An Object Oriented and Axiomatic Theory of Warehouse Design

Despite the conceptual simplicity of warehousing, the development of integrated computational tools for warehouse design has remained an elusive goal. In recent years, there has been some progress toward this goal, with a growing body of research addressing topics as diverse as the design process itself, decision support for specific design decisions, warehouse representation, integrating warehouse representation and analysis, and conceptual approaches for developing integrated warehouse design tool chains. Until now, however, there has not been a suitable warehouse design theory that would provide an integrating framework for all these disparate efforts. This paper presents an object-oriented and axiomatic warehouse design theory. Key assumptions about the warehouse to be designed are stated as axioms, with appropriate formalisms. Using the axioms and the associated notation, a formal specification of warehouse requirements can be stated, a formal description for a warehouse design can be given, and methods can be developed for testing the warehouse design against the requirements. Moreover, the axioms provide the foundation for identifying essential warehouse design decisions, and formally stating both the criteria for evaluating those decisions and the constraints limiting those decisions. The paper provides a conceptual and rigorous bridge between the process-oriented research on warehouse design process or workflow, and the mathematically oriented approach to warehouse design reflected in the vast literature on mathematical models and algorithms for specific warehouse design and/or operating decision

SPEEDY: An Eclipse-based IDE for invariant inference

SPEEDY is an Eclipse-based IDE for exploring techniques that assist users in generating correct specifications, particularly including invariant inference algorithms and tools. It integrates with several back-end tools that propose invariants and will incorporate published algorithms for inferring object and loop invariants. Though the architecture is language-neutral, current SPEEDY targets C programs. Building and using SPEEDY has confirmed earlier experience demonstrating the importance of showing and editing specifications in the IDEs that developers customarily use, automating as much of the production and checking of specifications as possible, and showing counterexample information directly in the source code editing environment. As in previous work, automation of specification checking is provided by back-end SMT solvers. However, reducing the effort demanded of software developers using formal methods also requires a GUI design that guides users in writing, reviewing, and correcting specifications and automates specification inference.Comment: In Proceedings F-IDE 2014, arXiv:1404.578

Towards a Base UML Profile for Architecture Description

This paper discusses a base UML profile for architecture description as supported by existing Architecture Description Languages (ADLs). The profile may be extended so as to enable architecture modeling both as expressed in conventional ADLs and according to existing runtime infrastructures (e.g., system based on middleware architectures).

JWalk: a tool for lazy, systematic testing of java classes by design introspection and user interaction

Popular software testing tools, such as JUnit, allow frequent retesting of modified code; yet the manually created test scripts are often seriously incomplete. A unit-testing tool called JWalk has therefore been developed to address the need for systematic unit testing within the context of agile methods. The tool operates directly on the compiled code for Java classes and uses a new lazy method for inducing the changing design of a class on the fly. This is achieved partly through introspection, using Java’s reflection capability, and partly through interaction with the user, constructing and saving test oracles on the fly. Predictive rules reduce the number of oracle values that must be confirmed by the tester. Without human intervention, JWalk performs bounded exhaustive exploration of the class’s method protocols and may be directed to explore the space of algebraic constructions, or the intended design state-space of the tested class. With some human interaction, JWalk performs up to the equivalent of fully automated state-based testing, from a specification that was acquired incrementally

A survey of agent-oriented methodologies

This article introduces the current agent-oriented methodologies. It discusses what approaches have been followed (mainly extending existing object oriented and knowledge engineering methodologies), the suitability of these approaches for agent modelling, and some conclusions drawn from the survey