Techniques for grading programming labs

Techniques for manual and automated grading of programming labs are discussed. Topics investigated include: general grading of programming labs, plagiarism detection, pro gram documentation, program output, and program efficiency. This investigation led to the development of automated grading tools that report on style and point to possible instances of plagiarism. The techniques utilized will be discussed and their use demonstrated

Requirements for software engineering languages

This paper analyzes the concepts of software construction embodied in the Draco system. The analysis relates specific mechanisms in Draco to particular software engineering (SE) principles and suggests future research needed to extend the approach. The purpose of the analysis is to help researchers understand Draco better and thus be able to direct in productive directions future research on this type of software engineering tool

The development of a program analysis environment for Ada: Reverse engineering tools for Ada

The Graphical Representations of Algorithms, Structures, and Processes for Ada (GRASP/Ada) has successfully created and prototyped a new algorithm level graphical representation for Ada software, the Control Structure Diagram (CSD). The primary impetus for creation of the CSD was to improve the comprehension efficiency of Ada software and thus improve reliability and reduce costs. The emphasis was on the automatic generation of the CSD from Ada source code to support reverse engineering and maintenance. The CSD has the potential to replace traditional prettyprinted Ada source code. In Phase 1 of the GRASP/Ada project, the CSD graphical constructs were created and applied manually to several small Ada programs. A prototype (Version 1) was designed and implemented using FLEX and BISON running under the Virtual Memory System (VMS) on a VAX 11-780. In Phase 2, the prototype was improved and ported to the Sun 4 platform under UNIX. A user interface was designed and partially implemented. The prototype was applied successfully to numerous Ada programs ranging in size from several hundred to several thousand lines of source code. In Phase 3 of the project, the prototype was prepared for limited distribution (GRASP/Ada Version 3.0) to facilitate evaluation. The user interface was extensively reworked. The current prototype provides the capability for the user to generate CSD from Ada source code in a reverse engineering mode with a level of flexibility suitable for practical application

XP. A Common Lisp Pretty Printing System

XP provides efficient and flexible support for pretty printing in Common Lisp. Its single greatest advantage is that it allows the full benefits of pretty printing to be obtained when printing data structures, as well as when printing program code. XP is efficient, because it is based on a linear time algorithm that uses only a small fixed amount of storage. XP is flexible, because users can control the exact form of the output via a set of special format directives. XP can operate on arbitrary data structures, because facilities are provided for specifying pretty printing methods for any type of object. XP also modifies the way abbreviation based on length, nesting depth, and circularity is supported so that they automatically apply to user-defined functions that perform output ??g., print functions for structures. In addition, a new abbreviation mechanism is introduced that can be used to limit the total numbers of lines printed

Analysis of the Draco approach to constructing software systems

This paper analyzes the concepts of software construction embodied in the Draco system. The analysis relates specific mechanisms in Draco to particular software engineering (SE) principles and suggests future research needed to extend the approach. The purpose of the analysis is to help researchers understand Draco better and thus be able to direct in productive directions future research on this type of software engineering tool

LacEDAemon : a programming environment for the multiparadigm language leda

Multiparadigm programming languages are a recent development in the realm of programming languages. A multiparadigm programming language allows the use of multiple, differing programming paradigms without departing from a single, unified linguistic framework. Multiparadigm programming languages are claimed to have benefits to both pedagogy and complex application creation. The beneficial claims of multiparadigm languages have yet to be validated. The availability of a programming environment would encourage and expedite academic and industrial validation. Creating a programming environment is considered an extremely labor intensive activity. Further complications arise from the fact that programming environment creation is an experimental activity: the component mix that best expedites program development in a new programming language cannot be predicted in advance. As a result, few new languages are ever verified in the context of a supportive programming environment. Leda, a unique programming language that includes the functional, imperative, logic and object-oriented paradigms, is at this juncture. This thesis describes the structure of an environment framework that allows for experimental study of the necessary components of a multiparadigm programming language environment. New tools and techniques, as well as changes to traditional tools and techniques are required to allow programmers to abstract effectively across paradigms. This research examines the topic by creating LacEDAemon, a testbed programming environment for the multiparadigm programming language Leda, within the framework of a variety of integrated, cohesive tools. LacEDAemon relies on a hypertool-based toolkit integration framework architecture that affords both loose and tight control integration, as well as data integration, using existing, off-the-shelf tools written in a variety of programming languages. Along with demonstrating the viability of hypertool integration as a low-cost approach for constructing programming environments, LacEDAemon provides a vehicle for: determining an effective multiparadigm programming toolset, studying multiparadigm program design, conducting studies of multiparadigm program visualization, exploring different strategies for software reuse, and examining the merits of conducting all programming activity within the database-centered environment approach. This environment also provides support for investigations in the areas of multiparadigm algorithms, multiparadigm software metrics, and multiparadigm program comprehension. Various techniques for evaluating integrated environments are also applied to LacEDAemon

Design and implementation of a pretty printer for the functional specification language SPEC.

http://archive.org/details/designimplementa00wei