Sindarin: A Versatile Scripting API for the Pharo Debugger

International audienceDebugging is one of the most important and time consuming activities in software maintenance, yet mainstream debuggers are not well-adapted to several debugging scenarios. This has led to the research of new techniques covering specific families of complex bugs. Notably, recent research proposes to empower developers with scripting DSLs, plugin-based and moldable debuggers. However, these solutions are tailored to specific use-cases, or too costly for one-time-use scenarios. In this paper we argue that exposing a debugging scripting interface in mainstream debuggers helps in solving many challenging debugging scenarios. For this purpose, we present Sindarin, a scripting API that eases the expression and automation of different strategies developers pursue during their debugging sessions. Sindarin provides a GDB-like API, augmented with AST-bytecode-source code mappings and object-centric capabilities. To demonstrate the versatility of Sindarin, we reproduce several advanced breakpoints and non-trivial debugging mechanisms from the literature

Disruptive sharing in a digital age: rejecting neoliberalism?

Some argue that neoliberalism can be seen as having negated its negation, namely socialism and communism, and become unquestionable and common sense. However, many practices from below resist, reject or at least disrupt the stringent property rights regime and the primacy of the market, two core elements of neoliberal ideology. Some of these practices of resistance are in the form of a disruption to or rejection of the commodity exchange model. In this article we address three modes of sharing in a digital context, embedded in a cultural exchange model - sharing code, sharing content and sharing access. These different practices of giving and sharing are analysed according to the way in which reciprocity is articulated, the extent to which they disrupt the capitalist model of commodity exchange, and the ways in which they interact or not with it. We conclude that all forms of digital sharing involve degrees of reciprocity, and that all sharing in digital contexts is gradually appropriated by capitalist logics, mainly through the creation of auxiliary revenues. Many sharing practices do not intend to reject or disrupt, so, while some sharing practices might constitute a (partial) disruption to the commodity exchange model, they may not necessarily result in its negation. Recent attempts by states and parts of the entertainment industry to discipline or coerce the revivified participatory culture and its cultural exchange ethic to fit the commodity exchange model raise serious concerns

Software, risks, and liabilities: ongoing and emergent issues in 3D bioprinting

The growing use of software in biomedicine has enlarged the capacities of researchers and clinicians. This, one might expect, would enhance the precision and safety of biomedicine. However, it has been recognized that software can bring about new risks to the field of medicine and medical devices, requiring at least some degree of caution from the different players responsible for technology governance and risk management. This phenomenon is focused on in this paper, from the viewpoint of 3D bioprinting. Bioprinting is the production of bioactive structures in a layer-by-layer deposition of cells, with the use of devices called bioprinters. The latter can only function by receiving instructions from software. This paper focuses on some software-supported techniques that are key for bioprinting. It shows that a growing range of software packages has been used in bioprinting, a trend that is greatly fostered by open source software. In this evolution, the clinical potentialities of bioprinting come closer to their realization. At the same time, however, uncertainties emerge, related to issues such as data protection, use of biological samples, and others. The growing use of open source software complexifies the scenario, because it leads to a multiplication of actors directly or indirectly involved in the technology’s development, making it difficult to trace liabilities and damages. As no national regulation has been produced to tackle such uncertainties, they have been (provisionally and precariously) addressed in the licenses of software packages. In the years to come, as clinical products eventually spring from bioprinting research, more robust governance schemes will have to emerge in which risks and liabilities are dealt with more carefully by different players. Moreover, regulations will have to address the practice of combining different software packages in the same bioprinting process, as well as the growing globalization of bioprinting research and commercial exploration