@article{ReinRamsonLinckeetal.2017, author = {Rein, Patrick and Ramson, Stefan and Lincke, Jens and Felgentreff, Tim and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Group-Based Behavior Adaptation Mechanisms in Object-Oriented Systems}, series = {IEEE software}, volume = {34}, journal = {IEEE software}, number = {6}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Los Alamitos}, issn = {0740-7459}, doi = {10.1109/MS.2017.4121224}, pages = {78 -- 82}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Dynamic and distributed systems require behavior adaptations for groups of objects. Group-based behavior adaptation mechanisms scope adaptations to objects matching conditions beyond class membership. The specification of groups can be explicit or implicit.}, language = {en} } @article{PerscheidSiegmundTaeumeletal.2017, author = {Perscheid, Michael and Siegmund, Benjamin and Taeumel, Marcel and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Studying the advancement in debugging practice of professional software developers}, series = {Software Quality Journal}, volume = {25}, journal = {Software Quality Journal}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0963-9314}, doi = {10.1007/s11219-015-9294-2}, pages = {83 -- 110}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In 1997, Henry Lieberman stated that debugging is the dirty little secret of computer science. Since then, several promising debugging technologies have been developed such as back-in-time debuggers and automatic fault localization methods. However, the last study about the state-of-the-art in debugging is still more than 15 years old and so it is not clear whether these new approaches have been applied in practice or not. For that reason, we investigate the current state of debugging in a comprehensive study. First, we review the available literature and learn about current approaches and study results. Second, we observe several professional developers while debugging and interview them about their experiences. Third, we create a questionnaire that serves as the basis for a larger online debugging survey. Based on these results, we present new insights into debugging practice that help to suggest new directions for future research.}, language = {en} } @article{FelgentreffPerscheidHirschfeld2017, author = {Felgentreff, Tim and Perscheid, Michael and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Implementing record and refinement for debugging timing-dependent communication}, series = {Science of computer programming}, volume = {134}, journal = {Science of computer programming}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0167-6423}, doi = {10.1016/j.scico.2015.11.006}, pages = {4 -- 18}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Distributed applications are hard to debug because timing-dependent network communication is a source of non-deterministic behavior. Current approaches to debug non deterministic failures include post-mortem debugging as well as record and replay. However, the first impairs system performance to gather data, whereas the latter requires developers to understand the timing-dependent communication at a lower level of abstraction than they develop at. Furthermore, both approaches require intrusive core library modifications to gather data from live systems. In this paper, we present the Peek-At-Talk debugger for investigating non-deterministic failures with low overhead in a systematic, top-down method, with a particular focus on tool-building issues in the following areas: First, we show how our debugging framework Path Tools guides developers from failures to their root causes and gathers run-time data with low overhead. Second, we present Peek-At-Talk, an extension to our Path Tools framework to record non-deterministic communication and refine behavioral data that connects source code with network events. Finally, we scope changes to the core library to record network communication without impacting other network applications.}, language = {en} } @article{ReinTaeumelHirschfeld2017, author = {Rein, Patrick and Taeumel, Marcel and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Making the domain tangible}, series = {Design Thinking Research}, journal = {Design Thinking Research}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-3-319-60967-6}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-60967-6_9}, pages = {171 -- 194}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Programmers collaborate continuously with domain experts to explore the problem space and to shape a solution that fits the users' needs. In doing so, all parties develop a shared vocabulary, which is above all a list of named concepts and their relationships to each other. Nowadays, many programmers favor object-oriented programming because it allows them to directly represent real-world concepts and interactions from the vocabulary as code. However, when existing domain data is not yet represented as objects, it becomes a challenge to initially bring existing domain data into object-oriented systems and to keep the source code readable. While source code might be comprehensible to programmers, domain experts can struggle, given their non-programming background. We present a new approach to provide a mapping of existing data sources into the object-oriented programming environment. We support keeping the code of the domain model compact and readable while adding implicit means to access external information as internal domain objects. This should encourage programmers to explore different ways to build the software system quickly. Eventually, our approach fosters communication with the domain experts, especially at the beginning of a project. When the details in the problem space are not yet clear, the source code provides a valuable, tangible communication artifact.}, language = {en} } @article{PapeBolzHirschfeld2017, author = {Pape, Tobias and Bolz, Carl Friedrich and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Adaptive just-in-time value class optimization for lowering memory consumption and improving execution time performance}, series = {Science of computer programming}, volume = {140}, journal = {Science of computer programming}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0167-6423}, doi = {10.1016/j.scico.2016.08.003}, pages = {17 -- 29}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The performance of value classes is highly dependent on how they are represented in the virtual machine. Value class instances are immutable, have no identity, and can only refer to other value objects or primitive values and since they should be very lightweight and fast, it is important to optimize them carefully. In this paper we present a technique to detect and compress common patterns of value class usage to improve memory usage and performance. The technique identifies patterns of frequent value object references and introduces abbreviated forms for them. This allows to store multiple inter-referenced value objects in an inlined memory representation, reducing the overhead stemming from meta data and object references. Applied to a small prototype and an implementation of the Racket language, we found improvements in memory usage and execution time for several micro-benchmarks. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @book{NiephausFelgentreffHirschfeld2017, author = {Niephaus, Fabio and Felgentreff, Tim and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Squimera}, number = {120}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-422-7}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-40338}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-403387}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {92}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Programmierwerkzeuge, die verschiedene Programmiersprachen unterst{\"u}tzen und sich konsistent bedienen lassen, sind hilfreich f{\"u}r Softwareentwickler, weil diese sich nicht erst mit neuen Werkzeugen vertraut machen m{\"u}ssen, wenn sie in einer neuen Sprache entwickeln wollen. Außerdem ist es n{\"u}tzlich, verschiedene Programmiersprachen in einer Anwendung kombinieren zu k{\"o}nnen, da Entwickler dann Softwareframeworks und -bibliotheken nicht in der jeweiligen Sprache nachbauen m{\"u}ssen und stattdessen bestehende Software wiederverwenden k{\"o}nnen. Dennoch haben Entwickler eine sehr große Auswahl, wenn sie nach Werkzeugen suchen, die teilweise zudem speziell nur f{\"u}r eine Sprache ausgelegt sind. Einige integrierte Entwicklungsumgebungen unterst{\"u}tzen verschiedene Programmiersprachen, k{\"o}nnen aber h{\"a}ufig keine konsistente Bedienung ihrer Werkzeuge gew{\"a}hrleisten, da die jeweiligen Ausf{\"u}hrungsumgebungen der Sprachen zu verschieden sind. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus gibt es bereits Mechansimen, die es erlauben, Programme aus anderen Sprachen in einem Programm wiederzuverwenden. Dazu werden h{\"a}ufig das Betriebssystem oder eine Netzwerkverbindung verwendet. Programmierwerkzeuge unterst{\"u}tzen jedoch h{\"a}ufig eine solche Indirektion nicht und sind deshalb nur eingeschr{\"a}nkt nutzbar bei beispielsweise Debugging Szenarien. In dieser Arbeit stellen wir einen neuartigen Ansatz vor, der das Programmiererlebnis in Bezug auf das Arbeiten mit mehreren dynamischen Programmiersprachen verbessern soll. Dazu verwenden wir die Werkzeuge einer Smalltalk Programmierumgebung wieder und entwickeln eine virtuelle Ausf{\"u}hrungsumgebung, die verschiedene Sprachen gleichermaßen unterst{\"u}tzt. Der auf unserem Ansatz basierende Prototyp Squimera demonstriert, dass es m{\"o}glich ist, Programmierwerkzeuge in der Art wiederzuverwenden, sodass sie sich f{\"u}r verschiedene Programmiersprachen gleich verhalten und somit die Arbeit f{\"u}r Entwickler vereinfachen. Außerdem erm{\"o}glicht Squimera einfaches Wiederverwenden und dar{\"u}ber hinaus das Verschmischen von in unterschiedlichen Sprachen geschriebenen Softwarebibliotheken und -frameworks und erlaubt dabei zus{\"a}tzlich Debugging {\"u}ber mehrere Sprachen hinweg.}, language = {en} } @book{WeyandChromikWolfetal.2017, author = {Weyand, Christopher and Chromik, Jonas and Wolf, Lennard and K{\"o}tte, Steffen and Haase, Konstantin and Felgentreff, Tim and Lincke, Jens and Hirschfeld, Robert}, title = {Improving hosted continuous integration services}, number = {108}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-377-0}, issn = {1613-5652}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-94251}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 114}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Developing large software projects is a complicated task and can be demanding for developers. Continuous integration is common practice for reducing complexity. By integrating and testing changes often, changesets are kept small and therefore easily comprehensible. Travis CI is a service that offers continuous integration and continuous deployment in the cloud. Software projects are build, tested, and deployed using the Travis CI infrastructure without interrupting the development process. This report describes how Travis CI works, presents how time-driven, periodic building is implemented as well as how CI data visualization can be done, and proposes a way of dealing with dependency problems.}, language = {en} }