Extracting Java library subsets for deployment on embedded systems

AbstractEmbedded systems provide means for enhancing the functionality delivered by small-sized electronic devices such as hand-held computers and cellular phones. Java is a programming language which incorporates a number of features that are useful for developing such embedded systems. However, the size and the complexity of the Java language and its libraries have slowed its adoption for embedded systems, due to the processing power and storage space limitations. A common approach to address storage space limitations is for the vendor to offer special versions of the libraries with reduced functionality and size to meet the constraints of embedded systems. However, such an approach will severely limit the type of applications that can be deployed. This paper presents a technique that is used for selecting, on an as needed basis, the subset of library entities that is exactly required for a given Java application to run. This subset can then be down-loaded to the device for execution on an as needed basis. The advantage of this approach is that the developer can use arbitrary libraries, instead of being restricted to those which have been adapted for embedded systems by the vendors. A prototype system, that builds library subsets on per application basis, has been built and tested on several mid-size Java applications with encouraging results

Estimation of the Scope of Change Propagation in Object- Oriented Programs

When minor modifications need to be made in an object-oriented computer program, they often incur further more changes due to presence of dependency in the codes and the program structure. Yet, to accommodate the required change, there can also be more than one option to carry out the initial modifications. To select the modification option in this context, this thesis proposes a systematic approach to estimate the scope of change propagation of an object-oriented program given some initial modifications. The present Master’s thesis seeks to develop an approach to predict the scope of propagated change through the entities of object-oriented software due to a modification in the software. Despite the previous works that just studied the change propagation in object oriented programs from the aspect of high level entities like classes or from the aspect of UML diagrams, we have studied the finer entities of the object oriented program and the relationships among them. In this regard, this thesis has focused on the calculation of probability of change propagation between each two specific types of entities through the analysis of dependency types among the fundamental entities of object-oriented program and categorization of existing dependencies between each couple of entities. Then, we have defined the priority number concept as a representative scale for the scope of change propagation in software based on the probability rules. The strategy is to first capture the dependency relationships of the entities, pertaining to an object-oriented program via the matrix representation. In this work, we have used Design Structure Matrix to capture and trace dependency among software’s entities. Based on this matrix-based model, the priority number method is proposed and applied to estimate the scope of change propagation by assuming some initial modifications. The core of this method is to estimate the chance of affecting other program entities due to some modified entities and the matrix structure. Finally, the obtained results from a case study have been tested to validate the effectiveness of the change propagation probability numbers and priority number concept

Extracting Java Library Subsets for Deployment on Embedded Systems

Embedded systems provide means for enhancing the functionality delivered by small-sized electronic devices such as hand-held computers and cellular phones. Java is a programming language which incorporates a number of features that are useful for developing such embedded systems. However, the size and the complexity of the Java language and its libraries have slowed its adoption for embedded systems, due to the processing power and storage space limitations found in these systems. A common approach to address storage space limitations is for the vendor to offer special versions of the libraries with reduced functionality and size to meet the constraints of embedded systems. This paper presents a technique that is used for dynamically selecting, on an as needed basis, the subset of library entities that is exactly required for a given Java application to run. This subset can then be down-loaded to the device for execution. The advantage of this approach is that the developer can use arb..

1 Extracting Java Library Subsets for Deployment on Embedded Systems

Embedded systems provide means for enhancing the functionality delivered by small-sized electronic devices such as hand-held computers and cellular phones. Java is a programming language which incorporates a number of features that are useful for developing such embedded systems. However, the size and the complexity of the Java language and its libraries have slowed its adoption for embedded systems, due to the processing power and storage space limitations found in these systems. A common approach to address storage space limitations is for the vendor to offer special versions of the libraries with reduced functionality and size to meet the constraints of embedded systems. This paper presents a technique that is used for dynamically selecting, on an as needed basis, the subset of library entities that is exactly required for a given Java application to run. This subset can then be down-loaded to the device for execution. The advantage of this approach is that the developer can use arbitrary libraries, instead of being restricted to those which have been adapted for embedded systems by the vendors. A prototype system, that dynamically builds library subsets on an as needed per application basis, has been built and tested on several mid-size Java applications with positive results.