59,793 research outputs found
Deterministic Java in tiny embedded systems
As embedded systems become more and more complex, and the time to market becomes shorter, there is a need in the embedded systems community to find better programming languages that let the programmers develop correct code faster. The programming languages used today, typically C and/or Assemblers, are just too error-prone. The Java technology has therefore gained a lot of interest from developers of embedded systems in the last few years. We propose an approach based on compiling Java into native machine code via C as an intermediate language. The C code generation process should also add close interaction with a fully pre-emptive incremental garbage collector and a small and efficient real time kernel. Tests performed on a small 8-bit microprocessor show that it is possible to use a modern object oriented language with automatic memory management, such as Java, and yet generate fully predictable code that can be run in very small devices with severe memory constraints
Test Case Generation for Object-Oriented Imperative Languages in CLP
Testing is a vital part of the software development process. Test Case
Generation (TCG) is the process of automatically generating a collection of
test cases which are applied to a system under test. White-box TCG is usually
performed by means of symbolic execution, i.e., instead of executing the
program on normal values (e.g., numbers), the program is executed on symbolic
values representing arbitrary values. When dealing with an object-oriented (OO)
imperative language, symbolic execution becomes challenging as, among other
things, it must be able to backtrack, complex heap-allocated data structures
should be created during the TCG process and features like inheritance, virtual
invocations and exceptions have to be taken into account. Due to its inherent
symbolic execution mechanism, we pursue in this paper that Constraint Logic
Programming (CLP) has a promising unexploited application field in TCG. We will
support our claim by developing a fully CLP-based framework to TCG of an OO
imperative language, and by assessing it on a corresponding implementation on a
set of challenging Java programs. A unique characteristic of our approach is
that it handles all language features using only CLP and without the need of
developing specific constraint operators (e.g., to model the heap)
Transparent Replication Using Metaprogramming in Cyan
Replication can be used to increase the availability of a service by creating
many operational copies of its data called replicas. Active replication is a
form of replication that has strong consistency semantics, easier to reason
about and program. However, creating replicated services using active
replication still demands from the programmer the knowledge of subtleties of
the replication mechanism. In this paper we show how to use the metaprogramming
infrastructure of the Cyan language to shield the application programmer from
these details, allowing easier creation of fault-tolerant replicated
applications through simple annotations.Comment: 8 page
Evaluation of Kermeta for Solving Graph-based Problems
Kermeta is a meta-language for specifying the structure and behavior of graphs of interconnected objects called models. In this paper,\ud
we show that Kermeta is relatively suitable for solving three graph-based\ud
problems. First, Kermeta allows the specification of generic model\ud
transformations such as refactorings that we apply to different metamodels\ud
including Ecore, Java, and Uml. Second, we demonstrate the extensibility\ud
of Kermeta to the formal language Alloy using an inter-language model\ud
transformation. Kermeta uses Alloy to generate recommendations for\ud
completing partially specified models. Third, we show that the Kermeta\ud
compiler achieves better execution time and memory performance compared\ud
to similar graph-based approaches using a common case study. The\ud
three solutions proposed for those graph-based problems and their\ud
evaluation with Kermeta according to the criteria of genericity,\ud
extensibility, and performance are the main contribution of the paper.\ud
Another contribution is the comparison of these solutions with those\ud
proposed by other graph-based tools
Semantic Component Composition
Building complex software systems necessitates the use of component-based
architectures. In theory, of the set of components needed for a design, only
some small portion of them are "custom"; the rest are reused or refactored
existing pieces of software. Unfortunately, this is an idealized situation.
Just because two components should work together does not mean that they will
work together.
The "glue" that holds components together is not just technology. The
contracts that bind complex systems together implicitly define more than their
explicit type. These "conceptual contracts" describe essential aspects of
extra-system semantics: e.g., object models, type systems, data representation,
interface action semantics, legal and contractual obligations, and more.
Designers and developers spend inordinate amounts of time technologically
duct-taping systems to fulfill these conceptual contracts because system-wide
semantics have not been rigorously characterized or codified. This paper
describes a formal characterization of the problem and discusses an initial
implementation of the resulting theoretical system.Comment: 9 pages, submitted to GCSE/SAIG '0
A heuristic-based approach to code-smell detection
Encapsulation and data hiding are central tenets of the object oriented paradigm. Deciding what data and behaviour to form into a class and where to draw the line between its public and private details can make the difference between a class that is an understandable, flexible and reusable abstraction and one which is not. This decision is a difficult one and may easily result in poor encapsulation which can then have serious implications for a number of system qualities. It is often hard to identify such encapsulation problems within large software systems until they cause a maintenance problem (which is usually too late) and attempting to perform such analysis manually can also be tedious and error prone. Two of the common encapsulation problems that can arise as a consequence of this decomposition process are data classes and god classes. Typically, these two problems occur together – data classes are lacking in functionality that has typically been sucked into an over-complicated and domineering god class. This paper describes the architecture of a tool which automatically detects data and god classes that has been developed as a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE. The technique has been evaluated in a controlled study on two large open source systems which compare the tool results to similar work by Marinescu, who employs a metrics-based approach to detecting such features. The study provides some valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the two approache
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