Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Software reusability'

Software product lines are widely used in industrial environments for developing complex software systems. One of the main advantages deriving from the adoption of this software engineering development methodology is increased reusability. In fact, software product lines offer convenient means for representing different products belonging to the same family and different families of products by grouping shared functionalities and highlighting differences. Despite software product lines inherently improve the design and the development of complex software systems, they usually require ad-hoc strategies for the testing of such systems.To this end, testing strategies for software product lines need to account for the extensive amount of artefacts reuse and for possible differences among such artefact, too.In fact, even though software product line products might share several functionalities, the interfaces of such functionalities might differ due to the specificities imposed by the products or their designs. In this thesis, we propose a testing approach for software product lines, which allows to test functionalities that are shared among the products, accounting for the potential heterogeneity of the exposed interfaces.The main contribution of this approach is the definition of generic test-cases from which product-specific test-scripts are automatically generated, so to enhance the reusability of the handcrafted artefacts and overcome the issue of different interfaces.What is more, the proposed approach discloses the opportunity to reduce the time required to develop testing artefacts.

This master’s thesis discusses the evolution of DataPartner’s application "Inventera". Inventera is designed to do inventory of stock on handheld computers and integartes with SPCS Administration. Inventera is enhanced with a wireless connection and the SPCS API is wrapped with Web Services. The theoretical part of this thesis examines diffrent possibilities to increase reusability by using web service technology when developing software. A case study of the SPCS API is used in order to study differences between using no Web Services at all, static web services or dynamic web services.

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
O desenvolvimento de software orientado a aspectos (DSOA) vem obtendo maior atenção tanto da academia quanto da indústria. Sistemas orientados a aspectos compreendem novas abstrações de engenharia de software e tratam de diferentes dimensões de complexidade. Conseqüentemente, o DSOA traz novos problemas para a engenharia de software experimental. Novos mecanismos de avaliação são necessários para medir os graus de manutenibilidade e reusabilidade de sistemas orientados a aspectos. Esta dissertação apresenta um framework de avaliação para o DSOA composto por dois elementos: um conjunto de métricas e um modelo de qualidade. No intuito de evitar a reinvenção de soluções já testadas, esses elementos são baseados em princípios bem conhecidos da engenharia de software e métricas já existentes. O framework proposto foi avaliado no contexto de dois estudos empíricos de domínios distintos, com características, níveis de controle e níveis de complexidade diferentes. O primeiro estudo empírico comparou uma abordagem orientada a objetos com uma abordagem orientada a aspectos para o projeto e implementação de um sistema multi- agentes. O segundo estudo envolveu a aplicação do framework proposto para avaliar as implementações em Java e AspectJ dos padrões de projeto da GoF.
Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) is gaining wide attention both in research environments and in industry. Aspect- oriented systems encompass new software engineering abstractions and different complexity dimensions. As a consequence, AOSD poses new problems to empirical software engineering. It requires new assessment mechanisms to measure the maintainability and reusability degrees of aspect-oriented systems. This dissertation presents an assessment framework for AOSD, which is composed of two components: a suite of metrics and a quality model. These components are based on well-known principles and existing metrics in order to avoid the reinvention of well-tested solutions. The proposed framework has been evaluated in the context of two different empirical studies with different characteristics, diverse domains, varying control levels and different complexity degrees. The first study compared an object-oriented approach and an aspect-oriented approach to the design and implementation of a multi-agent system. The second study involved the application of the proposed framework to evaluate Java and AspectJ implementations of the GoF design patterns.

As Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are growing, there have been ceaseless efforts to develop a National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII). One of the challenges in constructing a NHII is concerned with the management of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In particular, exchanging EHRs is an important factor in establishing interoperability within a NHII, and the reusability of the functionality for exchanging EHRs is one of major solutions to construct an NHII. In this study, we obtain several component models, and conduct empirical studies to validate the component models in terms of component reusability. Using HL7 CDA (Health Level 7 Clinical Document Architecture) as an EHR standard, we implemented three prototypes of the EHR Exchanger based on JavaBeans, the exogenous connectors and the mediator connector respectively. As shown in the experiment results, the reuse approach using a mediator connector leads to better component reusability in terms of external dependency, total coupling between objects (CBO), additional lines of codes (LOC), and performance. Thus, we believe that the reuse approach using a mediator connector yields many benefits in terms of component reusability for the EHR Exchanger implementation.

Software industry is currently moving towards automation of business processes and applications increasing architectural complexity and the dynamics of requirements change. This work proposes a novel software development process, called SPAREv that includes all todays critical innovations on four areas: Model-Driven Development (MDD); Systematic Reuse; Development by assembly; and Process frameworks. SPAREv employs for: (1) Safe architectural reuse - intent specifications and a customized domain-specific pattern-based software framework; (2) Project variability - metaprogramming and Software Product- Line Engineering (SPLE); and (3) Adaptability - round-tripping and software automation by adopting MDD. A case study on satellite on-board software considers an architectural pattern or framework where project specificities are added as plug-ins, e.g. different control algorithms. Software dependability in this domain is discussed and a novel concept of Pattern-Based Software Fault Tree Analysis (PB-SFTA) presented. Finally, impact is inferred via reuse metrics, e.g. Return on Investment (ROI), and Cost/Benefit analysis. Trends and perspectives are presented highlighting assets and knowledge management, and a Reuse Maturity Model. In order of relevance, the author considers that the three major contributions of this work are: (1) The SPAREv process; (2) The PB-SFTA approach; and (3) The application of metaprogramming into the space software domain.

A substantial amount of time and efforts in the initial stages of creating a software system is spent capturing requirements, deciding what software to use and creating technical prototypes to gain confidence in the decisions that have been made are correct. This thesis targets the domain of Mobile Learning with the aim of optimizing these initial stages of a new project by identifying commonalities and architectural patterns found in six existing software systems related to research projects in the domain.

The results present a set of requirements, guidelines and/or an initial conceptual architecture that can be extended or adapted to a broad range of software systems.

A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a multihop wireless network consisting of a large number of wireless nodes of which some are called gateway nodes and connected with a wired network. Wireless mesh network have attracted much research attention recently due to its flexibility, low-cost and robustness, which facilitate its usability in many potential applications, including last-mile broadband Internet access, neighborhood gaming, Video-on-Demand (VoD), distributed file backup, video surveillance, etc. The broadcast nature, the lack of infrastructure as well as the flexible deployment nature of wireless mesh networks make it different from wired networks, therefore more attention in designing the wireless mesh network is needed to maintain a good performance of this promising technology. We, in this study, investigate the wireless mesh network design taking into consideration three design factors seeking an improvement in the network performance by reducing the interference influence in the network, improving the network reliability to satisfy more requests, and securing the network against malicious eavesdropping attacks. Our design is presented into three sub-problems; sub-problem (1), which seeks an interference-aware robust topology control scheme, sub-problem (2) which seeks a multipath routing scheme, and sub-problem (3) which seeks a secure key management scheme. Through simulations and comparisons with previous work, we show that our proposed solutions outperform previous schemes in providing a better network performance in terms of reducing the network interference, satisfying more number of requests and increasing the network resistance to malicious eavesdropping attacks.

Software reuse via component libraries suffers from the twin problems of code location and comprehension. The Intelligent Code Object Planner (ICOP) is a cognitively motivated system that facilitates code reuse by answering queries about how to produce an effect with the library. It can plan for effects which are not primitive with respect to the library by building a plan that incorporates multiple components. The primary subsystems of ICOP are a knowledge base which describes the ontology of the library, a natural language interface which translates user queries into a formal effect language (predicates), a planner which accepts the effect and produces a plan utilizing the library components, and an explanation generator which accepts the plan and produces example code illustrating the plan. ICOP is currently implemented in Prolog and supports a subset of the Windows 3.0 APL

University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis
The problem of building large, reliable software systems in a controlled, cost effective way, the so-called software crisis problem, is one of computer science's great challenges. From the very outset of computing as science, software reuse has been touted as a means to overcome the software crisis issue
Ph.D.
Doctorate;
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Engineering and Computer Science
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
221 p.
xix, 221 leaves, bound : ill. ; 28 cm.

Software Engineering is one of the most widely researched areas of Computer Science. The ability to reuse software, much like reuse of hardware components is one of the key issues in software development. The object-oriented programming methodology is revolutionary in that it promotes software reusability. This thesis describes the development of a tool that helps programmers to design and implement software from within the Smalltalk Environment (an Object- Oriented programming environment). The ASDN tool is part of the PEREAM (Programming Environment for the Reuse and Evolution of Abstract Models) system, which advocates incremental development of software. The Asdn tool along with the PEREAM system seeks to enhance the Smalltalk programming environment by providing facilities for structured development of abstractions (concepts). It produces a document that describes the abstractions that are developed using this tool. The features of the ASDN tool are illustrated by an example.

Little or no empirical validation exists for many of software engineering's basic assumptions. While some of these assumptions are intuitive, the need for scientific experimentation remains clear. Several assumptions are made about the factors affecting software reuse. In particular, the object-oriented paradigm and various human factors are hypothesized to affect the successful reuse of software components. This dissertation describes a controlled experiment designed to evaluate the impact of the object-oriented paradigm and human factors on software reuse. The human factors under investigation include managerial influence and cognitive abilities. This experiment concludes (a) the object-oriented paradigm makes significant contributions to productivity, (b) language differences are far more important when programmers reuse than when they do not, and (c) the object-oriented paradigm holds a particular affinity to the reuse process, (d) reuse results in higher productivity than no reuse independent of language paradigm, (e) the level of management encouragement does affect the reuse process, and (f) the cognitive ability of visualization does relate to effective reuse.
Ph. D.

Orientador: Cecilia Mary Fischer Rubira
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação
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Resumo: Os paradigmas de arquitetura de software e de desenvolvimento baseado em componentes (DBC) são abordagens complementares para o desenvolvimento de sistemas de software. O DBC se baseia na construção de sistemas através da integração de componentes de software reutilizáveis. A arquitetura de software auxilia na forma como estes componentes são integrados levando em consideração atributos de qualidade, tais como confiabilidade e distribuição. Entretanto, observa-se atualmente a falta de consenso entre os conceitos, termos e definições utilizados nas abordagens de arquitetura de software e de DBC, dificultando a integração das respectivas técnicas e ferramentas. As ferramentas e ambientes atuais para descrição de arquiteturas de software não apóiam todas as fases dos processos de DBC, normalmente não geram implementações das arquiteturas e não implementam conceitos importantes de DBC, tais como especificações de interfaces providas e requeridas. Por outro lado, ferramentas e ambientes DBC atuais, em geral, são baseados em modelagem UML e não englobam todos os conceitos presentes em arquitetura de software, tais como estilos arquiteturais e uso explícito de conectores. Este trabalho apresenta uma infra-estrutura de software para construção de arquiteturas de software baseadas em componentes, composta por um conjunto de ferramentas que estentem o ambiente integrado de desenvolvimento Eclipse. As ferramentas foram construídas sobre um metamodelo conceitual integrado para arquitetura de software e DBC, que define e relaciona os conceitos existentes nas duas abordagens. Esta infra- estrutura faz parte do ambiente Bellatrix, um ambiente integrado de desenvolvimento que oferece apoio ao DBC com ênfase na arquitetura de software. As ferramentas apóiam a construção de arquiteturas de software baseadas em componentes desde a sua especificação, passando pelo seu projeto até a sua materialização em forma de código. O modelo de componentes utilizado é o COSMOS, um modelo de implementação de componentes que materializa os conceitos de arquiteturas de software em uma linguagem de programação. No caso do ambiente Bellatrix, a linguagem de programação adotada é Java
Abstract: Component-based development (CBD) and architecture-centric development are two complementary approaches for developing software systems. CBD is based on the construction of systems using the integration of reusable software components. Software architecture centric development complements the CBD paradigm because it is responsible for the component integration, achieving the final system's desired quality requirements, such as dependability and distribution. However, there is a lack of consensus among the concepts, terms, and definitions used in the software architecture and CBD paradigms, hindering the integration of techniques and tools. Existing software architecture environments and tools do not support all the phases involved in CBD process, normally do not generate architecture implementations and do not implement the main CBD concepts, e.g. specification of provided and required interfaces. CBD tools and environments, in general, use UML modeling and do not cover the main software architecture concepts, e.g. architectural styles and architectural connectors. In this work, we propose a software infrastructure to construct component-based software architectures. It has been built as a set of tools that extend the Eclipse integrated development environment. These tools were constructed based on an integrated conceptual metamodel for software architectures and CBD. This metamodel defines and relates the main concepts of the two paradigms. The infrastructure is included in the Bellatix environment, an integrated development environment that supports CBD with emphasis on software architecture. The tools support the construction of component-based software architectures since the specification phase, through the design, until its materialization in code. The component model used is COSMOS, a component implementation model that materializes the elements of a software architecture using the concepts available in object-oriented programming languages. In Bellatix environment, the adopted programming language is Java
Mestrado
Sistemas de Informação
Mestre em Ciência da Computação

To increase productivity, application developers are using tools that allow them to create higher quality applications faster. One such set of tools, open-source frameworks, allows application developers to reuse software artifacts and should increase application quality. However, given the vast number of open-source frameworks available, users must be able to differentiate among frameworks and select the one best suited for them. In this study, we expand the taxonomy of open-source frameworks and analyze the impact of the framework's characteristics, technical quality, and social pressure on perceived usefulness and continued framework usage intention. Our findings suggest that understandability and flexibility have a significant impact on perceived ease of use, while perceived usefulness is mainly determined by flexibility and efficiency. Our research can be used to understand what influences developers to continue using frameworks and to improve framework development.
viii, 129 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

In this work an electronic warfare system is restructured to service oriented architecture. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a paradigm that realizes rapid and low cost system development. The most important characteristics of SOA are standard based interoperability, which allows services developed on different platforms to run together, and dynamic composition via discovery, which provides dynamic composition of application at runtime using the existing services. The old warfare system that was developed by ASELSAN Inc. contained embedded software and was designed using traditional object oriented techniques. In this thesis, we have extracted services out of the system and restructured the warfare system based on service oriented principles. In this thesis, we have focused on the dramatic effect of reusability when SOA is introduced to the electronic warfare system. To understand the effect of service orientation, the new system is evaluated in terms of line of code, memory consumption and extra CORBA interface communication overhead.

Orientador: Ana Cervigni Guerra
Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação
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Resumo: No mundo globalizado de hoje, a necessidade de se prover sistemas para o gerenciamento do grande volume de informações gerado a cada dia torna imperativa a busca contínua por novas práticas e formas de desenvolvimento de software para a manipulação dessas informações. Isso está vinculado também à necessidade de se conseguir ganhos de qualidade, produtividade e redução de custos em tais desenvolvimentos, pois esses são fatores fundamentais no sucesso do negócio de empresas ligadas à tecnologia da informação. Nesse cenário, o reuso de componentes no processo de desenvolvimento de software vem a exercer um papel importante na concretização desses objetivos. Este trabalho apresenta os conceitos envolvidos no contexto de um processo de desenvolvimento de software baseado em componentes reusáveis. São apresentadas as diferentes formas de reuso, o conceito de componentes reusáveis e as formas que esses componentes podem assumir dentro de um domínio de aplicação. Componentes possuem características diferentes, podem ser originados a partir de diversas fontes e carregam detalhes importantes que devem ser considerados durante a sua documentação. Todos esses aspectos influenciam o grau de reuso de um componente dentro do projeto ou organização. São apresentadas algumas tecnologias que promovem a aplicação do reuso de componentes e os conceitos envolvidos na definição, gerenciamento e implantação de repositórios de componentes reusáveis, fundamentais na consolidação do processo de reuso. Novos papéis e responsabilidades envolvidos no processo de reuso são apresentados, além de exemplos de métricas a serem utilizadas com o intuito de auxiliar a medição dos benefícios proporcionados pelo reuso dentro de um processo já consolidado. O resultado desse trabalho é uma análise crítica em relação aos benefícios do reuso e os riscos associados à sua implementação no processo de desenvolvimento de software, considerandose os aspectos tecnológicos, humanos e econômicos envolvidos em cada tópico abordado ao longo do trabalho
Abstract: In a globalized world, the needs to release new systems to manage the large volume of information generated every day force a continuous search for new software development practices in order to handle this information. This is related to the needs to obtain quality and productivity improvements, as well as cost reduction in such development, because these are the main success factors of Information Technology companies. In this scenario, the component reuse in the software development process plays an important role in order to achieve these goals. This work presents the concepts around the context of a software development process based on reusable components. Different types of reuse are explained, as well as the concept of a reusable component and types of components inside an application domain. Components have different characteristics, are originated from different sources and carry on important details that should be analyzed during its documentation. All these aspects have influence on the reuse level of the components inside the project or the company. Some technologies that promote the component reuse and the concepts involved in the definition, management and implementation of reusable software components, which are the basis to consolidate the reuse process, are presented. New roles and responsibilities involved in the reuse process are shown, and also some metrics used to help to measure the benefits due to a consolidated reuse process. The results of this work are a critical analysis about the reuse benefits and the risks associated to its implementation in the software development process, taking into account the technological, human and economic factors involved on each topic discussed along this work
Mestrado
Engenharia de Software
Mestre Profissional em Computação

This thesis presents the development of a prototype of the Baseline Oriented Modeling

(BOM) approach, called protoBOM.

BOM is a framework that semi-automatically generates Decision Support Systems in a

specific domain, based on Software Product Lines.

protoBOM semi-automatically generates applications as PRISMA architectural models by using Model-Driven Architecture and Software Product Line techniques. These models are automatically compiled and the object code (C#, in .NET) is generated obtaining an executable application.

In protoBOM, the user constructs Decision Support Systems in a simpler way by using the

ontologies of the diagnosis and the application domains by means of Domain Specific Languages. The interfaces will be closer to the problem domain, which will facilitate user interaction in a manner simple and intuitive.

Orientador: Eliane Martins
Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T10:05:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cardoso_JosianeAparecida_M.pdf: 1727201 bytes, checksum: 2b03579fc8602d15cc944cb59e39086e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006
Resumo: O desenvolvimento baseado em componentes vem sendo cada vez mais utilizado hoje em dia, pois permite que um sistema seja construído através da reutilização de software. Um problema associado à reutilização de componentes é o fato de que um componente implementado para um determinado contexto pode ser reaproveitado em um outro contexto com especificações diferentes. Esse tipo de problema pode comprometer a construção de um novo sistema de software confiável baseado em componentes. Falhas devem ser encontradas não só nos componentes, mas na integração dos componentes. No contexto de testes de integração, estratégias têm sido propostas considerando apenas abordagens estáticas com base no diagrama de classes do sistema para se definir uma ordenação para os testes de integração minimizando o número de stubs necessários. Esse trabalho propõe um método de testes de integração para sistemas baseados em componentes que se baseia na arquitetura do sistema considerando uma abordagem dinâmica sem a necessidade do código fonte do componente
Abstract: Nowadays the development based on components is being more frequently used since it allows a system to be constructed through the reuse of software. A problem associated to the reuse of components is that one component implemented for a specific context may be reused in another context with different specifications. This kind of problem may jeopardize the construction of a new reliable software system based on components. Faults must be found not only in the components, but in the integration of the components as well. In the context of integration testing, strategies have been proposed considering only the structural approaches based on the class diagram of the system to define an ordering for the integration testing, minimizing the number of stubs needed. This work proposes a method of integration testing for system based on components, which bases itself on the architecture of the system, considering a behavioral approach without the need for the component source code
Mestrado
Engenharia de Computação
Mestre em Computação

Orientador: Cecilia Mary Fischer Rubira
Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação
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Resumo: O desenvolvimento baseado em componente (DBC) pennite que uma aplicação seja construída pela composição de componentes de software que já foram previamente especificados, construídos e testados, resultando em ganhos de produtividade e qualidade no software produzido. Para haver reuso de componentes, é necessário que usuários consIgam procurar e recuperar componentes previamente especificados ou implementados Um repositório de componentes é essencial para possibilitar tal reuso. Interoperabilidade é um requisito importante para repositórios, mas nem todas as ferramentas a tratam com a devida relevância. O modelo de metadados de um repositório para DBC deve contemplar características de componentes, tais como interface e separação entre especificação e implementação. Este trabalho apresentou o Rigel, um repositório de bens de software reutilizáveis com suporte para desenvolvimento baseado em componentes. O Rigel apresenta características que facilitam atividades executadas durante o desenvolvimento de sistemas baseados em componentes, tais como pesquisa, armazenamento e recuperação de bens e integração com CVS. O padrão RAS foi adotado como o fonnato de metadados e de empacotamento de bens, facilitando a integração do Rigel com outros sistemas. O modelo de metadados do RAS foi estendido para apoiar um modelo conceitual de componentes e arquitetura de software. Esta adaptação resultou na criação de quatro novos profiles RAS, para apoiar bens relacionados à DBC: componente abstrato, componente concreto, interface e configuração arquitetural. Um estudo de caso foi conduzido a fim de mostrar como o Rigel apóia um processo de desenvolvimento baseado em componentes. Conclui-se que as características do repositório Rigel facilitam um desenvolvimento baseado em componentes
Abstract: The component based development (CBD) permits an application to be built by composition of previously specified, build and tested components, resulting in increases in productivity and quality of the produced software. 1n order to make the reuse of components happen, it is necessary that users are able to search and retrieve previously specified or implemented components. A component repository is important to support this reuse. 1nteroperability is an important requirement for repositories, but not alI the tools consider it with the required relevance. The metadata model of a CBD repository must handle components features, such as interface and separation between specification and implementation. This work presents Rigel, a repository of reusable software assets with a support for component based development. Rigel presents features that make activities performed during the development of component based systems easier, such as search, storage and retrieval of assets and CVS integration. RAS standard was adopted as the asset metadata and packaging format, making Rigel integration with other systems easier. The RAS metadata model was extended to support a conceptual model of components and software architecture. This adaptation resulted in the creation of four new RAS profiles to support CBD related assets: abstract component, concrete component, interface and architectural configuration. A case study was conducted in order to show how Rigel supports a CBD processo We also conclude that Rigel repository features make the component based development easier
Mestrado
Engenharia de Computação
Mestre em Computação

Thesis (Ph.D)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.
Committee Chair: Yannis Smaragdakis; Committee Member: Oege de Moor; Committee Member: Richard LeBlanc; Committee Member: Santosh Pande; Committee Member: Spencer Rugaber. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Orientador: Islene Calciolari Garcia
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação
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Resumo: Arquiteturas Peer-to-Peer (P2P) têm sido uma alternativa bastante atraente para tornar a Internet mais acessível. Desde programas de compartilhamento de conteúdo a sistemas de comunicação têm utilizando esta abordagem de arquitetura e dando importantes contribuições para melhorias nas tecnologias e metodologias relacionadas as redes P2P. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho apresenta a definção da arquitetura de uma rede P2P para distribuição e compartilhamento de componentes de software, visando montar uma rede descentralizada, na qual qualquer participante possa se conectar, fornecer e buscar por componentes de software. Os componentes de software são módulos independentes, com interfaces bem definidas, que podem ser reutilizados em diferentes situações. O reuso de software vem se destacando como grande promessa para aumentar a produtividade no desenvolvimento de sistemas. A aplicação do reuso de software se concentra principalmente na reutilização e integração de partes prontas e previamente testadas. Este trabalho apresenta também a concepção de um modelo de repositório para armazenamento de componentes de software. Estes repositórios podem se comunicar através do protocolo de rede desenvolvido, montando uma rede de compartilhamento P2P. Através da construção da arquitetura, do mecanismo de busca e modelagem dos repositórios, propomos aqui a estrutura fundamental para a criação de redes e sub-redes independentes, visando compartilhar componentes de software entre grupos de pesquisa, universidades, desenvolvedores e empresas. Esta arquitetura constitui a estrutura de distribuição da Rede de Compartilhamento de Componentes de Software (RCCS). A RCCS 'e um projeto de construção de uma rede pública para compartilhamento de componentes, desenvolvido no Laboratório de Inovação Ci&T/Unicam
Abstract: Peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures have become a very attractive alternative to make the Internet more accessible. This approach has been widely used, from content sharing programs through communications systems, which has provided the P2P networks with considerable improvements in the technology and methodologies related. In this context, the current work presents the architecture definition of a decentralized P2P network for distribution and sharing of software components in which any participant can get connected, offer and search for software components. Software components are interdependent modules with well-defined interfaces that can be reused in different situations. Software reuse has been considered the big boom when it comes to productivity in software development. Reusing is related to the integration of ready and previously tested pieces of software. This work also presents the conception of a repository model for storing software components. These repositories can communicate with one another using the custom built network protocol, resulting in a strong and reliable P2P sharing network. Through the architecture definition, the search mechanism and the modeling of the repositories, we propose the fundamental structure for the creation of independent network and sub-networks so as to share software components between research groups, universities and developers. Such architecture constitutes the distribution structure of the Software Component Sharing Network. The project focused on developing this public network for sharing components has been hosted at the Ci&T/Unicamp Innovation Lab
Mestrado
Sistemas Distribuidos
Mestre em Ciência da Computação

The purpose of this thesis paper was to develop new features in the cloud-native and open-source machine learning platform STACKn, aiming to strengthen the platform's support for conducting reproducible machine learning experiments through provenance, transparency and reusability. Adhering to the definition of reproducibility as the ability of independent researchers to exactly duplicate scientific results with the same material as in the original experiment, two concepts were explored as alternatives for this specific goal: 1) Increased support for standardized textual documentation of machine learning models and their corresponding datasets; and 2) Increased support for provenance to track the lineage of machine learning models by making code, data and metadata readily available and stored for future reference. We set out to investigate to what degree these features could increase reproducibility in STACKn, both when used in isolation and when combined.  When these features had been implemented through an exhaustive software engineering process, an evaluation of the implemented features was conducted to quantify the degree of reproducibility that STACKn supports. The evaluation showed that the implemented features, especially provenance features, substantially increase the possibilities to conduct reproducible experiments in STACKn, as opposed to when none of the developed features are used. While the employed evaluation method was not entirely objective, these features are clearly a good first initiative in meeting current recommendations and guidelines on how computational science can be made reproducible.

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Keywords: component adaptations; active interfaces; blackbox component adaptation; component specification language; software reuse. Includes bibliographical references.

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This thesis builds upon work previously done in the development of the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) and the Prototype System Description Language (PSDL), and presents a conceptual design for the Software Base Management System (SBMS) component of CAPS. The SBMS is the most critical component of CAPS as it will coordinate the retrieval and integration of Ada software modules. A robust SBMS that enables a software system designer to successfully retrieve reusable Ada components will expedite the prototype development process and enhance designer productivity. Implementation of the conceptual design will be the basis for further work in this area. (Ada is a registered trademark of the United States Government, Ada Joint Program Office.)
http://archive.org/details/conceptualdesign00gali
Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

This project is to develop an on-line library to help software engineers who utilize design patterns for developing e-commerce applications it translates generic design patterns to concrete design patterns. The graphical user interface was developed to allow the user to develop their own design patterns by modifying or changing stored design patterns.

ISO 26262 is an international standard valid for the automotive domain. It regulates all the activities to perform for developing safety critical systems in such domain. To be compliant with ISO 26262, all the required activities have to be performed and all the required work products have to be provided. Furthermore, in addition to develop a system in a safe way, following the safety standard guidelines, the achieved safety has also to be demonstrated. This is done through a safety case, a structured argument showing that a system is acceptably safe. ISO 26262 focuses on single systems and does not contain guidelines for product lines. Product line engineering is a valid approach to systematize reuse, aimed at reducing the effort needed to develop similar systems. But, it loses its strength when dealing with safety critical systems, since it is not aligned with safety standards. Hence, when developing a safety critical product line in the automotive domain, the work products required by ISO 26262 have to be provided every time from scratch, including the safety case, for each single system of the product line. This thesis work focuses on providing an approach for building and modeling a safety case for safety critical product lines in the automotive domain. Furthermore, the considered product line engineering approach is aligned with ISO 26262, through the inclusion of safety activities in the product line development process. Giving in this way, the concrete possibility to overtake to the current limitations, reducing the effort needed to develop and certificate each single system of a safety critical product line. To illustrate the validity of the proposed approach a safety critical product line developed by Scania is used as case study.

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?Over the years the use of application frameworks designed for the View and Controller layers of MVC architectural pattern adapted to web applications has become very popular. These frameworks are classified into Actions Oriented and Components Oriented , according to the solution strategy adopted by the tools. The choice of such strategy leads the system architecture design to acquire non-functional characteristics caused by the way the framework influences the developer to implement the system. The components reusability is one of those characteristics and plays a very important role for development activities such as system evolution and maintenance. The work of this dissertation consists to analyze of how the reusability could be influenced by the Web frameworks usage. To accomplish this, small academic management applications were developed using the latest versions of Apache Struts and JavaServer Faces frameworks, the main representatives of Java plataform Web frameworks of. For this assessment was used a software quality model that associates internal attributes, which can be measured objectively, to the characteristics in question. These attributes and metrics defined for the model were based on some work related discussed in the document
?O uso de frameworks para as camadas do Controlador e Vis?o do padr?o arquitetural MVC adaptado para aplica??es Web se tornou bastante popular ao longo dos anos. Eles s?o classificados em Orientados a A??es ou Orientados a Componentes , de acordo com a estrat?gia de solu??o adotada pelas ferramentas. A escolha por uma dessas estrat?gias faz com que o design da arquitetura do sistema adquira caracter?sticas n?o-funcionais ocasionadas pela forma com que o framework leva o desenvolvedor a implementar o sistema. A reusabilidade dos componentes ? uma dessas caracter?sticas. Ela possui um papel muito importante para atividades como evolu??o e manuten??o do sistema. O trabalho desta disserta??o consiste em analisar o quanto a reusabilidade pode ser impactada de acordo com a utiliza??o de um tipo de framework Web. Com esse intuito, foram realizados estudos de caso atrav?s da implementa??o de pequenas aplica??es de controle acad?mico se utilizando das mais recentes vers?es dos frameworks Apache Struts e JavaServer Faces, os principais representantes de frameworks Web da plataforma Java. Para essa avalia??o, foi utilizado um modelo de qualidade de software respons?vel por associar atributos internos, que podem ser medidos objetivamente, ? caracter?stica em quest?o. Esses atributos e m?tricas definidos para o modelo foram baseados em alguns trabalhos relacionados discutidos no documento

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Não recebi financiamento
The APIs are becoming increasingly more popular and they play a important role in software development. However, many APIs are large and complex that makes them hard to learn. Among avaliable resources to learn to use an API, there are the code samples. A code sample can be used to demonstrate to a programmer how to use API’s components together to attain a specific goal. But, code sample are static and they haven’t information about how to adapt the code snippet shown as example to programmer’s context. Tools have been proposed to assist the programmers in finding and adapting code snippets that may be useful for a programming task. A specific type of these tools are the code template tools. Code templates are code snippets manually registered containing integration directives. The integration directives instruct the code template tool on how to adapt a code snippet to programmer’s context. In this work, code snippet tools are investigated and it is proposed a code template tool called IPS. It presents some novelties in relation to other code template tools. In the IPS, a code template can be associated to a Java class and the IPS has a code template recommender that is automatically updated as the source code is edited by the programmer. Also it is proposed the role parameters, a new concept for the parameters of code templates that extends the concept of the parameters associated to a type which is present in current code template tools. The role parameters has the objective of accepting arguments that would at first be incompatible with a specific type, but that obey a expected pattern.
As APIs têm se tornado cada vez mais populares e elas têm um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento de software. No entanto, muitas APIs são grandes e complexas o que torna a aprendizagem delas difícil. Entre os recursos disponíveis para se aprender a utilizar uma API, há os exemplos de código. Um exemplo de código pode demonstrar a um programador como componentes de uma API podem ser utilizados juntos para atingir um determinado objetivo. Porém, exemplos de código são estáticos e não contêm informações de como adaptar o trecho de código apresentado como exemplo para o contexto do programador. Ferramentas têm sido propostas para auxiliar os programadores a encontrarem e adaptarem trechos de códigos que possam ser úteis para uma tarefa de programação. Um tipo específico dessas ferramentas são as ferramentas de templates de código. Templates de código são trechos de códigos cadastrados manualmente contendo diretivas de integração. As diretivas de integração instruem a ferramenta a como adaptar um trecho de código para o contexto do programador. Neste trabalho, ferramentas de trechos de código são investigadas e é proposta uma ferramenta de template de código denominada IPS. Ela apresenta novidades em relação às outras ferramentas de templates de código. No IPS, um template de código pode ser associado a uma classe Java e o IPS possui um recomendador de templates de código que é automaticamente atualizado conforme o código fonte é editado pelo programador. Também é proposto os parâmetros do tipo role, um novo conceito que estende o conceito dos parâmetros associados a um tipo que está presente nas ferramentas de templates de código atuais. Os parâmetros do tipo role têm como objetivo aceitar argumentos que seriam a princípio incompatíveis com um determinado tipo, porém que sigam um determinado padrão esperado.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de proposer une approche formelle basée sur les automates d'interface pour spécifier les contrats des composants réutilisables et vérifier leur interopérabilité fonctionnelle. Cette interopérabilité se traduit par la vérification des trois niveaux : signature, sémantique, et protocole. Le formalisme des automates d'interface est basé sur une approche " optimiste" qui prend en compte les contraintes de l'environnement. Cette approche considère que deux composants sont compatibles s'il existe un environnement convenable avec lequel ils peuvent interagir correctement. Dans un premier temps, nous proposons une approche préliminaire qui intègre la sémantique des paramètres des actions dans la vérification de la compatibilité et de la substitution des composants spécifiés par des automates d'interface. Dans un second temps, nous nous somme intéressés à adapter les composants réutilisables dont les contrats sont décrits par des automates d'interface enrichis par la sémantique des actions. En ce sens, nous avons proposé un algorithme qui permet de générer automatiquement la spécification d'un adaptateur de deux composants lorsque celui-ci existe. Dans un troisième temps, nous avons augmenté le pouvoir d'expression de notre approche proposée pour vérifier l'interopérabilité et les propriétés de sûreté des composants qui communiquent par des variables définies au niveau de leurs contrats d'interface. En particulier, nous étudions la préservation des invariants par composition et par raffinement.

Les méthodes de suivi de particules sont couramment utilisées en mécanique des fluides de par leur propriété unique de reconstruire de longues trajectoires avec une haute résolution spatiale et temporelle. De fait, de nombreuses applications industrielles mettant en jeu des écoulements gaz-particules, comme les turbines aéronautiques utilisent un formalisme Euler-Lagrange. L’augmentation rapide de la puissance de calcul des machines massivement parallèles et l’arrivée des machines atteignant le petaflops ouvrent une nouvelle voie pour des simulations qui étaient prohibitives il y a encore une décennie. La mise en oeuvre d’un code parallèle efficace pour maintenir une bonne performance sur un grand nombre de processeurs devra être étudié. On s’attachera en particuliers à conserver un bon équilibre des charges sur les processeurs. De plus, une attention particulière aux structures de données devra être fait afin de conserver une certaine simplicité et la portabilité et l’adaptabilité du code pour différentes architectures et différents problèmes utilisant une approche Lagrangienne. Ainsi, certains algorithmes sont à repenser pour tenir compte de ces contraintes. La puissance de calcul permettant de résoudre ces problèmes est offerte par des nouvelles architectures distribuées avec un nombre important de coeurs. Cependant, l’exploitation efficace de ces architectures est une tâche très délicate nécessitant une maîtrise des architectures ciblées, des modèles de programmation associés et des applications visées. La complexité de ces nouvelles générations des architectures distribuées est essentiellement due à un très grand nombre de noeuds multi-coeurs. Ces noeuds ou une partie d’entre eux peuvent être hétérogènes et parfois distants. L’approche de la plupart des bibliothèques parallèles (PBLAS, ScalAPACK, P_ARPACK) consiste à mettre en oeuvre la version distribuée de ses opérations de base, ce qui signifie que les sous-programmes de ces bibliothèques ne peuvent pas adapter leurs comportements aux types de données. Ces sous programmes doivent être définis une fois pour l’utilisation dans le cas séquentiel et une autre fois pour le cas parallèle. L’approche par composants permet la modularité et l’extensibilité de certaines bibliothèques numériques (comme par exemple PETSc) tout en offrant la réutilisation de code séquentiel et parallèle. Cette approche récente pour modéliser des bibliothèques numériques séquentielles/parallèles est très prometteuse grâce à ses possibilités de réutilisation et son moindre coût de maintenance. Dans les applications industrielles, le besoin de l’emploi des techniques du génie logiciel pour le calcul scientifique dont la réutilisabilité est un des éléments des plus importants, est de plus en plus mis en évidence. Cependant, ces techniques ne sont pas encore maÃotrisées et les modèles ne sont pas encore bien définis. La recherche de méthodologies afin de concevoir et réaliser des bibliothèques réutilisables est motivée, entre autres, par les besoins du monde industriel dans ce domaine. L’objectif principal de ce projet de thèse est de définir des stratégies de conception d’une bibliothèque numérique parallèle pour le suivi lagrangien en utilisant une approche par composants. Ces stratégies devront permettre la réutilisation du code séquentiel dans les versions parallèles tout en permettant l’optimisation des performances. L’étude devra être basée sur une séparation entre le flux de contrôle et la gestion des flux de données. Elle devra s’étendre aux modèles de parallélisme permettant l’exploitation d’un grand nombre de coeurs en mémoire partagée et distribuée
The complexity of these new generations of distributed architectures is essencially due to a high number of multi-core nodes. Most of the nodes can be heterogeneous and sometimes remote. Today, nor the high number of nodes, nor the processes that compose the nodes are exploited by most of applications and numerical libraries. The approach of most of parallel libraries (PBLAS, ScalAPACK, P_ARPACK) consists in implementing the distributed version of its base operations, which means that the subroutines of these libraries can not adapt their behaviors to the data types. These subroutines must be defined once for use in the sequential case and again for the parallel case. The object-oriented approach allows the modularity and scalability of some digital libraries (such as PETSc) and the reusability of sequential and parallel code. This modern approach to modelize sequential/parallel libraries is very promising because of its reusability and low maintenance cost. In industrial applications, the need for the use of software engineering techniques for scientific computation, whose reusability is one of the most important elements, is increasingly highlighted. However, these techniques are not yet well defined. The search for methodologies for designing and producing reusable libraries is motivated by the needs of the industries in this field. The main objective of this thesis is to define strategies for designing a parallel library for Lagrangian particle tracking using a component approach. These strategies should allow the reuse of the sequential code in the parallel versions while allowing the optimization of the performances. The study should be based on a separation between the control flow and the data flow management. It should extend to models of parallelism allowing the exploitation of a large number of cores in shared and distributed memory

en català:

Un camp de recerca important dins del paradigma del Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) és la importància en la gestió eficaç de la informació d'esdeveniments generada durant l'activitat de l'aprenentatge col·laboratiu virtual, per a proporcionar coneixement sobre el comportament dels membres del grup. Aquesta visió és especialment pertinent en l'escenari educatiu actual que passa d'un paradigma tradicional - centrat en la figura d'un instructor magistral - a un paradigma emergent que considera els estudiants com actors centrals en el seu procés d'aprenentatge. En aquest nou escenari, els estudiants aprenen, amb l'ajuda de professors, la tecnologia i els altres estudiants, el que potencialment necessitaran per a desenvolupar les seves activitats acadèmiques o professionals futures.
Els principals aspectes a tenir en compte en aquest context són, primer de tot, com dissenyar una plataforma sota el paradigma del CSCL, que es pugui utilitzar en situacions reals d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu complexe i a llarg termini, basades en el model d'aprenentatge de resolució de problemes. I que permet al professor una anàlisi del grup més eficaç així com donar el suport adequat als estudiants quan sigui necessari.
En segon lloc, com extreure coneixement pertinent de la col·laboració per donar consciència i retorn als estudiants a nivell individual i de rendiment del grup, així com per a propòsits d'avaluació.
L'assoliment d'aquests objectius impliquen el disseny d'un model conceptual d'interacció durant l'aprenentatge col·laboratiu que estructuri i classifiqui la informació generada en una aplicació col·laborativa en diferents nivells de descripció. A partir d'aquesta aproximació conceptual, els models computacionals hi donen resposta per a proporcionar una extracció eficaç del coneixement produït per l'individu i per l'activitat del grup, així com la possibilitat d'explotar aquest coneixement com una eina metacognitiva pel suport en temps real i regulat del procés d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu.
A més a més, les necessitats dels entorns CSCL han evolucionat en gran mesura durant els darrers anys d'acord amb uns requisits pedagògics i tecnològics cada cop més exigents. Els entorns d'aprenentatge col·laboratius virtuals ara ja no depenen de grups d'estudiants homogenis, continguts i recursos d'aprenentatge estàtics, ni pedagogies úniques, sinó que exigeixen una forta personalització i un alt grau de flexibilitat. En aquest nou escenari, les organitzacions educatives actuals necessiten estendre's i moure's cap a paradigmes d'ensenyament altament personalitzats, amb immediatesa i constantment, on cada paradigma incorpora el seu propi model pedagògic, el seu propi objectiu d'aprenentatge i incorpora els seus propis recursos educatius específics.
Les demandes de les organitzacions actuals també inclouen la integració efectiva, en termes de cost i temps, de sistemes d'aprenentatge llegats i externs, que pertanyen a altres institucions, departaments i cursos. Aquests sistemes llegats es troben implementats en llenguatges diferents, suportats per plataformes heterogènies i distribuïdes arreu, per anomenar alguns dels problemes més habituals. Tots aquests problemes representen certament un gran repte per la comunitat de recerca actual i futura. Per tant, els propers esforços han d'anar encarats a ajudar a desenvolupadors, recercaires, tecnòlegs i pedagogs a superar aquests exigents requeriments que es troben actualment en el domini del CSCL, així com proporcionar a les organitzacions educatives solucions ràpides i flexibles per a potenciar i millorar el rendiment i resultats de l'aprenentatge col·laboratiu. Aquesta tesi proposa un primer pas per aconseguir aquests objectius.
An important research topic in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is to explore the importance of efficient management of event information generated from group activity in collaborative learning practices for its further use in extracting and providing knowledge on interaction behavior.
The essential issue here is first how to design a CSCL platform that can be used for real, long-term, complex collaborative problem solving situations and which enables the instructor to both analyze group interaction effectively and provide an adequate support when needed. Secondly, how to extract relevant knowledge from collaboration in order to provide learners with efficient awareness and feedback as regards individual and group performance and assessment. The achievement of these tasks involve the design of a conceptual framework of collaborative learning interaction that structures and classifies the information generated in a collaborative application at several levels of description. Computational models are then to realize this conceptual approach for an efficient management of the knowledge produced by the individual and group activity as well as the possibility of exploiting this knowledge further as a metacognitive tool for real-time coaching and regulating the collaborative learning process.
In addition, CSCL needs have been evolving over the last years accordingly with more and more demanding pedagogical and technological requirements. On-line collaborative learning environments no longer depend on homogeneous groups, static content and resources, and single pedagogies, but high customization and flexibility are a must in this context. As a result, current educational organizations' needs involve extending and moving to highly customized learning and teaching forms in timely fashion, each incorporating its own pedagogical approach, each targeting a specific learning goal, and each incorporating its specific resources.
These entire issues certainly represent a great challenge for current and future research in this field. Therefore, further efforts need to be made that help developers, technologists and pedagogists overcome the demanding requirements currently found in the CSCL domain as well as provide modern educational organizations with fast, flexible and effective solutions for the enhancement and improvement of the collaborative learning performance and outcomes. This thesis proposes a first step toward these goals.

Índex foliat:
The main contribution in this thesis is the exploration of the importance of an efficient management of information generated from group activity in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) practices for its further use in extracting and providing knowledge on interaction behavior. To this end, the first step is to investigate a conceptual model for data analysis and management so as to identify the many kinds of indicators that describe collaboration and learning and classify them into high-level potential categories of effective collaboration. Indeed, there are more evident key discourse elements and aspects than those shown by the literature, which play an important role both for promoting student participation and enhancing group and individual performance, such as, the impact and effectiveness of students' contributions, among others, that are explored in this work. By making these elements explicit, the discussion model proposed accomplishes high students' participation rates and contribution quality in a more natural and effective way. This approach goes beyond a mere interaction analysis of asynchronous discussion in the sense that it builds a multi-functional model that fosters knowledge sharing and construction, develops a strong sense of community among students, provides tutors with a powerful tool for students' monitoring, discussion regulation, while it allows for peer facilitation through self, peer and group awareness and assessment.
The results of the research described so far motivates the development of a computational system as the translation from the conceptual model into a computer system that implements the management of the information and knowledge acquired from the group activity, so as to be efficiently fed back to the collaboration. The achievement of a generic, robust, flexible, interoperable, reusable computational model that meets the fundamental functional needs shared by any collaborative learning experience is largely investigated in this thesis. The systematic reuse of this computational model permits a fast adaptation to new learning and teaching requirements, such as learning by discussion, by relying on the most advanced software engineering processes and methodologies from the field of software reuse, and thus important benefits are expected in terms of productivity, quality, and cost.
Therefore, another important contribution is to explore and extend suitable software reuse techniques, such as Generic Programming, so as to allow the computational model to be successfully particularized in as many as situations as possible without losing efficiency in the process. In particular, based on domain analysis techniques, a high-level computational description and formalization of the CSCL domain are identified and modeled. Then, different specific-platform developments that realize the conceptual description are provided. It is also explored a certain level of automation by means of advanced techniques based on Service-Oriented Architectures and Web-services while passing from the conceptual specification to the desired realization, which greatly facilitates the development of CSCL applications using this computational model.
Based on the outcomes of these investigations, this thesis contributes with computational collaborative learning systems, which are capable of managing both qualitative and quantitative information and transforming it into useful knowledge for all the implicated parties in an efficient and clear way. This is achieved by both the specific assessment of each contribution by the tutor who supervises the discussion and by rich statistical information about student's participation. This statistical data is automatically provided by the system; for instance, statistical data sheds light on the students' engagement in the discussion forum or how much interest drew the student's intervention in the form of participation impact, level of passivity, proactivity, reactivity, and so on. The aim is to provide both a deeper understanding of the actual discussion process and a more objective assessment of individual and group activity.
This information is then processed and analyzed by means of a multivariate statistical model in order to extract useful knowledge about the collaboration. The knowledge acquired is communicated back to the members of the learning group and their tutor in appropriate formats, thus providing valuable awareness and feedback of group interaction and performance as well as may help identify and assess the real skills and intentions of participants. The most important benefit expected from the conceptual model for interaction data analysis and management is a great improvement and enhancement of the learning and teaching collaborative experiences.
Finally, the possibilities of using distributed and Grid technology to support real CSCL environments are also extensively explored in this thesis. The results of this investigation lead to conclude that the features provided by these technologies form an ideal context for supporting and meeting demanding requirements of collaborative learning applications. This approach is taken one step further for enhancing the possibilities of the computational model in the CSCL domain and it is successfully adopted on an empirical and application basis. From the results achieved, it is proved the feasibility of distributed technologies to considerably enhance and improve the collaborative learning experience. In particular, the use of Grid computing is successfully applied for the specific purpose of increasing the efficiency of processing a large amount of information from group activity log files.