Thesis (M.C.S.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 106-108). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

The importance of building maintainable software is being recognized in the community of software development. By developing software that is easy to maintain, the time and resources needed to perform the modifications may be decreased. This will in turn mean economical savings and increased profits. Architectural software patterns are said to promote the development of maintainable software. The aim of this project was therefore to investigate whether architectural software patterns possess this property or not. A case study was performed where two candidate architectures were compared using a method called Architectural analysis of modifiability. This method uses change scenarios and modification ratios to identify differences between candidate architectures. A system developed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB was used for the case study. One of the candidate architectures consisted of two architectural software patterns: the Layers pattern and the Model-View-Controller pattern. The architecture analysis showed that the Layers pattern did promote maintainability whereas the Model-View-Controller pattern did not, from the basis of judgement associated with the method.

<p>The importance of building maintainable software is being recognized in the community of software development. By developing software that is easy to maintain, the time and resources needed to perform the modifications may be decreased. This will in turn mean economical savings and increased profits.</p><p>Architectural software patterns are said to promote the development of maintainable software. The aim of this project was therefore to investigate whether architectural software patterns possess this property or not. A case study was performed where two candidate architectures were compared using a method called Architectural analysis of modifiability. This method uses change scenarios and modification ratios to identify differences between candidate architectures. A system developed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB was used for the case study.</p><p>One of the candidate architectures consisted of two architectural software patterns: the Layers pattern and the Model-View-Controller pattern. The architecture analysis showed that the Layers pattern did promote maintainability whereas the Model-View-Controller pattern did not, from the basis of judgement associated with the method.</p>

Thesis (M.C.S.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-138). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-153). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Techn. Univ., Diss.--Darmstadt, 2003.

Ingeniero Civil Eléctrico / Ingeniero Civil en Computación / Este trabajo de título se enmarca en la investigación realizada en el Centro de Tecnología Minera Avanzada (Advanced Mining Technology Center, AMTC) con tecnologías de percepción. Los desarrollos hechos en robótica en este centro constan de desarrollos de hardware y de software, siendo el software para robots un problema en si mismo. Actualmente, en el campo de la robótica, existe una plataforma de desarrollo que está tomando fuerza como una solución al problema del desarrollo de software para robots, la plataforma Robot Operating System (ROS), la cual permite el desarrollo de módulos de control para un robot como un sistema distribuido. El objetivo de este trabajo de título es la implementación de una librería de control para un radar de ondas milimétricas que se usa en el AMTC, que permita su uso con la plataforma ROS. De esta forma, el radar podrá ser usado como un sensor en conjunto con las otras piezas de hardware (sensores y actuadores) de que dispone el laboratorio. Esta librería consiste en un conjunto de piezas de software ejecutables que permiten la comunicación con el radar, generando datos en el formato apropiado para la plataforma, una interfaz gráfica que facilita el control del sistema, un módulo que permite la visualización de datos y un módulo que implementa un algoritmo de detección de objetos basado en los datos generados por los otros módulos. La librería implementada fue probada en el laboratorio, en un entorno controlado, para la validación directa de ésta contra el software oficial que se vende con el radar, y para analizar el uso de la red por parte de la librería. Además, se probó en la elipse del parque O'Higgins, para un caso de prueba en terreno, en la que se evaluó el desempeño de la integración del radar con ROS, usando sus funcionalidades de visualización de datos. Con este trabajo se logró la utilización de todas las características del radar y su total integración con la plataforma ROS, lo que permitirá el uso del radar con los otros sensores del laboratorio y su uso para nuevos experimentos.

Software reuse can occur in various places during the software development cycle. Reuse of existing source code is the most commonly practiced form of software reuse. One of the key requirements for software reuse is readability, thus the interest in the use of data abstraction, inheritance, modularity, and aspects of the visible portion of module specifications. This research analyzed the contents of software reuse libraries to answer the basic question of what makes a good reusable software component. The approach taken was to measure and analyze various software metrics as mapped to design characteristics. A related research question investigated the change in the design principles over time. This was measured by comparing sets of Ada reuse libraries categorized into two time periods. It was discovered that recently developed Ada reuse components scored better on readability than earlier developed components. A benefit of this research has been the development of a set of "design for reuse" guidelines. These guidelines address coding practices as well as design principles for an Ada implementation. C++ software reuse libraries were also analyzed to determine if design principles can be applied in a language independent fashion. This research used cyclomatic complexity metrics, software science metrics, and traditional static code metrics to measure design features. This research provides at least three original contributions. First it collects empirical data about existing reuse libraries. Second, it develops a readability measure for software libraries which can aid in comparing libraries. And third, this research developed a set of coding and design guidelines for developers of reusable software. Future research can investigate how design principles for C++ change over time. Another topic for research is the investigation of systems employing reused components to determine which libraries are more successfully used than others.

Feature-oriented requirements decompose a system's requirements into individual bundles of functionality called features, where each feature's behaviour can be expressed as a state-machine model. However, state machines are difficult to write; determining how to decompose behaviour into states is not obvious, different stakeholders will have different opinions on how to structure the state machine, and the state machines can easily become too complex. This thesis proposes a pattern for decomposing and structuring the model of a feature's behavioural requirements, based on modes of operation (e.g., Active, Inactive, Failed) that are common to features in multiple domains. Interestingly, the highest-level modes of the pattern can serve as a generic behavioural interface for all features that adhere to the pattern. The thesis proposes also several pattern extensions that provide guidance on how to structure the Active and Inactive behaviour of the feature. The pattern was applied to model the behavioural requirements of 21 automotive features that were specified in 7 production-grade requirements documents. The pattern was applicable to all 21 features, and the proposed generic feature interface was applicable to 50 out of 58 inter-feature references. A user study with 18 participants evaluated whether use of the pattern made it easier than otherwise to write state machines for features and whether feature state machines written with the help of the pattern are more readable than those written without the help of the pattern. The results of the study indicate that use of the pattern facilitates writing of feature state machines.

Feature-oriented requirements decompose a system's requirements into individual bundles of functionality called features, where each feature's behaviour can be expressed as a state-machine model. However, state machines are difficult to write; determining how to decompose behaviour into states is not obvious, different stakeholders will have different opinions on how to structure the state machine, and the state machines can easily become too complex. This thesis proposes a pattern for decomposing and structuring the model of a feature's behavioural requirements, based on modes of operation (e.g., Active, Inactive, Failed) that are common to features in multiple domains. Interestingly, the highest-level modes of the pattern can serve as a generic behavioural interface for all features that adhere to the pattern. The thesis proposes also several pattern extensions that provide guidance on how to structure the Active and Inactive behaviour of the feature. The pattern was applied to model the behavioural requirements of 21 automotive features that were specified in 7 production-grade requirements documents. The pattern was applicable to all 21 features, and the proposed generic feature interface was applicable to 50 out of 58 inter-feature references. A user study with 18 participants evaluated whether use of the pattern made it easier than otherwise to write state machines for features and whether feature state machines written with the help of the pattern are more readable than those written without the help of the pattern. The results of the study indicate that use of the pattern facilitates writing of feature state machines.