Felipe I. Anfurrutia

On refining XML artifacts

Step-wise refinement is a powerful paradigm for developing a complex program from a simple program by adding features incrementally where each feature is an increment in program functionality. Existing works focus on object-oriented representations such as Java or C++ artifacts. For this paradigm to be brought to the Web, refinement should be realised for XML representations. This paper elaborates on the notion of XML refinement by addressing what and how XML can be refined. These ideas are realised in the XAK language. A Struts application serves to illustrate the approach.

Supporting production strategies as refinements of the production process

The promotion of a clear separation between artifact construction and artifact assembling is one of the hallmarks of software product lines. This work rests on the assumption that the mechanisms for producing products considerably quicker, cheaper or at a higher quality, rest not only on the artifacts but on the assembling process itself. This leads to promoting production processes as “first-class artifacts”, and as such, liable to vary to accommodate distinct features. Production process variability and its role to support either production features or production strategies are analyzed. As prove of concept, the AHEAD Tool Suite is used to support a sample application where features require variations on the production process.

Using DITA for documenting software product lines

Aligning the software process and the documentation process is a recipe for having both software and documentation in synchrony where changes in software seamlessly ripple along its documentation counterpart. This paper focuses on documentation for Software Product Lines (SPLs). A SPL is not intended to build one application, but a number of them: a product family. In contrast to single-software product development, SPL development is based on the idea that the distinct products of the family share a significant amount of assets. This forces a change in the software process. Likewise, software documentation development should now mimic their code counterpart: product documentation should also be produced out of a common set of assets. Specifically, the paper shows how DITA process and documents are recasted using a feature-oriented approach, a realization mechanism for SPLs. In so doing, documentation artifacts are produced at the same pace and using similar variability mechanisms that those used for code artifacts. This accounts for three main advantages: uniformity, separation of concerns, and timely and accurate delivery of the documentation.

A product-line approach to database reporting

Reporting for analysis is a common demand to database programmers. Unlike dynamic data analysis, reporting tend to be foreseeable. Despite this fact, staff waste their time programming similar reports time and again, where reports are often built from scratch with little if any reuse at all. Based on the predictability and similarity among reports, this work presents a product-line approach to database reporting. The feature model, core assets and production plan of the product line are sketched, and the architecture discussed. The work was conducted under a main requirement: data warehouse technology was not available. Either the cost or the lack of appropriate staff makes small-and-medium companies reluctant to use these sophisticated tools while simple reporting is all they need. In this scenario, the product-line approach can be a cost-effective solution to achieve reuse.

Incorporating educational robots and visual programming environments in introductory programming courses

Introductory programming courses are very challenging both for students and teachers. Several authors propose incorporating either educational robots or visual programming environments as a means to ease learning of programming. This paper presents three experiences that use these kinds of tools with the aim of applying Kolbs experiential learning cycle. The experiences have been carried out in the first year courses of programming in the Bachelor in Computer Management and Information Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz in the UPV/EHU.

Visual Programming Environments for Object-Oriented Programming: Acceptance and Effects on Student Motivation

This paper presents an experiment in which visual programming environments have been used in programming courses aiming at helping students to acquire the competencies of a course on object-oriented programming. This paper is centered on the analysis of the acceptance by the students of this type of environment, as well as its effect on the motivation of the students. The results obtained show differences in their answers according to the two possible characteristics of the students analyzed: their gender and the fact of being or not a newcomer.