Capturing the requirements for multiple user interfaces

non-peer-reviewedIn this paper we describe MANTRA, a model-driven approach for the development of multiple consistent user interfaces for one application. The common requirements of all these user interfaces are captured in an abstract UI model (AUI) which is annotated with constraints on the dialogue flow. We exemplify all further steps along a well known application scenario in which a user queries train connections from a simple timetable service. We consider in particular how the user interface can be adapted on the AUI level by deriving and tailoring dialogue structures which take into account constraints imposed by front-end platforms or inexperienced users. With this input we use model transformations to derive concrete, platform-specific UI models (CUI). These can be used to generate implementation code for several UI platforms including GUI applications, dynamic websites and mobile applications. The user interfaces are integrated with a multi tier application by referencing WSDL-based (Web Service Description Language) interface descriptions. Finally, we discuss how our approach can be extended to include voice interfaces. This imposes special challenges as these interfaces tend to be structurally different from visual platforms and have to be specified using speech-input grammars

Extended Bridge Software Design Pattern

Software engineers are taught that they should separate form and function. This allows a user interface or front-end to be designed and implemented independently of the engine or back-end. Using an abstracted interface class provides the opportunity to develop different user interfaces for the same back-end, as each new user interface will all be derived from this agreed upon abstracted interface. Using the Bridge pattern allows the user to also decouple the abstraction from its implementation, providing additional flexibility as they developed multiple user interfaces. However, user interfaces are typically designed as a single unit, the renderer, even the Bridge pattern refers to it as the ConcreteImplementor. This thesis concentrated on the implementation of the renderer and merged the Bridge pattern with another design pattern, the Presentation Model. The Extended Bridge pattern also includes support for the Single Responsibility principle; a construct that improves upon the Presentation Model by decoupling the logic and the data from the rendering code. In short the Extended Bridge is an object oriented pattern that provides an abstract interface, an abstract implementation with decoupled logic, data and rendering, that is flexible, maintainable, reusable and highly testable

ConCall: An information service for researchers based on EdInfo

In this paper, we present new types of web information services, where users and information brokers collaborate in creating a user-adaptive information service. Such services impose a novel task on information brokers: they become responsible for maintaining the inference strategies used in user modeling. In return, information brokers obtain more accurate information about user needs, since the adaptivity ensures that user profiles are kept up to date and consistent with what users actually prefer, not only what they say that they prefer. We illustrate the approach by an example application, in which conference calls are collected and distributed to interested readers

Computer Programs, User Interfaces, and Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act of 1976: A Critique of Lotus v. Paperback

The Supreme Court\u27s landmark ruling Lotus Development Corp vs Paperback Software International is critiqued. The ruling did not resolve the issue of whether copyright law protects user interfaces

Generation of Distributed Programming Environments

This technical report consists of three related papers in the area of distributed programming environments. Incremental Attribute Evaluation in Distributed Language-Based Environments presents algorithms that extend existing technology for the generation of single-user language-based editors from attribute grammars to the cases of multiple-user concurrent and distributed environments. Multi-User Distributed Language-Based Environment, an extended abstract, provides additional information on how to apply the algorithms. Reliability in Distributed Programming Environments presents additional algorithms that extend our results to unreliable networks

Abstract Model Counting: A Novel Approach for Quantification of Information Leaks

acmid: 2590328 keywords: model checking, quantitative information flow, satisfiability modulo theories, symbolic execution location: Kyoto, Japan numpages: 10acmid: 2590328 keywords: model checking, quantitative information flow, satisfiability modulo theories, symbolic execution location: Kyoto, Japan numpages: 10acmid: 2590328 keywords: model checking, quantitative information flow, satisfiability modulo theories, symbolic execution location: Kyoto, Japan numpages: 10We present a novel method for Quantitative Information Flow analysis. We show how the problem of computing information leakage can be viewed as an extension of the Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) problem. This view enables us to develop a framework for QIF analysis based on the framework DPLL(T) used in SMT solvers. We then show that the methodology of Symbolic Execution (SE) also fits our framework. Based on these ideas, we build two QIF analysis tools: the first one employs CBMC, a bounded model checker for ANSI C, and the second one is built on top of Symbolic PathFinder, a Symbolic Executor for Java. We use these tools to quantify leaks in industrial code such as C programs from the Linux kernel, a Java tax program from the European project HATS, and anonymity protocol

Smart Roads and Autonomous Driving vs. Data Protection: the Problem of the Lawfulness of the Processing

The paper highlights how smart mobility - and in particular its most advanced expression to date, which is autonomous driving - is a fundamental component of the smart city. However, technological development in this direction raises the issue of balancing interests with the need to protect personal data, of which driverless cars collect a huge amount. In this perspective, the main issue is now recognized in the lack of an adequate legal basis; the solution this essay proposes is that of the provision, by the legislator, of a task of public interest through the implementation of an ad hoc legislation, of which it offers a possible model. pdf icon downloa