This thesis presents the development of an interactive programming system for the IBM 7545 robot. Various methods of robot programming are discussed, and the reasons for the development of such an interactive programming system are provided. The development of this system was divided into five phases, namely, the development of the pseudo-compiler, development of the "system control" program, integration of ASSEMBLY routines, development of the "motion control" program, and the development of test programs. The approach used for each of these five stages are outlined, and a reference to the use of the system is given. A description of the development of each stage is then given, and the logic associated with all programs are described, and the purpose and operation of all subroutines are also presented. Some assumptions and limitations of the system are explained, and the operational aspects of the system are described. Additional work needed to improve this system is outlined, and the feasibility of using the concept of this system on other robot programming languages on the IBM 7545 robot are also discussed. / M.S.

In this thesis, a cost based process control model is formulated. A dynamic programming approach is used and along with the techniques of Bayesian decision theory, an optimal set of steady state control policies are shown to exist which are dependent upon prior beliefs about the condition of the process. It is the objective of this thesis to compare the results obtained from this approach to those of an X̅ control chart approach. The model proposed by Knappenberger and Grandage [20] is used as a basis for comparison. Numerical examples are used to illustrate each procedure. The results obtained illustrate that by using the operating policies specified by the dynamic approach, a savings of from 29% to 40% in the optimal cost per unit to operate the quality control procedure can be achieved rather than utilizing the policies of the X̅ control chart model. / Master of Science

It is well known that the cost of large-scale software systems has become unacceptably high. Software metrics by giving a quantitative view of software and its development would prove invaluable to both software designers and project managers. Although several software quality metrics have been developed to assess the psychological complexity of programming tasks, many of these metrics were not validated on any software system of significant size. This thesis reports on an effort to validate seven different software quality metrics on a medium size data base system. Three different versions of the data base system that evolved over a period of three years were analyzed in this study. A redesign of the data base system, while still in its design phase was also analyzed. The results indicate the power of software metrics in identifying the high complexity modules in the system and also improper integration of enhancements made to an existing system. The complexity values of the system components as indicated by the metrics, conform well to an intuitive understanding of the system by people familiar with the system. An analysis of the redesigned version of the data base system showed the usefulness of software metrics in the design phase by revealing a poorly structured component of the system. / Master of Science

The thesis describes the requirement, design, and implementation of a software package that can be used to perform quantitative studies on certain aspects of a programming task. Of specific interest are experiments with the level of interactiveness of the human-computer interface relating to program construction and with language design principles relating to identifier scope rules. The software package for conducting these experiments is an interactive language environment called PEEP. Its base language is Pascal and its design is based on Johnston's semantic models of computation. Storage representations and implementation of these semantic models are described. These models depicting the compile-time structure, run-time structure, and realization of the static and the dynamic scoping rules. The evolution and current research of programming environments, user interface to PEEP, and future research on PEEP are also focuses of attention. / Master of Science

Five component problem-solving skills (general strategy, planning, logical thinking, algebraic variables, and debugging) were identified as common elements of both computer programming and mathematical problem-solving. Based on the similarities of these general skills in specific contexts, a theory was generated that the skills would transfer and that experience in computer programming would cause an improvement in mathematical problem-solving achievement. A path model was constructed to illustrate this hypothesized causal relationship between computer programming and mathematical problem-solving achievement. In order to control for other relevant variables, the model also included mathematics experience, access to a home computer, ability, socioeconomic status, and gender. The model was tested with a sample of 800 high school students in seven southwest Virginia high schools. Results indicated that ability had the largest causal effect on mathematical problem-solving achievement. Three variables had a moderate effect: computer programming experience, mathematics experience, and gender. The other two variables in the model (access to a home computer and socioeconomic status) were only very slightly related to mathematical problem-solving achievement. The conclusion of the study was that there was evidence to support the theory of transfer of skills from computer programming experience to mathematical problem-solving. Once ability and gender were controlled, computer programming experience and mathematics experience both had causal effects on mathematical problem-solving achievement. This suggests that to maximize mathematical problem-solving scores, a curriculum should include both mathematics and computer programming experiences. / Ed. D.

Programmers are encouraged to comment their source programs, yet the value of the comments is not easily verified. In this study, the relationships between comment quantity and software metrics are assessed to determine whether programmers increase comment quantity in complex modules. In addition, comment quantity and software metrics are related to software maintenance data. It was found that software complexity, as measured by software metrics, accounts for a substantial portion of the variance in comment quantity. Additionally, comment quantity has no statistically significant relationship to software maintainability for the task studied. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 78-82).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-82). Also available in print.

The C Navigational System (CNS) is a proposed programming environment for the C programming language. The introduction covers the major influences of programming environments and the components of a programming environment. The system is designed to support the design, coding and maintenance phases of software development. CNS provides multiple views to both the source and documentation for a programming project. User-defined and system-defined links allow the source and documentation to be hierarchically searched. CNS also creates a history list and function interface for each function in a module. The final chapter compares CNS and several other programming environments (Microscope, Rn, Cedar, PECAN, and Marvel).