Damith C. Rajapakse

Beyond templates: a study of clones in the STL and some general implications

Templates (or generics) help us write compact, generic code, which aids both reuse and maintenance. The STL is a powerful example of how templates help achieve these goals. Still, our study of the STL revealed substantial, and in our opinion, counter-productive repetitions (so-called clones) across groups of similar class or function templates. Clones occurred, as variations across these similar program structures were irregular and could not be unified by suitable template parameters in a natural way. We encountered similar problems in other class libraries as well as in application programs, written in a range of programming languages. In the paper, we present quantitative and qualitative results from our study. We argue that the difficulties we encountered affect programs in general. We present a solution that can treat such template-unfriendly cases of redundancies at the meta-level, complementing and extending the power of language features, such as templates, in areas of generic programming.

An investigation of cloning in web applications

Cloning (ad hoc reuse by duplication of design or code) speeds up development, but also hinders future maintenance. Cloning also hints at reuse opportunities that, if exploited systematically, might have positive impact on development and maintenance productivity. Unstable requirements and tight schedules pose unique challenges for Web Application engineering that encourage cloning. We are conducting a systematic study of cloning in Web Applications of different sizes, developed using a range of Web technologies, and serving diverse purposes. Our initial results show cloning rates up to 63% in both newly developed and already maintained Web Applications. Expected contribution of this work is two-fold: (1) to confirm potential benefits of reuse-based methods in addressing clone related problems of Web engineering, and (2) to create a framework of metrics and presentation views to be used in other similar studies.

A need-oriented assessment of technological trends in web engineering

As Web technologies change and multiply fast, their comprehension, assessment, selection and adoption are likely to be increasingly difficult, accidental and sub-optimal. Most often, needs are both important elements in technology assessment/selection and drivers of technology proliferation and evolution. We believe a need-oriented organization of Web technologies, as presented in this paper, is a useful starting point for comprehending the multitude of existing and emerging Web technologies from an essential and stable perspective. We identify important technological needs in relation to a reference architecture for Web Applications, and show how different technological trends address each need. We hope the paper will be of interest to those who want to get a grasp of the Web technology landscape and understand major trends.

Teammates: A cloud-based peer evaluation tool for student team projects

Summary form only given. • Part 1 — Fundamental of Electric Machines • Physics of Electric Machines • Basic EquaMons • DC Machine Modeling • Induction Machine Modeling • PMAC Machine Modeling

Perceptions and practice of peer assessments: an empirical investigation

Purpose This study checks the veracity of educators’ apprehensions about peer assessments by comparing them with the actual peer assessment scores. It also explores the levels of satisfaction and current usage of peer assessment tools among educators. Design/methodology/approach The first phase of this study aims at providing insights into the educators’ apprehensions, their satisfaction and usage levels of peer assessments. The second phase involves analysis of peer assessment scores of 539 students in 117 teams. Findings from statistical analysis of peer assessment scores are compared against the apprehensions of educators. Findings The results do not support the apprehensions among educators about peer assessments. Findings on the usage, satisfaction levels of educators, and their future intentions of using peer assessments are also presented in this paper. Research limitations/implications Studies with larger sample size, qualitative in-depth research on experiences, designs and conditions of successf...

Some observations from releasing student projects to the public

Software engineering educators often struggle to strike a balance between making the project “real” so that students can learn in a realistic context and using an “imaginary” project tweaked to optimize learning goals of the module. This paper describes our observations when we tried to make an established software engineering project module more realistic by introducing to it a public release of the software built by students. For various aspects of the module, we describe risks we had anticipated, measures we had applied to mitigate those risks, unanticipated challenges that emerged during the module, possible measures that we think can counter those additional challenges, and other positive and negative points of interest that we observed during the module. We hope that this paper will help other educators who plan to incorporate a public release to their project modules.