No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Context Writing and working with regular expressions could be a slow and tedious task,which is mainly because of its syntax, but also because there exist several different dialectswhich easily could cause confusion. Even though regular expression has been widely used forparsing and programming language design, they are now frequently used for input validationand seen in common applications such as text editors. Objectives The main objectives of our thesis are to determine whether or not a regularexpression language that is more like the surrounding programming language would increaseusability, readability, and maintainability. We will then investigate further into what kind ofimpact this would have regarding e.g, development speed, and what benefits and liabilities amore modernized syntax could introduce. Methods Two different methods were used to answer our research questions, exploratory in-terviews, and experiments. The data from the experiments were collected by screen recordingand a program in the environment we provided to the participant. Results.By doing interviews with developers that use traditional regular expressions on aregular basis, their stories confirm that its syntax is confusing even for developers with alot of experience. Our results from the experiment indicate that a language more like thesurrounding language increases both the overall ease of use and development speed. Conclusions From this research, we can conclude that a regular expression language thatis more like the surrounding programming language does increase usability, readability, andmaintainability. We could clearly see that it had a positive effect on the development speed aswell. Keywords — regular expressions, programming language design, readability

Programming is a difficult activity because it requires thinking in a way that ordinary people are not familiar with. It becomes more complex considering the unusual and sometimes contradictory (with daily life usage) symbols when designing programming languages. This thesis introduces an experimental programming language called TPD, which is designed to reduce the syntax- and semantics-oriented difficulties to a minimum and provide a head start in programming to high school students and novice programmers who are native speakers of Turkish. TPD mimics Turkish syntax in order to obtain a better learning curve by making use of the user&#039 / s native language competence in learning the essentials of programming. TPD supports both imperative (procedural) and functional paradigms. General lists are provided as a built-in data type. Given the educational concerns, the design of the programming language goes hand in hand with the design of the development environment. Diagnostic features of the compiler are emphasized. Generated target code is in Java. The development environment features a graphical interface and a language-based editor.

This dissertation defines "modular-objective coupling", and shows that programming language designs which imply reduced modular-objective coupling reduce complexity of remodularizations--behaviour-preserving restructurings for which the only intended goals are to change program source code structure. We explicitly distinguish between two points of view on program structure: modular structure--the structure of a program as a set of static text documents, and objective structure--the structure of a program as a dynamic computational model during execution. We define modular-objective coupling as the degree to which changes in modular structure imply changes to objective structure, for a given programming language. We use the term remodularization to refer to any behaviour-preserving source code restructuring, for which the only intended goal is to change modular structure. We argue that programming languages with strong modular-objective coupling introduce accidental complexity into remodularizations, by requiring complex objective structure changes to achieve intended modular structure changes. Our claim is that a programming language design which implies reduced modular-objective coupling reduces remodularization complexity in the language. To validate this claim, we first present SubjectJ, a subject-oriented programming system that extends Java. The design of Java implies strong modular-objective coupling, while SubjectJ is designed for reduced modular-objective coupling. We then perform a series of remodularization case studies comparing Java and SubjectJ. Our results suggest that remodularizations are less complex in SubjectJ.

This dissertation defines "modular-objective coupling", and shows that programming language designs which imply reduced modular-objective coupling reduce complexity of remodularizations--behaviour-preserving restructurings for which the only intended goals are to change program source code structure. We explicitly distinguish between two points of view on program structure: modular structure--the structure of a program as a set of static text documents, and objective structure--the structure of a program as a dynamic computational model during execution. We define modular-objective coupling as the degree to which changes in modular structure imply changes to objective structure, for a given programming language. We use the term remodularization to refer to any behaviour-preserving source code restructuring, for which the only intended goal is to change modular structure. We argue that programming languages with strong modular-objective coupling introduce accidental complexity into remodularizations, by requiring complex objective structure changes to achieve intended modular structure changes. Our claim is that a programming language design which implies reduced modular-objective coupling reduces remodularization complexity in the language. To validate this claim, we first present SubjectJ, a subject-oriented programming system that extends Java. The design of Java implies strong modular-objective coupling, while SubjectJ is designed for reduced modular-objective coupling. We then perform a series of remodularization case studies comparing Java and SubjectJ. Our results suggest that remodularizations are less complex in SubjectJ.

This dissertation defines "modular-objective coupling", and shows that programming language designs which imply reduced modular-objective coupling reduce complexity of remodularizations--behaviour-preserving restructurings for which the only intended goals are to change program source code structure. We explicitly distinguish between two points of view on program structure: modular structure--the structure of a program as a set of static text documents, and objective structure--the structure of a program as a dynamic computational model during execution. We define modular-objective coupling as the degree to which changes in modular structure imply changes to objective structure, for a given programming language. We use the term remodularization to refer to any behaviour-preserving source code restructuring, for which the only intended goal is to change modular structure. We argue that programming languages with strong modular-objective coupling introduce accidental complexity into remodularizations, by requiring complex objective structure changes to achieve intended modular structure changes. Our claim is that a programming language design which implies reduced modular-objective coupling reduces remodularization complexity in the language. To validate this claim, we first present SubjectJ, a subject-oriented programming system that extends Java. The design of Java implies strong modular-objective coupling, while SubjectJ is designed for reduced modular-objective coupling. We then perform a series of remodularization case studies comparing Java and SubjectJ. Our results suggest that remodularizations are less complex in SubjectJ. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

Visual scripting languages are used as alternatives to text programming to make coding easier. Visual programming languages provide a structure and a guidance that does not exist in text programming, which should make them easier to code with. Some users do however find that the structure in visual scripting languages makes it cumbersome to code. To find a design of visual scripting that subvert this and has a better user experience than contemporary designs, a prototype of a visual scripting interface was developed using an iterative design and testing cycle. When a final prototype had been developed, it was tested to see how it compared to text programming. From the tests performed, a few teachings were discovered. If-statements that grow perpendicularly to the rest of the code fit more information on the screen at the same time and can feel more natural and easier to parse for some users. Having a help menu with syntax-help makes it so that users do not have to leave the program, which increases programming speed. The visual coding elements in a visual scripting language need to be coloured such that the most important parts are the most visible; otherwise users have a hard time parsing the code. Showing existing variables that are in scope gives the user a good overview of what variables they can use. Having help menus where elements can be clicked to insert them at the user's text cursor reduces the chance of misspelling variables and gives the user confidence in the correctness of the code. Having visual coding elements that can change depending on context or by using toggles can make coding more intuitive and faster. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

In the vision of Ambient Intelligence, people are assisted in their everyday activities through the proactive, opportunistic support of non-intrusive computing devices offering intuitive interaction modalities. The usefulness and quality of delivered services can be improved considerably if the devices are able to adapt their behaviour according to sensed changes in their surrounding environment, both at the physical and logical levels. This interplay between context-awareness and dynamic software adaptability is key to the construction of applications that are smart with respect to user needs. Unfortunately, most current applications do not reach this level of adaptability, due to a lack of appropriate programming technology. Most applications exhibit fixed functionality and seldom do they sense their environment and adapt their services in a context-aware fashion. Many chances of delivering improved services to users and network peers are thus missed. This dissertation presents a programming model to ease the construction of applications that can react to changes in their execution context by adapting their behaviour dynamically. The starting point of our research is the development of novel language abstractions and the adaptation of existing abstractions to render context-aware, self-adaptable applications easier to develop. We demonstrate that a simple yet powerful computation model readily provides the needed support, leading to straightforward application code that is not concerned with context adaptation, behaviour that can be adapted dynamically to different contexts in a non-intrusive fashion, and context-aware applications with software architectures that are not biased towards context adaptation ---rather, they can be designed freely according to their domain. The proposed computation model is realised through the Ambience programming language, and its underlying open implementation, the Ambient Object System. A small-step operational semantics describes it formally. Much in the vein of prototype-based programming, the model has been designed with simplicity and concreteness in mind. It is highly dynamic, featuring dynamic (multiple) dispatch, dynamic inheritance, dynamic typing, and dynamic method scoping. Application logic adaptation is enabled by means of an intuitive, first-class reification of context that is straightforwardly connected to dynamic behaviour selection. We describe needed management techniques for such context, and a few programming guidelines on how to develop context-aware applications using our approach. The approach is validated by showing its application in a number of scenarios inspired on Ambient Intelligence.