Javarifier: Inferring Reference Immutability for Java
Reference immutability constraints restrict certain references in a program from modifying object... more Reference immutability constraints restrict certain references in a program from modifying objects. These constraints, such as those provided by the Javari programming language, have been shown to increase the expressiveness of a language and to prevent and detect errors. Unfortunately, annotating existing code, including libraries, with reference immutabil- ity constraints is a tedious and error prone task. We propose an algorithm for inferring the references in a pro- gram that can be declared as read-only (or romaybe). Addi- tionally, to gain additional precision, we introduce heuristics that suggest assignable and mutable fields. To evaluate our algorithm, we have implemented a tool, Javarifier, to aid programmers in converting Java programs to Javari. We also demonstrate the practicality of our algo- rithm by using Javarifier to annotate an existing program.
An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are... more An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are extracted from the code by a conventional static analysis, and shown in a tabular form known as the 'Dependency Structure Matrix' (DSM). A variety of algorithms are available to help organize the matrix in a form that reflects the architecture and highlights patterns and problematic dependencies. A hierarchical structure obtained in part by such algorithms, and in part by input from the user, then becomes the basis for 'design rules' that capture the architect's intent about which dependencies are acceptable. The design rules are applied repeatedly as the system evolves, to identify violations, and keep the code and its architecture in conformance with one another. The analysis has been implemented in a tool called LDM which has been applied in several commercial projects; in this paper, a case study application to Haystack, an information retrieval system, is described.
An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are... more An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are extracted from the code by a conventional static analysis, and shown in a tabular form known as the 'Dependency Structure Matrix' (DSM). A variety of algorithms are available to help organize the matrix in a form that reflects the architecture and highlights patterns and problematic dependencies. A hierarchical structure obtained in part by such algorithms, and in part by input from the user, then becomes the basis for 'design rules' that capture the architect's intent about which dependencies are acceptable. The design rules are applied repeatedly as the system evolves, to identify violations, and keep the code and its architecture in conformance with one another. The analysis has been implemented in a tool called LDM which has been applied in several commercial projects; in this paper, a case study application to Haystack, an information retrieval system, is described.
Using dependency models to manage software architecture
This demonstration will present a new approach, based on the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM), w... more This demonstration will present a new approach, based on the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM), which uses inter-module dependencies to specify and manage the architecture of software systems. The system is decomposed into a hierarchy of subsystems with the dependencies between the subsystems presented in the form of an adjacency matrix. The matrix representation is concise, intuitive and appears to overcome
As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for ... more As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for developers to understand unfamiliar large codebases is rapidly increasing. In this paper, we present a tool, Relo, that supports developers' understanding by allowing interactive exploration of code. As the developer explores relationships found in the code, Relo builds and automatically manages the context in a visualization, thereby helping build the developer's mental representation of the code. Developers can group viewed artifacts or use the viewed items to ask Relo for further exploration suggestions. Relo is built as an Eclipse plug-in integrated into the Java Tooling (JDT), and uses a standard, RDF, based backend allowing for maintaining code relationships and performing inferences about the relationships.
Understanding code architectures via interactive exploration and layout of layered diagrams
Abstract Visualization tools that target helping developers understand software have typically ha... more Abstract Visualization tools that target helping developers understand software have typically had visual scalability limitations, requiring significant input before providing useful results. In contrast, we present Strata, which has been designed to actively help users by providing layered diagrams. The defaults used are based on the package structure, and user interactions can allow for overriding these defaults and focusing on relevant parts of the codebase.
We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible... more We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible (or lack of) schema allowing naive end users to record information in whatever form makes it easy for them to manage. We describe our Haystack system, which exposes the richness and flexibility of the data model while offering the user natural, traditional interfaces that shield them from the specifics of schemas, tuples, and database queries. We outline research challenges that remain to be addressed.
In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualization... more In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualizations. Since the diagrams produced by traditional sequence diagramming tools become large and unmanageable when dealing with complex code bases, Chrono focuses on removing less relevant information, condensing diagram components, and allowing for interactive exploration.
As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for ... more As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for developers to understand unfamiliar large codebases is rapidly increasing. In this demonstration, we present a tool, Relo that supports users' understanding by allowing interactive exploration of code. As the developer explores relationships found in the code, Relo builds and automatically manages a visualization mirroring the developer's mental model, allowing them to group viewed artifacts or use the viewed items to ask the system for further exploration suggestions.
The development of the RDF[2] standard highlights the fact that a great deal of useful informatio... more The development of the RDF[2] standard highlights the fact that a great deal of useful information is in the form of semistructured data-objects connected by relations fitting no rigorous schema. To make use of this information it is important to be able to search and browse semistructured data repositories. In this paper, we present a framework, system, and user interface supporting navigation in such repositories. The system is general purpose, involving no hard-coded assumptions about the structure of the repository. The focus is on providing users with helpful "next steps" leading them to the information they are seeking.
Despite recent advances in natural language question answering technology, the problem of designi... more Despite recent advances in natural language question answering technology, the problem of designing effective user interfaces has been largely unexplored. We conducted a user study to investigate the problem and discovered that overall, users prefer a paragraph-sized chunk of text over just an exact phrase as the answer to their questions. Furthermore, users generally prefer answers embedded in context, regardless of the perceived reliability of the source documents. When users research a topic, increasing the amount of text returned to users significantly decreases the number of queries that they pose to the system, suggesting that users utilize supporting text to answer related questions. We believe that these results can serve to guide future developments in question answering user interfaces.
The Resource Definition Framework (RDF) is designed to support agent communication on the Web, bu... more The Resource Definition Framework (RDF) is designed to support agent communication on the Web, but it is also suitable as a framework for modeling and storing personal information. Haystack is a personalized information repository that employs RDF in this manner. This flexible semistructured data model is appealing for several reasons. First, RDF supports ontologies created by the user and tailored to the user's needs. At the same time, system ontologies can be specified and evolved to support a variety of high-level functionalities such as flexible organization schemes, semantic querying, and collaboration. In addition, we show that RDF can be used to engineer a component architecture that gives rise to a semantically rich and uniform user interface. We demonstrate that by aggregating various types of users' data together in a homogeneous representation, we create opportunities for agents to make more informed deductions in automating tasks for users. Finally, we discuss the implementation of an RDF information store and a programming language specifically suited for manipulating RDF.
With the growing importance of systems containing arbitrary semistructured relationships, the nee... more With the growing importance of systems containing arbitrary semistructured relationships, the need for supporting users searching in such repositories has grown. Currently support for users' search needs either has required domain-specific user interfaces or has required users to be schema experts. We have developed a generalpurpose tool that offers users helpful navigation and refinement options for seeking information in these semistructured repositories. We show how a tool can be built without requiring domain-specific assumptions about the information being explored. In addition to describing a general approach to the problem, we provide a set of natural, general-purpose refinement tactics, many generalized from past work on textual information retrieval.
In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualization... more In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualizations. Since the diagrams produced by traditional sequence diagramming tools become large and unmanageable when dealing with complex code bases, Chrono focuses on removing less relevant information, condensing diagram components, and allowing for interactive exploration.
As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for ... more As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for developers to understand unfamiliar large codebases is rapidly increasing. In this demonstration, we present a tool, Relo that supports users' understanding by allowing interactive exploration of code. As the developer explores relationships found in the code, Relo builds and automatically manages a visualization mirroring the developer's mental model, allowing them to group viewed artifacts or use the viewed items to ask the system for further exploration suggestions.
We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible... more We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible (or lack of) schema allowing naive end users to record information in whatever form makes it easy for them to manage. We describe our Haystack system, which exposes the richness and flexibility of the data model while offering the user natural, traditional interfaces that shield them from the specifics of schemas, tuples, and database queries. We outline research challenges that remain to be addressed.
Javarifier: Inferring Reference Immutability for Java
Reference immutability constraints restrict certain references in a program from modifying object... more Reference immutability constraints restrict certain references in a program from modifying objects. These constraints, such as those provided by the Javari programming language, have been shown to increase the expressiveness of a language and to prevent and detect errors. Unfortunately, annotating existing code, including libraries, with reference immutabil- ity constraints is a tedious and error prone task. We propose an algorithm for inferring the references in a pro- gram that can be declared as read-only (or romaybe). Addi- tionally, to gain additional precision, we introduce heuristics that suggest assignable and mutable fields. To evaluate our algorithm, we have implemented a tool, Javarifier, to aid programmers in converting Java programs to Javari. We also demonstrate the practicality of our algo- rithm by using Javarifier to annotate an existing program.
An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are... more An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are extracted from the code by a conventional static analysis, and shown in a tabular form known as the 'Dependency Structure Matrix' (DSM). A variety of algorithms are available to help organize the matrix in a form that reflects the architecture and highlights patterns and problematic dependencies. A hierarchical structure obtained in part by such algorithms, and in part by input from the user, then becomes the basis for 'design rules' that capture the architect's intent about which dependencies are acceptable. The design rules are applied repeatedly as the system evolves, to identify violations, and keep the code and its architecture in conformance with one another. The analysis has been implemented in a tool called LDM which has been applied in several commercial projects; in this paper, a case study application to Haystack, an information retrieval system, is described.
An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are... more An approach to managing the architecture of large software systems is presented. Dependencies are extracted from the code by a conventional static analysis, and shown in a tabular form known as the 'Dependency Structure Matrix' (DSM). A variety of algorithms are available to help organize the matrix in a form that reflects the architecture and highlights patterns and problematic dependencies. A hierarchical structure obtained in part by such algorithms, and in part by input from the user, then becomes the basis for 'design rules' that capture the architect's intent about which dependencies are acceptable. The design rules are applied repeatedly as the system evolves, to identify violations, and keep the code and its architecture in conformance with one another. The analysis has been implemented in a tool called LDM which has been applied in several commercial projects; in this paper, a case study application to Haystack, an information retrieval system, is described.
Using dependency models to manage software architecture
This demonstration will present a new approach, based on the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM), w... more This demonstration will present a new approach, based on the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM), which uses inter-module dependencies to specify and manage the architecture of software systems. The system is decomposed into a hierarchy of subsystems with the dependencies between the subsystems presented in the form of an adjacency matrix. The matrix representation is concise, intuitive and appears to overcome
As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for ... more As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for developers to understand unfamiliar large codebases is rapidly increasing. In this paper, we present a tool, Relo, that supports developers' understanding by allowing interactive exploration of code. As the developer explores relationships found in the code, Relo builds and automatically manages the context in a visualization, thereby helping build the developer's mental representation of the code. Developers can group viewed artifacts or use the viewed items to ask Relo for further exploration suggestions. Relo is built as an Eclipse plug-in integrated into the Java Tooling (JDT), and uses a standard, RDF, based backend allowing for maintaining code relationships and performing inferences about the relationships.
Understanding code architectures via interactive exploration and layout of layered diagrams
Abstract Visualization tools that target helping developers understand software have typically ha... more Abstract Visualization tools that target helping developers understand software have typically had visual scalability limitations, requiring significant input before providing useful results. In contrast, we present Strata, which has been designed to actively help users by providing layered diagrams. The defaults used are based on the package structure, and user interactions can allow for overriding these defaults and focusing on relevant parts of the codebase.
We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible... more We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible (or lack of) schema allowing naive end users to record information in whatever form makes it easy for them to manage. We describe our Haystack system, which exposes the richness and flexibility of the data model while offering the user natural, traditional interfaces that shield them from the specifics of schemas, tuples, and database queries. We outline research challenges that remain to be addressed.
In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualization... more In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualizations. Since the diagrams produced by traditional sequence diagramming tools become large and unmanageable when dealing with complex code bases, Chrono focuses on removing less relevant information, condensing diagram components, and allowing for interactive exploration.
As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for ... more As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for developers to understand unfamiliar large codebases is rapidly increasing. In this demonstration, we present a tool, Relo that supports users' understanding by allowing interactive exploration of code. As the developer explores relationships found in the code, Relo builds and automatically manages a visualization mirroring the developer's mental model, allowing them to group viewed artifacts or use the viewed items to ask the system for further exploration suggestions.
The development of the RDF[2] standard highlights the fact that a great deal of useful informatio... more The development of the RDF[2] standard highlights the fact that a great deal of useful information is in the form of semistructured data-objects connected by relations fitting no rigorous schema. To make use of this information it is important to be able to search and browse semistructured data repositories. In this paper, we present a framework, system, and user interface supporting navigation in such repositories. The system is general purpose, involving no hard-coded assumptions about the structure of the repository. The focus is on providing users with helpful "next steps" leading them to the information they are seeking.
Despite recent advances in natural language question answering technology, the problem of designi... more Despite recent advances in natural language question answering technology, the problem of designing effective user interfaces has been largely unexplored. We conducted a user study to investigate the problem and discovered that overall, users prefer a paragraph-sized chunk of text over just an exact phrase as the answer to their questions. Furthermore, users generally prefer answers embedded in context, regardless of the perceived reliability of the source documents. When users research a topic, increasing the amount of text returned to users significantly decreases the number of queries that they pose to the system, suggesting that users utilize supporting text to answer related questions. We believe that these results can serve to guide future developments in question answering user interfaces.
The Resource Definition Framework (RDF) is designed to support agent communication on the Web, bu... more The Resource Definition Framework (RDF) is designed to support agent communication on the Web, but it is also suitable as a framework for modeling and storing personal information. Haystack is a personalized information repository that employs RDF in this manner. This flexible semistructured data model is appealing for several reasons. First, RDF supports ontologies created by the user and tailored to the user's needs. At the same time, system ontologies can be specified and evolved to support a variety of high-level functionalities such as flexible organization schemes, semantic querying, and collaboration. In addition, we show that RDF can be used to engineer a component architecture that gives rise to a semantically rich and uniform user interface. We demonstrate that by aggregating various types of users' data together in a homogeneous representation, we create opportunities for agents to make more informed deductions in automating tasks for users. Finally, we discuss the implementation of an RDF information store and a programming language specifically suited for manipulating RDF.
With the growing importance of systems containing arbitrary semistructured relationships, the nee... more With the growing importance of systems containing arbitrary semistructured relationships, the need for supporting users searching in such repositories has grown. Currently support for users' search needs either has required domain-specific user interfaces or has required users to be schema experts. We have developed a generalpurpose tool that offers users helpful navigation and refinement options for seeking information in these semistructured repositories. We show how a tool can be built without requiring domain-specific assumptions about the information being explored. In addition to describing a general approach to the problem, we provide a set of natural, general-purpose refinement tactics, many generalized from past work on textual information retrieval.
In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualization... more In this demonstration we present Chrono, a tool that creates sequence diagram based visualizations. Since the diagrams produced by traditional sequence diagramming tools become large and unmanageable when dealing with complex code bases, Chrono focuses on removing less relevant information, condensing diagram components, and allowing for interactive exploration.
As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for ... more As software systems grow in size and use more third-party libraries and frameworks, the need for developers to understand unfamiliar large codebases is rapidly increasing. In this demonstration, we present a tool, Relo that supports users' understanding by allowing interactive exploration of code. As the developer explores relationships found in the code, Relo builds and automatically manages a visualization mirroring the developer's mental model, allowing them to group viewed artifacts or use the viewed items to ask the system for further exploration suggestions.
We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible... more We posit that a semistructured data model offers the right balance of rich structure and flexible (or lack of) schema allowing naive end users to record information in whatever form makes it easy for them to manage. We describe our Haystack system, which exposes the richness and flexibility of the data model while offering the user natural, traditional interfaces that shield them from the specifics of schemas, tuples, and database queries. We outline research challenges that remain to be addressed.
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