Progress of Library Management Softwares: an Indian Scenario

This paper discusses the development of library management softwares over the past decades, traces out the characteristics and trends of softwares with special reference to packages available in Indian environment and compares services and facilities incorporated in library automation packages available in India against various checklists and with the help of tables and appendices

Programming language Formian.

Formex algebra is a powerful tool for the generation of data used in the design and analysis of space structures. However, for the algebra to be of practical use, it is necessary to have a means of employing the concepts on a computer. This is the particular problem which this thesis addresses. The solution proposed here is Formian, an interactive programming language, which being modelled on formex algebra allows complex configurations to be generated from a few concise and yet readily understood statements. Formian is designed to allow problems of data generation to be tackled in a single programming environment. The thesis describes the raison d'etre for the Formian programming language and the steps taken to create the language and to provide a practical and reliable implementation in the form of a computer program. A complete description of the language structure is given. This includes an overview of formex algebra. The use of Formian from a designer's viewpoint is provided by interspersing the description with practical examples

A graphical approach to relational reasoning

Relational reasoning is concerned with relations over an unspecified domain of discourse. Two limitations to which it is customarily subject are: only dyadic relations are taken into account; all formulas are equations, having the same expressive power as first-order sentences in three variables. The relational formalism inherits from the Peirce-Schröder tradition, through contributions of Tarski and many others. Algebraic manipulation of relational expressions (equations in particular) is much less natural than developing inferences in first-order logic; it may in fact appear to be overly machine-oriented for direct hand-based exploitation. The situation radically changes when one resorts to a convenient representation of relations based on labeled graphs. The paper provides details of this representation, which abstracts w.r.t. inessential features of expressions. Formal techniques illustrating three uses of the graph representation of relations are discussed: one technique deals with translating first-order specifications into the calculus of relations; another one, with inferring equalities within this calculus with the aid of convenient diagram-rewriting rules; a third one with checking, in the specialized framework of set theory, the definability of particular set operations. Examples of use of these techniques are produced; moreover, a promising approach to mechanization of graphical relational reasoning is outlined

On the engineering of crucial software

The various aspects of the conventional software development cycle are examined. This cycle was the basis of the augmented approach contained in the original grant proposal. This cycle was found inadequate for crucial software development, and the justification for this opinion is presented. Several possible enhancements to the conventional software cycle are discussed. Software fault tolerance, a possible enhancement of major importance, is discussed separately. Formal verification using mathematical proof is considered. Automatic programming is a radical alternative to the conventional cycle and is discussed. Recommendations for a comprehensive approach are presented, and various experiments which could be conducted in AIRLAB are described

Translating fork specifications into logic programs

In this work a compiler from fork specifications into logic programs is presented. The technique implemented by the compiler consists of transforming a set of fork equations (with some restrictions) into normal logic programs in such a way that the semantics of the fork equations is preserved. After translating a fork specification, it can be executed by consulting the generated logic program. The fork compiler, a tool for the translation, is also introduced.Facultad de Informátic

RelMDD-A Library for Manipulating Relations Based on MDDs

Relation algebras is one of the state-of-the-art means used by mathematicians and computer scientists for solving very complex problems. As a result, a computer algebra system for relation algebras called RelView has been developed at Kiel University. RelView works within the standard model of relation algebras. On the other hand, relation algebras do have other models which may have different properties. For example, in the standard model we always have L;L=L (the composition of two (heterogeneous) universal relations yields a universal relation). This is not true in some non-standard models. Therefore, any example in RelView will always satisfy this property even though it is not true in general. On the other hand, it has been shown that every relation algebra with relational sums and subobjects can be seen as matrix algebra similar to the correspondence of binary relations between sets and Boolean matrices. The aim of my research is to develop a new system that works with both standard and non-standard models for arbitrary relations using multiple-valued decision diagrams (MDDs). This system will implement relations as matrix algebras. The proposed structure is a library written in C which can be imported by other languages such as Java or Haskell

Holistic recommender systems for software engineering

The knowledge possessed by developers is often not sufficient to overcome a programming problem. Short of talking to teammates, when available, developers often gather additional knowledge from development artifacts (e.g., project documentation), as well as online resources. The web has become an essential component in the modern developer’s daily life, providing a plethora of information from sources like forums, tutorials, Q&A websites, API documentation, and even video tutorials. Recommender Systems for Software Engineering (RSSE) provide developers with assistance to navigate the information space, automatically suggest useful items, and reduce the time required to locate the needed information. Current RSSEs consider development artifacts as containers of homogeneous information in form of pure text. However, text is a means to represent heterogeneous information provided by, for example, natural language, source code, interchange formats (e.g., XML, JSON), and stack traces. Interpreting the information from a pure textual point of view misses the intrinsic heterogeneity of the artifacts, thus leading to a reductionist approach. We propose the concept of Holistic Recommender Systems for Software Engineering (H-RSSE), i.e., RSSEs that go beyond the textual interpretation of the information contained in development artifacts. Our thesis is that modeling and aggregating information in a holistic fashion enables novel and advanced analyses of development artifacts. To validate our thesis we developed a framework to extract, model and analyze information contained in development artifacts in a reusable meta- information model. We show how RSSEs benefit from a meta-information model, since it enables customized and novel analyses built on top of our framework. The information can be thus reinterpreted from an holistic point of view, preserving its multi-dimensionality, and opening the path towards the concept of holistic recommender systems for software engineering