Using a Dynamic Domain-Specific Modeling Language for the Model-Driven Development of Cross-Platform Mobile Applications

There has been a gradual but steady convergence of dynamic programming languages with modeling languages. One area that can benefit from this convergence is modeldriven development (MDD) especially in the domain of mobile application development. By using a dynamic language to construct a domain-specific modeling language (DSML), it is possible to create models that are executable, exhibit flexible type checking, and provide a smaller cognitive gap between business users, modelers and developers than more traditional model-driven approaches. Dynamic languages have found strong adoption by practitioners of Agile development processes. These processes often rely on developers to rapidly produce working code that meets business needs and to do so in an iterative and incremental way. Such methodologies tend to eschew “throwaway” artifacts and models as being wasteful except as a communication vehicle to produce executable code. These approaches are not readily supported with traditional heavyweight approaches to model-driven development such as the Object Management Group’s Model-Driven Architecture approach. This research asks whether it is possible for a domain-specific modeling language written in a dynamic programming language to define a cross-platform model that can produce native code and do so in a way that developer productivity and code quality are at least as effective as hand-written code produced using native tools. Using a prototype modeling tool, AXIOM (Agile eXecutable and Incremental Objectoriented Modeling), we examine this question through small- and mid-scale experiments and find that the AXIOM approach improved developer productivity by almost 400%, albeit only after some up-front investment. We also find that the generated code can be of equal if not better quality than the equivalent hand-written code. Finally, we find that there are significant challenges in the synthesis of a DSML that can be used to model applications across platforms as diverse as today’s mobile operating systems, which point to intriguing avenues of subsequent research

Turismo Acessível Digital: Implementação de uma solução para Idosos

Tese de mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Engenharia de Software) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2021O turismo tem múltiplos benefícios para a saúde física e mental, em particular nos idosos, esta atividade revela-se promotora do envelhecimento ativo. Uma vez que existe uma crescente preocupação com a saúde no avançar da idade nas novas gerações de idosos, o turismo sénior é um setor que se encontra em crescimento. O crescimento do setor turístico encontra-se relacionado com a divulgação da oferta turística nas novas tecnologias. Atualmente em Portugal, tem-se assistido a um crescente interesse por parte dos idosos na utilização da internet. No entanto, olhando para a última década, o crescimento da utilização da internet no quotidiano por parte dos idosos não esta a acompanhar o crescimento do turismo, pelo que o potencial da divulgação turística na internet não esta a ser aproveitado na sua totalidade. Identificou-se uma carência de plataformas turísticas com informações de acessibilidade física disponíveis de um modo digitalmente acessível. Para colmatar este problema, desenvolveu-se o conceito ‘Passeatas’ com o objetivo de facilitar a pesquisa de locais com as características que o utilizador necessita permitindo agilizar o processo de planeamento de uma viagem. Para tal, reuniu-se numa só plataforma vários pontos de interesse turístico em diferentes locais do país, e através de um modelo pergunta resposta procurou-se criar uma ferramenta útil para quem pretende descobrir novos locais com características que vão ao encontro das suas necessidades. A plataforma foi pensada com grande foco no seu publico alvo, os idosos. Seguindo as recomendações de acessibilidade e usabilidade, procurou-se que cada detalhe fosse o mais intuitivo possível. Decidiu-se criar uma página web responsiva, para que se fosse acedida facilmente e se adaptasse aos ecrãs onde esta a ser visualizada. Foram feitos testes de avaliação automática da acessibilidade a plataforma e foi também feita a avaliação da usabilidade da mesma recorrendo a testes e entrevistas com potenciais utilizadores. Ambas as avaliações obtiveram parecer positivo. As entrevistas permitiram identificar pontos que permitem tornar a plataforma mais útil, complementando com informações relevantes para os idosos.Tourism has multiple benefits for physical and mental health. In particular in the elderly, this activity promotes active aging. As there is a growing health concern in advancing age among younger generations of seniors, senior tourism is a growing sector. The growth of the tourism sector is related to the dissemination of the tourism information using new technologies. Nowadays in Portugal, there has been a growing interest of the elderly in using the internet. However, looking back over the last decade, the growth in everyday internet use by older people is not keeping up with the growth in tourism. The potential of tourist promotion on the internet is not being fully used. A lack of tourist platforms with physical accessibility information available in a digitally accessible way was identified. To overcome this problem, the concept of ‘Passeatas’ was developed to facilitate the search for places with the characteristics that the user needs, allowing to simplify the process of planning a trip. Several points of touristic interest in different parts of the country were brought together in a single platform, and through a question-answer model we sought to create a useful tool for those who want to discover new places that meet their needs. The platform was designed with focus on its target, the elderly. Following the accessibility and usability recommendations, every detail was planned to be as intuitive and simple as possible. It was decided to create a responsive web page, so that it could be easily accessed and adapted to the screens where it was being used. Automated accessibilty evaluation tests of the platform and usability tests and interviews with potential users were made. Both evaluations were positive. The interviews made it possible to identify elements to make the platform more useful, complementing it with relevant information for the elderly

Representation of User Stories in Descriptive Markup

The environment in which a software system is developed is in a constant state of flux. The changes at higher levels of software development often manifest themselves in changes at lower levels, especially its activities and artifacts. In the past decade, a notable change has been the emergence of agile methodologies for software development. In a number of agile methodologies, user stories have been adopted as a style of expressing software requirements. This thesis is about theory and practice of describing user stories so as to make them amenable to both humans and machines. In that regard, relevant concerns in describing user stories must be considered and treated separately. In this thesis, a number of concerns in describing user stories are identified, and a collection of conceptual models to help create an understanding of those concerns are formulated. In particular, conceptual models for user story description, stakeholders, information, representation, and presentation are proposed. To facilitate structured descriptions of user stories, a User Story Markup Language (USML) is specified. USML depends on the requisite conceptual models for theoretical foundation. It is informed by experiential knowledge, especially conventions, guidelines, patterns, principles, recommended practices, and standards in markup language engineering. In doing so, USML aims to make the decisions underlying its development explicit. USML provides conformance criteria that include validation against multiple schema documents. In particular, USML is equipped with a grammar-based schema document and a rule-based schema document that constrain USML instance documents in different ways. USML aims to be flexible and extensible. In particular, USML enables a variety of user story forms, which allow a range of user story descriptions. USML instance documents can be intermixed with markup fragments of other languages, presented on conventional user agents, and organized and manipulated in different ways. USML can also be extended in a number of ways to accommodate the needs of those user story stakeholders who wish to personalize the language