-use existing aspect-oriented language abstractions and propose new ones to address the issues that we identified in our analysis. The quality of the code ensured by the realized language and weaver has a positive impact both on maintenance effort and lead-time in the first line software development process. As evidence, we present a short evaluation of the language and weaver as applied today in the software development process of ASML

Automated specification-based testing of graphical user interfaces

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrónica e de Computadores. 2006. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Informática, Escola de Engenharia. Universidade do Minh

An interview study about the use of logs in embedded software engineering

Context: Execution logs capture the run-time behavior of software systems. To assist developers in their maintenance tasks, many studies have proposed tools to analyze execution information from logs. However, it is as yet unknown how industry developers use logs in embedded software engineering. Objective: In this study, we aim to understand how developers use logs in an embedded software engineering context. Specifically, we would like to gain insights into the type of logs developers analyze, the purposes for which developers analyze logs, the information developers need from logs and their expectation on tool support. Method: In order to achieve the aim, we conducted these interview studies. First, we interviewed 25 software developers from ASML, which is a leading company in developing lithography machines. This exploratory case study provides the preliminary findings. Next, we validated and refined our findings by conducting a replication study. We involved 14 interviewees from four companies who have different software engineering roles in their daily work. Results: As the result of our first study, we compile a preliminary taxonomy which consists of four types of logs used by developers in practice, 18 purposes of using logs, 13 types of information developers search in logs, 13 challenges faced by developers in log analysis and three suggestions for tool support provided by developers. This taxonomy is refined in the replication study with three additional purposes, one additional information need, four additional challenges and three additional suggestions of tool support. In addition, with these two studies, we observed that text-based editors and self-made scripts are commonly used when it comes to tooling in log analysis practice. As indicated by the interviewees, the development of automatic analysis tools is hindered by the quality of the logs, which further suggests several challenges in log instrumentation and management. Conclusions: Based on our study, we provide suggestions for practitioners on logging practices. We provide implications for tool builders on how to further improve tools based on existing techniques. Finally, we suggest some research directions and studies for researchers to further study software logging.</p

Executable formal specifications of complex distributed systems with CoreASM

Formal specifications play a crucial role in the design of reliable complex software systems. Executable formal specifications allow the designer to attain early validation and verification of design using static analysis techniques and accurate simulation of the runtime behavior of the system-to-be. With increasing complexity of software-intensive computer-based systems and the challenges of validation and verification of abstract software models prior to coding, the need for interactive software tools supporting executable formal specifications is even more evident. In this paper, we discuss how CoreASM, an environment for writing and running executable specifications according to the ASM method, provides flexibility and manages the complexity by using an innovative extensible language architecture

Assessing and improving quality of QVTo model transformations

We investigate quality improvement in QVT operational mappings (QVTo) model transformations, one of the languages defined in the OMG standard on model-to-model transformations. Two research questions are addressed. First, how can we assess quality of QVTo model transformations? Second, how can we develop higher-quality QVTo transformations? To address the first question, we utilize a bottom–up approach, starting with a broad exploratory study including QVTo expert interviews, a review of existing material, and introspection. We then formalize QVTo transformation quality into a QVTo quality model. The quality model is validated through a survey of a broader group of QVTo developers. We find that although many quality properties recognized as important for QVTo do have counterparts in general purpose languages, a number of them are specific to QVTo or model transformation languages. To address the second research question, we leverage the quality model to identify developer support tooling for QVTo. We then implemented and evaluated one of the tools, namely a code test coverage tool. In designing the tool, code coverage criteria for QVTo model transformations are also identified. The primary contributions of this paper are a QVTo quality model relevant to QVTo practitioners and an open-source code coverage tool already usable by QVTo transformation developers. Secondary contributions are a bottom–up approach to building a quality model, a validation approach leveraging developer perceptions to evaluate quality properties, code test coverage criteria for QVTo, and numerous directions for future research and tooling related to QVTo quality