Emanoel Barreiros

Assessing Intra-application Exception Handling Reuse with Aspects

Recent studies have attempted to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of using aspect-oriented programming to modularize exception handling code. In spite of their many interesting findings, these studies have not reached a consensus when it comes to the impact of aspectization on exception handler reuse. In fact, their results are sometimes in direct contradiction.In this paper we describe a study aiming to answer the question of whether AOP really promotes the implementation of reusable exception handling. We analyze reuse in a specific context: in terms of the number of duplicated or very similar error handlers that can be removed from a program when extracting error handling code to aspects. Our study targets three industrial-strength, medium-size software systems from different domains and employs a comprehensive set of concern-specific metrics.

A Systematic Mapping Study on Software Engineering Testbeds

Even though empirical research has grown in interest, techniques, methodologies and best practices are still in debate. In this context, test beds are effective when one needs to evaluate and compare technologies. The concept is well disseminated in other areas such as Computer Networks, but remains poorly explored in Software Engineering (SE). This paper presents a systematic mapping study on the SE test beds literature. From the initial set of 4239 studies, 13 primary studies were selected and categorized. Based on that, we found that Software Architecture is the most investigated topic, controlled experiment is the most used method to evaluate such test beds, 20 benefits of using test beds in SE have been identified and that test beds comprise very heterogeneous structural elements.

Support mechanisms to conduct empirical studies in software engineering: a systematic mapping study

Context: Empirical studies are gaining recognition in the Software Engineering (SE) research community, allowing improved quality of research and accelerating the adoption of new technologies in the software market. However, empirical studies in this area are still limited. In order to foster empirical research in SE, it is essential to understand the resources available to aid these studies. Goal: Identify support mechanisms (methodology, tool, guideline, process, etc.) used to conduct empirical studies in the Empirical Software Engineering (ESE) community. Method: We performed a systematic mapping study that included all full papers published at EASE, ESEM and ESEJ since their first editions. Were selected 891 studies between 1996 and 2013. Results: A total of 375 support mechanisms were identified. We provide the full list of mechanisms and the strategies that uses them. Despite this, we identified a high number of studies that do not cite any mechanism to support their empirical strategies: 433 studies (48%). Experiment is the strategy that has more resources to support their activities. And guideline was the most used type of mechanism. Moreover we observed that the most mechanisms used as reference to empirical studies are not specific to SE area. And some mechanisms were used only in specific activities of empirical research, such as statistical and qualitative data analysis. Experiment and case studies are the strategies most applied. Conclusions: The use of empirical methods in SE has increased over the years. Despite this, many studies did not apply these methods and do not cite any resource to guide their research. Therefore, the list of support mechanisms, where and how they were applied is a major asset to the SE community. Such asset can encourage empirical studies aiding the choice regarding which strategies and mechanisms to use in a research, as well as pointing out examples where they were used, mainly to novice researchers. We also identified new perspectives and gaps that foster other research for the improvement of empirical research in this area.

Métodos, Técnicas e Ferramentas para o Desenvolvimento de Software Educacional: Um Mapeamento Sistemático.

The keynotes goal is to reflect on emergent opportunities for human Discovery (in science), Creativity (in art & industry), and Learning (in education) as processes often occurring serendipitously in individuals and in communities empowered by dynamic Web connections in the global village. These reflections seem to fit best with the mandate of the CBIE Conference: sustainable education.Este trabalho apresenta uma evolucao do assistente inteligente SAE para inferir e fornecer orientacao pedagogica coerente com varias metodologias educacionais, superando uma dificuldade tradicional para este tipo de software, alem de fornecer mais apoio ao ensino-aprendizagem personalizado.O artigo fundamenta-se nos resultados do processo de desenvolvimento de um ambiente web de aprendizagem, ja modelado em dissertacao de mestrado (CABRAL,2006). O sistema tem por objetivo facilitar o acompanhamento das atividades que envolvem a definicao e a elaboracao de pre-projetos de Trabalhos de Conclusao de Curso (TCC). Para atingir tal objetivo o sistema e baseado em uma camada de agentes inteligentes que atuam como colaboradores para execucao de todas as atividades necessarias ao desenvolvimento do TCC. Para que esses agentes atuem de forma satisfatoria no ambiente e necessario o estabelecimento de um processo de comunicacao que possibilite aos agentes agirem em um nivel conceitual mais proximo do ser humano. Dessa forma, este artigo expoe os resultados obtidos ao longo do desenvolvimento dos agentes computacioniais e seus mecanismos de comunicacao.Este artigo descreve o projeto de desenvolvimento de jogo educativo baseado em metodologias participativas, pelas quais estudantes da rede publica de ensino medio idealizam, projetam e desenvolvem prototipos de um jogo sobre Sistema Imunologico e virus da Dengue. O objetivo da pesquisa e verificar os impactos do processo sobre a aprendizagem dos estudantes.O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar resultados de estudo de um caso exploratorio, realizado junto aos alunos de uma Instituicao de Ensino Superior. Como resultados, foram levantados indicadores de avaliacao do Sistema de EaD e identificados problemas, segundo a percepcao dos alunos. A partir dos resultados destaca-se que a Universidade desconhece a metodologia ITIL® e que seria fundamental que fosse implantada uma estrategia do servico (fase inicial da ITIL®), conduzindo a melhoria continua do servico e da infra-estrutura da Universidade.O facil acesso as informacoes devido a difusao da internet possibilita o enriquecimento intelectual, mas por vezes acaba por ser um meio de usufruir do conhecimento de outrem sem mencionar seus creditos/direitos autorais, o que por fim acaba na configuracao do plagio. O plagio no meio academico e uma tarefa dificil de ser controlada, devido o grande numero de trabalhos que sao feitos por uma vasta quantidade de alunos e tambem pelo excesso de tarefas dos professores e pelo pouco tempo que conseguem dedicar para o controle da qualidade e autenticidade dos trabalhos. Com isso, e importante contar com softwares que auxiliem no processo de verificacao de indicios de plagio, desta maneira o presente trabalho vislumbra desenvolver uma nova ferramenta de analise de indicios de plagio bem como aprimorar o metodo DIP – Detector de Indicios de Plagio para auxiliar o docente na verificacao da autenticidade dos trabalhos.A Neuropedagogia promove o confronto sucessivo e simultâneo entre concepcoes tacitas, crencas e valores normativos com esquemas inovadores, criando um espaco entropico e poetico no âmbito da experiencia humana. A natureza da ciencia neuropedagogica exige um modelo fractal de construcao de mundo, sustentado pelo prazer da perplexidade. Busca-se a geratriz e as leis de formacao para atingir a unanimidade sobre o conceito de educacao de pessoas com alta dotacao humana, impossivel de se concretizar, sem o recurso das ideologias filosoficas, cientificas e tecnologias aliadas as eticas.In this talk I will elaborate on the development, implementation and evaluation of the use of online tools for learning, with special attention to games and gamification, sharing and collaboration.

Is Exception Handling a Reusable Aspect

A number of studies have evaluated the impact of modularizing the exception handling concern using aspect-oriented programming (AOP). Even though some of these studies have claimed that reuse through AOP is possible and advantageous in some cases, they have not focused specifically on reuse, often using the overall number of lines of code as a proxy for it. This has produced often contradictory results that are difficult to understand and extrapolate. In this paper we describe a study whose goal is to answer the question in the title of the paper. We have extracted exception handlers from 10 distinct applications to AspectJ aspects and, whenever possible, reused the handlers that were duplicated throughout each application. We have also collected a number of metrics from these systems and analyzed whether there is a relationship between the exception handling strategies that an application employs and the extent to which handlers implementing them are reusable. We discuss some scenarios and complicating factors related to reuse and present solutions that we have found to circumvent these complications. We also analyze limitations of current AspectJ constructs.

Trends in empirical research: the report on the 2014 Doctoral Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering

The 12th Doctoral Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (IDOESE), was organized as a full day event prior to the ACM / IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) program. Seven PhD candidates came from different research institutes across the globe to present their research proposals at the symposium. The symposium was run in a lively and interactive manner. The candidates received constructive feedback on their proposals from all the symposium participants. In this report, we describe the presented proposals, focusing on the content and feedback. Through them, we can take a peek at the trends and emerging areas of empirical software engineering research.