Feedback Controlled Software Systems

Software systems generally suffer from a certain fragility in the face of disturbances such as bugs, unforeseen user input, unmodeled interactions with other software components, and so on. A single such disturbance can make the machine on which the software is executing hang or crash. We postulate that what is required to address this fragility is a general means of using feedback to stabilize these systems. In this paper we develop a preliminary dynamical systems model of an arbitrary iterative software process along with the conceptual framework for stabilizing it in the presence of disturbances. To keep the computational requirements of the controllers low, randomization and approximation are used. We describe our initial attempts to apply the model to a faulty list sorter, using feedback to improve its performance. Methods by which software robustness can be enhanced by distributing a task between nodes each of which are capable of selecting the best input to process are also examined, and the particular case of a sorting system consisting of a network of partial sorters, some of which may be buggy or even malicious, is examined

Using FCA to Suggest Refactorings to Correct Design Defects

Design defects are poor design choices resulting in a hard-to- maintain software, hence their detection and correction are key steps of a\ud disciplined software process aimed at yielding high-quality software\ud artifacts. While modern structure- and metric-based techniques enable\ud precise detection of design defects, the correction of the discovered\ud defects, e.g., by means of refactorings, remains a manual, hence\ud error-prone, activity. As many of the refactorings amount to re-distributing\ud class members over a (possibly extended) set of classes, formal concept\ud analysis (FCA) has been successfully applied in the past as a formal\ud framework for refactoring exploration. Here we propose a novel approach\ud for defect removal in object-oriented programs that combines the\ud effectiveness of metrics with the theoretical strength of FCA. A\ud case study of a specific defect, the Blob, drawn from the\ud Azureus project illustrates our approach

An Algorithm for Distributing Coalitional Value Calculations among Cooperating Agents

The process of forming coalitions of software agents generally requires calculating a value for every possible coalition which indicates how beneficial that coalition would be if it was formed. Now, instead of having a single agent calculate all these values (as is typically the case), it is more efficient to distribute this calculation among the agents, thus using all the computational resources available to the system and avoiding the existence of a single point of failure. Given this, we present a novel algorithm for distributing this calculation among agents in cooperative environments. Specifically, by using our algorithm, each agent is assigned some part of the calculation such that the agents’ shares are exhaustive and disjoint. Moreover, the algorithm is decentralized, requires no communication between the agents, has minimal memory requirements, and can reflect variations in the computational speeds of the agents. To evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithm, we compare it with the only other algorithm available in the literature for distributing the coalitional value calculations (due to Shehory and Kraus). This shows that for the case of 25 agents, the distribution process of our algorithm took less than 0.02% of the time, the values were calculated using 0.000006% of the memory, the calculation redundancy was reduced from 383229848 to 0, and the total number of bytes sent between the agents dropped from 1146989648 to 0 (note that for larger numbers of agents, these improvements become exponentially better)

Optimalisasi Penugasan Kerja dan Distribusi Roti dengan Metode Assignment dan Spanning Tree

A company is required to perform activities effectively and efficiently, employee assignment problems must be done optimally, the high element of subjectivity will cause miscommunication between employees to distribute an item. This research was conducted on UMKM bakers who have not optimized the problem of employee assignment and distribution process. With this research is expected to increase corporate competition. Then the researchers used the Penalty method to allocate employees to obtain optimal results and networking methods to solve distribution problems. Data obtained from the observation results will be tested according to the method used. After the results are obtained manually the results are then compared with lingo and POM-QM software programs. The results of the research assignment were Andik distributing bread to Karang Indah, Budiman distributing bread to Jatirasa, Saepul distributing bread to Karang Pawitan, Indra distributing bread to Nagasari, Maman distributing bread to Kepuh, Aep distributing bread to Johar, and Jamhari distributing bread to Cinangoh. Total sales of 1039 pieces of bread. The distribution network results from the research are Companies – Nagasari, Companies – Jatirasa, Jatirasa – Karang Indah, Nagasari – Johar, Karang Indah – Karang Pawitan, Karang Pawitan – Kepuh, Johar – Cinangoh. The total distance traveled is 7550 m

Pemilihan Media Promosi STMIK Pelita Nusantara Medan dengan Metode Analytic Network Process (ANP)

Analytic Network Process (ANP) algorithm is used to find optimal alternatives from a set of alternatives with certain criteria. Selection or process is carried out by evaluating promotional media by distributing questionnaires to students to find out the media to be evaluated next by selecting 4 promotional media, determining criteria and sub criteria by distributing questionnaires to the Chairperson of STMIK Pelita Nusantara, Puket III Student and Promotion Section, and The Chairperson of the Promotion, then processes the data using Super Decisions Software 2.4.0. The highest rating results obtained from the analysis and discussion show that the Internet (0.329). from the results of the distributed questionnaire data processing to the management of STMIK Pelita Nusantara Medan, namely the Chairperson, the Third Bouquet and Promotion Section, and the Chairperson of Pelita Nusantara STMIK Promotion, and the application of the Analyst Network Process (ANP) method with the Super Decisions 2.4.0 Application producing cracking the highest media is the Internet (0.329), followed by School Visits (0.274), Radio (0.213), and Banners / Billboards (0.185)

Sistem Informasi Praktek Kerja Industri pada SMK Taruna Bangsa Bekasi

Industry Work Practice or commonly called the Job Training (PKL) is an activity that mustbe followed by every vocational students during school as a form of implementation of science or asan addition to an insight into the working world they will face in the future. Most vocational schoolhave more than one competence program and consists of several classes. Of course, there is thetask of separate schools in distributing each student to carry out industry work practice as a whole.Related division in charge is also required to present the data and information needs in order toreduce confusion as in the submission process. Information system of industry work practice neededto improve the performance of the school in distributing and processing data and information. Thissystem is developed using waterfall method. This method provides an approach of software workflowsequentially form analyzing, designing, coding, testing and supporting. Result of this system cancertainly help the activities of industrial work practice for each data and information are well integratedto facilitate each student to get information and the school process data from the process submission,industrial work practice until the report

A Developers Bill of Rights: What Open Source Developers Want in a Software License

In this paper, we study open source developers' perspectives on the nature and structure of software licenses as well as the processes through which these licenses are designed. Recent history has shown that software licensing approaches are critical to the dynamics of the software industry and the open source ecosystem, and thus of interest to the many policy makers and practitioners that follow this part of the global economy. The study is timely, since it informs the debate on the revision of the GPL license, one of the most popular licenses in use. This revision has the potential to shape the software industry for many years to come; hence it is important that the governance process for this revision reflect the needs of the broader software community. Our study employed structured interviews to capture data on open source developers' opinions about software licenses. We focused on how license choices impact the relationship that exists between open source and proprietary software. Our findings reveal that developers are primarily interested in flexibility and choice when considering a licensing approach. Most developers we interviewed used open source licenses to tap into the open source development approach. They chose this option for flexibility in developing a great product, without necessarily espousing any particular philosophy about how the software should be distributed. Developers also generally valued flexibility in the choice of business model for distributing software. The actions of the Free Software Foundation, which is revising the GPL, appear not to reflect the opinions of the broader community, but the agenda of a small minority that may represent as little as 10% of the open source developer community. Sharing data on the needs and perceived rights of developers, both open source and proprietary, will help the software community, industry experts and policymakers to champion a more flexible and responsive approach to sharing and developing software. Policy makers should work to preserve what has made the software ecosystem successful: innovation, community input and involvement, and developer freedom of choice.

The Development of Practical Guidelines for Designing Online Questionnaires

Questionnaires are an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents. However, it is a long and effort consuming process to conduct the survey manually. As the popularity of the Internet increases, online survey creation software allows an access to individuals in distant locations, the ability to reach difficult to contact participants, and the convenience of having automated data collection, which reduces researcher time and effort. The aim of this study is to develop an Online Questionnaire Builder (OQB), which is an online survey software package to streamline and simplify the entire survey process from design of the questionnaire to the presentation of the results. OQB consists of an intuitive wizard interface for creating surveys, tools for distributing the surveys and analyzing the results. This paper presents the results of our preliminary study. By studying wide numbers of existing surveys, we came up with practical guidelines that should be met before a questionnaire can be considered a sound research tool. The guidelines presented in terms of structure, layout, navigation, formatting, response format and question types. It is expected, with the specified guidelines, OQB will be a useful and automated online application for creating and distributing surveys for the use of researchers or any scholars