Debugging mixed‐environment programs with Blink

Programmers build large‐scale systems with multiple languages to leverage legacy code and languages best suited to their problems. For instance, the same program may use Java for ease of programming and C to interface with the operating system. These programs pose significant debugging challenges, because programmers need to understand and control code across languages, which often execute in different environments. Unfortunately, traditional multilingual debuggers require a single execution environment. This paper presents a novel composition approach to building portable mixed‐environment debuggers, in which an intermediate agent interposes on language transitions, controlling and reusing single‐environment debuggers. We implement debugger composition in Blink, a debugger for Java, C, and the Jeannie programming language. We show that Blink is (i) simple: it requires modest amounts of new code; (ii) portable: it supports multiple Java virtual machines, C compilers, operating systems, and component debuggers; and (iii) powerful: composition eases debugging, while supporting new mixed‐language expression evaluation and Java native interface bug diagnostics. To demonstrate the generality of interposition, we build prototypes and demonstrate debugger language transitions with C for five of six other languages (Caml, Common Lisp, C#, Perl 5, Python, and Ruby) without modifications to their debuggers. Using real‐world case studies, we show that diagnosing language interface errors require prior single‐environment debuggers to restart execution multiple times, whereas Blink directly diagnoses them with one execution. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of computer‐based instruction on the development of EFL learners' writing skills

The current study investigated the application and effectiveness of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in teaching academic writing to Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners by means of Microsoft Word Office. To this end, 44 sophomore intermediate university students majoring in English Language and Literature at an Iranian university who had enrolled in a course called Advanced Writing were randomly divided into two groups. As a pre‐test, a pen‐and‐paper writing task was given to both groups at the beginning of the semester. The control group including 24 male and female students was taught based on traditional approach while the experimental group including 20 male and female students was taught based on CALL. At the end of one semester, a pen‐and‐paper writing task was given to both groups. The results of the post‐test revealed that the students who were exposed to computer‐based instruction outperformed their counterparts in terms of using appropriate articles, tense, plural forms and spelling. Moreover, the students in the experimental group produced paragraphs of higher quality. The findings of this study confirmed the efficacy of computer‐based instruction in the development of EFL learners' writing skills.     

Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation,social comparison,satisfaction, effort,and academic performance

Gamification, the application of game elements to non-game settings, continues to grow in popularity as a method to increase student engagement in the classroom. We tested students across two courses, measuring their motivation, social comparison, effort, satisfaction, learner empowerment, and academic performance at four points during a 16-week semester. One course received a gamified curriculum, featuring a leaderboard and badges, whereas the other course received the same curriculum without the gamified elements. Our results found that students in the gamified course showed less motivation, satisfaction, and empowerment over time than those in the non-gamified class. The effect of course type on students' final exam scores was mediated by students' levels of intrinsic motivation, with students in the gamified course showing less motivation and lower final exam scores than the non-gamified class. This suggests that some care should be taken when applying certain gamification mechanics to educational settings.     

基于藏语字性标注的词性预测研究

该文选取了藏语文中小学教材的部分语料,构建了带有藏语字性标记、词边界标记和词性标记的语料库,通过比较不同的分词、标注方法,证明分词、词性标注一体化效果比分步进行的效果好,准确率、召回率和F值分别提高了0.067、0.073和0.07。但词级标注模型难以解决词边界划分的一致性和未登录词的问题。基于此,作者提出可以利用字性和字构词的规律预测合成词的词性,既可以融入语言学知识又可以减少由未登录词导致的标注错误,实验结果证明,作为词性标注的后处理模块,基于字性标注的词性预测准确率提高到了0.916,这个结果已经比分词标注一体化结果好,说明字性标注对纠正词性错误标注有明显的效果。
     

特征主成分算法再探

对作者之前设计的求语言特征主成分的“距离法”做了深度解析,指出了“距离法”在应用过程中,切分成两个集合的“断点”会影响计算结果的精度。借助聚类分析的思想重新设计了语言特征主成分算法——“聚类法”来弥补“距离法”的缺陷。最后指出两个方法的缺陷可以相互弥补,在实际应用中应结合使用。     

有关C语言教学方法优化的探讨

C语言程序设计是一门重要的课程,却难学难教。教学方法优化十分必要。教学方法优化应从激发学生兴趣入手,采用循序渐进的方式,着重培养学生举一反三的编程能力,引导学生写出高质量的程序,并丰富考核方式。     

计算机编程语言与输入设备的发展问题初探

现代化建设事业的发展离不开计算机水平的提高。计算机编程语言作为人与机器沟通的桥梁,在计算机系统里有着非常重要的地位。本文从探讨计算机编程语言的概念出发,详细阐述了计算机编程语言所包含的内容和基本分类。接着笔者又深入分析了计算机输入设备的发展问题。最后,针对计算机编程语言和输入之间的联系问题,笔者做了观点性和理论性的论述分析。     

Understanding user intent on the web through interaction mining

Predicting the goals of internet users can be extremely useful in e-commerce, online entertainment, and many other internet-based applications. One of the crucial steps to achieve this is to classify internet queries based on available features, such as contextual information, keywords and their semantic relationships. Beyond these methods, in this paper we propose to mine user interaction activities to predict the intent of the user during a navigation session. However, since in practice it is necessary to use a suitable mix of all such methods, it is important to exploit all the mentioned features in order to properly classify users based on their common intents. To this end, we have performed several experiments aiming to empirically derive a suitable classifier based on the mentioned features.     

A Proposal for Implementing Multi-User Data Base (MUD) Technology in and Academic Library

Multi-user Data base (MUD) technology, and its object-oriented descendant (MOO), is one of the most exciting tools to surface on the Internet, and offers libraries and librarians a unique opportunity to participate in creating user-friendly standardized interfaces to many of our most frequently used resources. These resources include those we access through the Internet already, using gopher, telnet, WWW, and FTP, and also those proprietary databases that we currently access through leased lines such as OCLC First Search, Prism, DIALOG, and many others. MOO technology is already being used successfully to create user-extensible collaborative professional environments for educators, astronomers, and computer network systems administrators. With the growing relevance of the Internet for libraries and other information professionals, it behooves the library community to engage those emerging technologies which will aloow us to interface most effectively with the Internet and its many resources, with the proprietary databases which we depend on, and with one another.