Constructing component-based software engineering environments: issues and experiences

Developing software engineering tools is a difficult task, and the environments in which these tools are deployed continually evolve as software developers’ processes, tools and tool sets evolve. To more effectively develop such evolvable environments, we have been using component-based approaches to build and integrate a range of software development tools, including CASE and workflow tools, file servers and versioning systems, and a variety of reusable software agents. We describe the rationale for a component-based approach to developing such tools, the architecture and support tools we have used some resultant tools and tool facilities we have developed, and summarise the possible future research directions in this area.     

CASE: analysis and design tools

Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are defined, and ten CASE tools are briefly overviewed. Individual presentations on the various tools follow. The focus is on structured analysis, design, and programming. Two of the tools (Cradle and JSP Workbench) are implementations of the Yourdon and Jackson methods for structured analysis, structured design, and programming; three tools (Time Bench, Card Tools, and Prosa) are for real-time systems development; four (Excelerator, Adagen, Smart System, and Software Through Pictures) are general-purpose front-end CASE tools and one (Virtual Software Factory) is a CASE tool for building CASE tools     

基于动态插桩的程序分析工具的性能改进

基于动态插桩的工具被广泛应用于程序分析中, 但该类工具都面临着严重的性能问题。这类工具的性能开销主要由两部分组成, 即插桩引擎的开销和用户定义的分析程序的开销。为降低用户定义的分析工具的开销, 首先分析了基于动态插桩的工具的性能开销的组成, 并通过实验分析了造成性能开销的几点原因及其对工具的性能影响; 根据分析结论提出了使用离线分析方式来优化工具性能, 最后通过并行数据收集来进一步提升工具性能。使用该方法能减少分析程序5%～15%的CPU占用时间。     

基于排队论的维修工具配置模型研究

将排队论引入装备维修工具配置过程,建立了维修工具排队系统的模型,提出了专用类维修工具和通用类维修工具的配置模型.通过实例进行分析,得出定量的分析比较结果,为维修工具的合理配置提供了理论依据.从定量的角度分析了维修工具的保障度问题,从而进一步提高装备维修工具的保障效率.     

自动化工具对中国DevOps实践的影响

DevOps作为一次软件工程领域的变革,近10年迅速发展的原因是多方面的.关注了中国DevOps的发展历程中自动化工具带来的实际影响以及自动化工具产生的一系列问题.使用系统化文献评价获取了目前DevOps实践中被研究者分析最多的自动化支持工具,从50篇文献中识别出包括Docker、Chef、Jenkins和Puppet等69个自动化工具;然后通过灰色文献评价从一些中文博客文章中分析出自动化工具在中国DevOps实践中出现的3个层次的问题;最后通过民族志访谈方法分析了在中国环境下各方对待3个层次问题的看法和建议,得出自动化工具对中国DevOps实践的两个影响：（1）自动化工具在DevOps实践的前期作用明显,可以认为DevOps实践就是使用自动化工具;（2）软件组织实现DevOps转型以后需要减少对自动化工具的依赖,形成自己的DevOps文化.对于自动化工具在中国DevOps实践中产生的问题,整合访谈内容后形成了解决问题的3个建议,并给出了一个转型范例.     

Tools for exploratory learning: A research programme*

Abstract The programme will examine the role of tools in exploratory learning through a series of extended-time studies with children between the ages of 10 and 16. To do this it will modify and/or extend existing software tools and develop new tools where necessary. Exploratory tools allow learners to investigate models of a given domain which are different from theirs and so examine consequences and conflicts. Expressive tools give children the opportunity to express their own models about reality and so learn through representing, exploring and reflecting on the consequences of these. These are different and complementary modes of learning. Further distinctions are made between quantitative, qualitative and semi-quantitative tools for both exploratory and expressive tools. Two main curriculum areas are selected: Technology and the Humanities.     

Bad and good news about using software assurance tools

Software assurance tools – tools that scan the source or binary code of a program to find weaknesses – are the first line of defense in assessing the security of a software project. Even though there are a plethora of such tools available, with multiple tools for almost every programming language, adoption of these tools is spotty at best. And even though different tools have distinct abilities to find different kinds of weaknesses, the use of multiple tools is even less common. And when the tools are used (or attempted to be used), they are often used in ways that reduce their effectiveness. We present a step‐by‐step discussion of how to use a software assurance tool, describing the challenges that can occur in this process. We also present quantitative evidence about the effects that can occur when assurance tools are applied in a simplistic or naive way. We base this presentation on our direct experiences with using a wide variety of assurance tools. We then present the US Department of Homeland Security funded Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP), an open facility where users can upload their software to have it automatically and continually assessed by a variety of tools. The goal of the SWAMP is to simplify the task of the programmer in using assurance tools, thereby removing many of the obstacles to their adoption. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Software: Practice and Experience Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Integration of TRIZ with Other Ideation Tools and Processes as well as with Psychological Assessment Tools

When TRIZ is introduced into an organization setting, it invariably encounters a host of processes and tools already in place. These can include enterprise tools such as Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), QFD and Lean Manufacturing. It is fairly easy to combine TRIZ problem‐solving and technological forecasting with these processes and tools, because most of these enterprise tools are problem‐identifying processes that couple easily with the strong problem‐solving capabilities of TRIZ. What is more difficult is to integrate TRIZ thinking with other psychologically based creativity and assessment tools. Users and trainers for these various tools tend to be very protective about each process and do not spend sufficient time thinking about ways to integrate the best of all tools. Organizations also frequently use psychological assessment tools to assist employees in career development, but they are seldom used in a proactive way to improve group problem‐solving. These assessments can be used proactively within the use and implementation of TRIZ. This paper will review suggested ways to effectively integrate TRIZ innovation and problem‐solving principles with these other tools.     

Touch and design: novel haptic interfaces for the generation of high quality surfaces for industrial design

This paper presents the results of a research project aimed at developing haptic tools for virtual shape modelling resembling real tools like rakes and sandpaper used by modelers and designers in the real workshop. The developed system consists of a CAD (computer aided design) system enhanced with intuitive designer-oriented interaction tools and modalities. The system requirements have been defined on the basis of the observation of designers during their daily work, and translating the way they model shapes using hands and craft tools into specifications for the modelling system based on haptic tools.     

Testing tools combine best of new and old

Today, new testing tools are giving life to old ones by providing reliable input to and automatically evaluating the output from old tools. Old and new tools are working together to cover the entire testing process. This article explains how old testing tools work with new ones in each phase of the life cycle     

异步电路的计算机辅助设计软件

异步电路由于没有时钟频率的限制,所以较同步电路有很多优点,其研究也越来越广泛,是未来解决计算机CPU设计的一种重要方案。异步电路的计算机辅助设计软件代表了异步电路当前研究的前沿,通过研究这些软件可以对异步电路的模型有更为深入的认识。论文整理列举了有关异步电路的63种软件工具,并将其分为设计、仿真、相关设计工具、前端设计、综合和验证6个方面。最后,在这些软件中选取两种设计软件对一个简单的例子进行了设计实现,以体现异步电路的设计特点。     

A decision support system model in estimating budgets for standard figure tools at Mattel Toys

Mattel Toys is a leading toy manufacturing company and Barbie is one of Mattel's major product lines. Mattel develops several variations of the toy every year which requires many duplicate tools for standard figure parts and tools for parts similar to the standard parts. The tooling engineer estimates the type of tools and the number of tools to be built to support a given production rate. This estimate, represented in a tool plan is carried out manually, giving rise to inaccuracies. A decision support system was developed to estimate the number of duplicate tools as well as the budgets to build these tools. The decision support system was checked for accuracy by conducting a case study.     

基于本体的并发错误测试工具推荐方法研究

随着并发系统测试关注度的日益提高,越来越多的并发系统测试工具不断出现。对于测试人员来说,能否正确选取并发系统测试工具也就成为了并发测试效率的决定因素之一。鉴于并发错误检测软件并不像传统测试软件那样被人们所熟知,提出一种基于本体设计的并发错误测试工具推荐方法。该方法分别根据并发错误类型、程序本身特征和用户具体需求推荐适合的并发错误测试工具,从而提高测试的效率。     

Digital technologies and artificial intelligence’s present and foreseeable impact on lawyering,judging, policing and law enforcement

‘AI & Law’ research has been around since the 1970s, even though with shifting emphasis. This is an overview of the contributions of digital technologies, both artificial intelligence and non-AI smart tools, to both the legal professions and the police. For example, we briefly consider text mining and case-automated summarization, tools supporting argumentation, tools concerning sentencing based on the technique of case-based reasoning, the role of abductive reasoning, research into applying AI to legal evidence, tools for fighting crime and tools for identification.     

Competence and impact of tools for BPR

Software tools for Business Process Reengineering (BPR) promise to reduce cost and improve quality of projects. This paper discusses the contribution of BPR tools in BPR projects and identifies critical factors for their success. A model was built based on previous research on tool success. The analysis of empirical data shows that BPR tools are related to effectiveness rather than efficiency of the projects. Process visualization and process analysis features are key to BPR tool competence. Also success factors for BPR tools are different from those for CASE tools.     

端到端路径容量测量工具性能分析

分析已有路径容量测量工具的性能对工具选择及改进有重要意义。本文定义了评价工具性能的指标集,在自行搭建的可控网络环境和可重复的多种背景流量条件下,对几种典型的测量工具性能进行评估分析。发现pathchar、clink等基于VPS技术的工具测量误差较大;pathrate准确性虽较高,但测量开销大。而大背景流量下现有工具的准确性、测量开销等都不理想。本文工作为工具选择提供了依据,并为工具的进一步改善提供了方向。     

软件可靠性评估工具

软件可靠性评估工具是软件可靠性工程中的重要分析手段,大大地简化了可靠性度量及模型比较的繁复工作。文章综述和分析了目前国外市场上几种广泛应用的软件可靠性评估工具;对每一种工具作出简述,在对这些工具作比较分析的基础上给出了选择工具的一般性原则。