Class Of Programming Languages Research Articles

Beyond code: Is there a difference between comments in visual and textual languages?

Code comments are crucial for program comprehension and maintenance. To better understand the nature and content of comments, previous work proposed taxonomies of comment information for textual languages, notably classical programming languages. However, paradigms such as model-driven or model-based engineering often promote the use of visual languages, to which existing taxonomies are not directly applicable. Taking MATLAB/Simulink as a representative of a sophisticated and widely used modeling environment, we extend a multi-language comment taxonomy onto new (visual) comment types and two new languages: Simulink and MATLAB. Furthermore, we outline Simulink commenting practices and compare them to textual languages. We analyze 259,267 comments from 9,095 Simulink models and 17,792 MATLAB scripts. We identify the comment types, their usage frequency, classify comment information, and analyze their correlations with model metrics. We manually analyze 757 comments to extend the taxonomy. We also analyze commenting guidelines and developer adherence to them. Our extended taxonomy, SCoT (Simulink Comment Taxonomy), contains 25 categories. We find that Simulink comments, although often duplicated, are used at all model hierarchy levels. Of all comment types, Annotations are used most often; Notes scarcely. Our results indicate that Simulink developers, instead of extending comments, add new ones, and rarely follow commenting guidelines. Overall, we find Simulink comment information comparable to textual languages, which highlights commenting practice similarity across languages.

A pragma based C++ framework for hybrid quantum/classical computation

Quantum computers promise exponential speed ups over classical computers for various tasks. This emerging technology is expected to have its first huge impact in High Performance Computing (HPC), as it can solve problems beyond the reach of HPC. To that end, HPC will require quantum accelerators, which will enable applications to run on both classical and quantum devices, via hybrid quantum-classical nodes. Hybrid quantum-HPC applications should be scalable, executable on Quantum Error Corrected (QEC) devices, and could use quantum-classical primitives. However, the lack of scalability, poor performances, and inability to insert classical schemes within quantum applications has prevented current quantum frameworks from being adopted by the HPC community.This paper specifies the requirements of a hybrid quantum-classical framework compatible with HPC environments, and introduces a novel hardware-agnostic framework called Q-Pragma. This framework extends the classical programming language C++ heavily used in HPC via the addition of pragma directives to manage quantum computations.

Probabilistic Programming with Exact Conditions

We spell out the paradigm of exact conditioning as an intuitive and powerful way of conditioning on observations in probabilistic programs. This is contrasted with likelihood-based scoring known from languages such as Stan . We study exact conditioning in the cases of discrete and Gaussian probability, presenting prototypical languages for each case and giving semantics to them. We make use of categorical probability (namely Markov and CD categories) to give a general account of exact conditioning, which avoids limits and measure theory, instead focusing on restructuring dataflow and program equations. The correspondence between such categories and a class of programming languages is made precise by defining the internal language of a CD category.

Game Edukasi Untuk Menghafal Al-Quran Secara Sederhana Menggunakan Game Development Kit

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted various aspects around the world, the education aspect has not escaped attention, forcing students and workers to do activities at home. And most students (especially Islamic schools) who when they enter school are memorizing the Al-Quran forget to return when they return to school. This is very unfortunate considering the virtue of memorizing the Qur'an is very great reward and also the goodness in it. Various methods are also widely used by parents and teachers, including through learning media in the form of games. Education Game "Ngaji Yuk" is based on the problem of memorizing the Al-Quran using a Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) game development kit based with AppGameKit Classic programming language. This game is made so that players can memorize the Al-Quran in a very simple way, namely by choosing true or false statements in the questions that appear in front of the screen. It is hoped that this game can become an interactive game for everyone, especially children who are learning to memorize the Al-Quran. It is also hoped that this game can become a new learning medium that can help raise children's enthusiasm to memorize the Al-Quran with the main emphasis on always repeating memorization (Muroja'ah), with this learning being carried out properly, because this game has gone through the testing phase using Cyclomatic Complexity. From the results of the questionnaire that the author conducted with respondents aged 18 to 34 years who are still active with computers, it can be concluded that the game "Ngaji Yuk" has been developed according to user needs.

Engineering the development of quantum programs: Application to the Boolean satisfiability problem

The development of quantum programs is becoming a reality due to the rapid advancement of quantum computing. Over the past few years, a multitude of hardware platforms, algorithms, and programming languages have emerged to support this paradigm. By the very nature of Quantum Mechanics principles, there is an enormous change of philosophy when building quantum programs, which operate in a probabilistic space, unlike the deterministic behaviour shown by classical programming languages. These conceptual differences can be overcome by using techniques and tools of Software Engineering. In this paper, we apply Model-Driven Engineering techniques in a systematic way to ease the generation of quantum programs and we apply it to solve the satisfiability problem, very important in many engineering domains like verification of discrete systems and test of integrated circuits. To that aim, we contribute with a metamodel for representing quantum circuits and a model-to-text transformation to generate working IBM Qiskit code. This model-driven infrastructure is employed to automatically generate quantum programs from SAT equations through a model-to-model transformation that embeds Grover’s algorithm. Besides, we provide formulas for calculating the number of required quantum elements from SAT equations, crucial in the current context of limited quantum resources. The interoperability with other tools and the extensibility to target additional quantum platforms is guaranteed thanks to the use of a model-based toolchain. We cover several usage scenarios to validate the approach, providing exemplary SAT equations, the generated Qiskit code and the results of executing this code in IBM Quantum infrastructure.

Notes on Recent Achievements in Proving Stability using KeYmaeraX

KeYmaeraX is a Hoare-style theorem prover for hybrid systems. A hybrid system can be seen as an aggregation of both discrete and continuous variables, whose values can change abruptly or continuously, respectively. KeYmaeraX supports only variables having the primitive type bool or real. Due to the mixture of discrete and continuous system elements, one promising application area for KeYmaeraX are closed-loop control systems. A closed-loop control system consists of a plant and a controller. While the plant is basically an aggregation of continuous variables whose values change over time accordingly to physical laws, the controller can be seen as an algorithm formulated in a classical programming language. In this paper, we review some recent extensions of the proof calculus applied by KeYmaeraX that make formal proofs on the stability of dynamic systems more feasible. Based on an example, we first introduce to the topic and prove asymptotic stability of a given system in a hand-written mathematical style. This approach is then compared with a formal encoding of the problem and a formal proof established in KeYmaeraX. We also discuss open problems such as the formalization of asymptotic stability.

High performance computers: from parallel computing to quantum computers and biocomputers

Various programming methods are considered. Particular attention is paid to parallel programming, quantum computers and biocomputers. This attention is due to the fact that in recent years, high-performance computing has been intensively developing. One of the main ideas for increasing the speed of information processing is to carry out calculations in parallel. For classical programming methods this is achieved thanks to the advent of multiprocessor computers. Such computers allow computational tasks to be parallelized by introducing parallelization elements into classical programming languages. Another approach to speed up computation is based on the idea of a quantum computer. The use of qubits in quantum computers leads to the fact that all possible states of the system are simultaneously processed. Another approach leading to increased computing performance is based on the development of biocomputers. This approach is based on the idea of using DNA chains consisting of a sequence of four nitrogenous bases (adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine). The information is stored and processed as a sequence of these nitrogenous bases. An increase in the speed of calculations is carried out due to the fact that biochemical reactions can take place simultaneously on different parts of the DNA - chains.

A Case Study of Applying the Classification Task for Students' Performance Prediction

In this study the application of data mining in an academic database is presented, aiming the identification of the reasons of student dropouts by preventing failures in Programming Language class from Internet Systems course of Federal Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul (IFMS). The classification task is used, as well as decision tree technique and J4.8 algorithm, wich is run with three different options and, in each option pruned and unpruned decision trees are generated. The results show that the most realistic test is Cross-validation, with a success rate of 75.8% in classification, and that it is possible to prevent student failure in specific cases and as a consequence, to lower the number of student dropouts by failure.

Prospects and opportunities for visual programming technologies and tools application in educating at school

Article depicts typical problems that students encounter when mastering programming. For each problem, a number of existing specialized software environments offering a solution is displayed. Analyses of programming environments elements and the selection of those who are directly involved in solving problems are conducted. In the end, aggregation of the best solution is carried out and an assumption about the possibility of combining the best elements is made. Initially, the school computer science course was focused on the formation of computer programming and computer skills. Now the main part of the course is devoted to the study of applied software and information technologies. At the same time, classical programming languages developed in the last century are used for learning more. The first successful attempt to create an alternative programming language that could act as an educational tool is the Logo language. A similar display method can be found in many programming environments, where the user does not need to have programming skills, but be able to make a workable algorithm. This allows you not to be distracted by programming language, but to design a program from blocks. Each of the visual programming environments mentioned in the article is not without a number of drawbacks. However, even with this state of affairs, there is a tendency to expand the use of visual programming languages in teaching.

Language Without Code: Intentionally Unusable, Uncomputable, or Conceptual Programming Languages

The esoteric class of programming languages, commonly called esolangs, have long challenged the norms of programming practice and computational culture. Esolangs are a practice of hacker/hobbyists, who don’t primarily think of their work as art. Most esolangs are experiential works; we understand the languages by writing code in them. Through this action, the logic of the language becomes clear. However, a smaller subset of esolangs make their point not through actively writing code, but instead by simply contemplating their rules. We can think of these esolangs as conceptual rather than experiential. Some are designed in such a way that they don’t allow any code to be written for them at all. By stepping away from usability, the conceptual esolangs offer the most direct challenge to the definition of programming language, a commonly used term which is surprisingly unspecific, and usually understood through utility, despite the fact that programming languages predate digital computers. This paper delves into the conceptual esolangs and looks at their challenge to the idea of programming languages.

A logic-based representation and tree-based visualization method for building regulatory requirements

BackgroundMany research and development efforts have been made for automated compliance checking of building designs with regulatory requirements, but there is a lack of a non-proprietary and user-understandable representation of building regulations to support automated compliance checking in the construction domain that is experimentally tested for understandability and reading speed.MethodsThis research investigates a logic-based representation and tree-based visualization method for building regulatory requirements. The logic-based representation is based on classic logic programming language and can directly support automated compliance checking. The tree-based visualization is expected to improve the understandability and reading speed of the logic-based representation. Therefore, this method attempts to add to the limited research in non-proprietary and user-understandable representation of building regulations that is experimentally tested for understandability and reading speed. To test the understandability and reading speed of regulatory requirements using this representation and visualization method, a survey was conducted to compare different representations, namely, text, logic-based, and tree-based.ResultsStatistical analysis of the survey results shows that the proposed tree-based visualization method can significantly improve the understandability and reading speed of the logic-based regulatory requirement representation and this visualization method is at a comparable status with the original text representation of regulatory requirements in terms of understandability and reading speed.Conclusions(1) The investigated logic-based representation and tree-based visualization method for regulatory requirements serves as one potential non-proprietary and user-understandable representation of building regulations; (2) this research shows that computable representations of regulatory requirements can achieve understandability and reading speed that are comparable to the original text representation through tree-based visualization; and (3) this research reveals that the tree-based visualization of regulatory requirements improves the understandability and reading speed of regulatory requirements when such use is compared to the computable logic-based representation.

Quantum Alternation: Prospects and Problems

We propose a notion of quantum control in a quantum programming language which permits the superposition of finitely many quantum operations without performing a measurement. This notion takes the form of a conditional construct similar to the IF statement in classical programming languages. We show that adding such a quantum IF statement to the QPL programming language simplifies the presentation of several quantum algorithms. This motivates the possibility of extending the denotational semantics of QPL to include this form of quantum alternation. We give a denotational semantics for this extension of QPL based on Kraus decompositions rather than on superoperators. Finally, we clarify the relation between quantum alternation and recursion, and discuss the possibility of lifting the semantics defined by Kraus operators to the superoperator semantics defined by Selinger.

Modeling and Simulation of Human Reaction in a Multidimensional Social Network

The impacts of information on individuals within a social network are, mostly, statically modeled and the dynamic is not frequently tackled. In addition, the works about modeling and simulation of the populations reactions to the information do not use explicit specification languages to describe their models. These models are specified in the shape of graph or math formulas and then directly implemented and coded using classical programming languages. We propose to model, in the frame of SICOMORES project studying stabilization phase of a conflict, the actions of influence in a multidimensional social networks (MSN). Each graph dimension corresponds to a predetermined social network (Family, religion, neighborhood). The purpose of this work is to provide a simple but efficient and accurate framework to model the behavior of an individual, but also the simulation of the propagation of information among a group of individuals and its influence on their behavior. In more details, we define a set of models of individuals characterized by a set of state variables (e.g. Using Maslow to construct the behavior of an individual) and the mesh between the individuals within a social network. Then, we introduce the platform architecture, sharing resources, specifically designed to simulate MSN. In the end, a scenario is used to validate our models using the platform based on DEVS formalism.

Special issue on program comprehension

This special issue of EMSE comprises four selected papers on program comprehension, an unusually wide-ranging research area within software engineering. It encompasses the human activities of comprehending software, the technologies for supporting the program comprehension, and their evaluation. It is notable for combining aspects of cognitive psychology, tool design, and empirical study of users, tools, and software artifacts. In “High-MCC Functions in the Linux Kernel”, the authors challenge the assumption that functions with high values of McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity (MCC) are likely to be problematic to understand and maintain. They explore the nuances of what a high MCC value might mean, and examine functions from the Linux kernel with high MCC values. They find that often the structure of these functions is found to be easy to understand by users, leading to the conclusion that syntactic measures alone may not be a good metric for understandability. In “Measuring and Modeling Programming Experience”, the authors describe a controlled experiment in assessing how the experience of software developers can best be measured. This is a particularly important problem in program comprehension research, as developer experience is often a key factor that must be explicitly taken into account when studying how programmers perform problem-solving tasks. In “An Empirical Study on the Impact of Static Typing on Software Maintainability”, the authors tackle one of the classic programming language debates: How does static typing affect human software development capabilities? The authors approach this question from an empirical perspective. In a carefully designed experiment, the authors assess the impact of static typing on understanding undocumented code, fixing type errors, and fixing semantic errors. The results show rigorous empirical evidence that static types are indeed beneficial to these activities, except when fixing semantic errors. In “Labeling Source Code with Information Retrieval Methods: An Empirical Study”, the authors address augmenting source code with explanatory labels. Automated techniques for this exist, which are based on, e.g., Vector Space Models, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). The authors describe an experiment in which such Empir Software Eng (2014) 19:1259–1260 DOI 10.1007/s10664-014-9329-5

Design Methodology of a Fuzzy Control System in PTV VISSIM

Fuzzy logic has been a popular tool for addressing advanced control tasks lately. This is true even in transportation, where it has been used for tasks such as ramp metering, control of traffic lights, as well as, for example, within highway management. Before application on a real street, however, such a control algorithm has to be evaluated and tested. In recent years, a so called microsimulation approach has been accepted as a useful tool for such tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that PTV VISSIM can also be used for the evaluation of advanced control algorithms, even without the use of API. In this way, even without a knowledge of classic programming languages such as C ++ or Java, any fuzzy control algorithm can be implemented directly in the microsimulation tool and its effect on traffic directly evaluated. The ability to do this can be an important decision criterion when selecting a microsimulation tool, as was the case for example in the early stages in project SIRID (TA CR ALFA 2012 Technology Agency of the Czech Republic). The presented approach within this paper is demonstrated on a real world problem of a single intersection control.

Software architecture for control and data acquisition of linear plasma generator Magnum-PSI

The FOM Institute DIFFER – Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research has completed the construction phase of Magnum-PSI, a magnetized, steady-state, large area, high-flux linear plasma beam generator to study plasma surface interactions under ITER divertor conditions. Magnum-PSI consists of several hardware subsystems, and a variety of diagnostic systems. The COntrol, Data Acquisition and Communication (CODAC) system integrates these subsystems and provides a complete interface for the Magnum-PSI users. Integrating it all, from the lowest hardware level of sensors and actuators, via the level of networked PLCs and computer systems, up to functions and classes in programming languages, demands a sound and modular software architecture, which is extendable and scalable for future changes. This paper describes this architecture, and the modular design of the software subsystems. The design is implemented in the CODAC system at the level of services and subsystems (the overall software architecture), as well as internally in the software subsystems.

All-in-One: Space-Time Body, Function and Metric — A Fundamentally New Approach to Computation

Every algorithm which can be executed on a computer can at least in principle be realized in hardware, i.e. by a discrete physical system. The problem is that up to now there is no programming language by which physical systems can constructively be described. Such tool, however, is essential for the compact description and automatic production of complex systems. This paper introduces a programming language, called Akton-Algebra, which provides the foundation for the complete description of discrete physical systems. The approach originates from the finding that every discrete physical system reduces to a spatiotemporal topological network of nodes, if the functional and metric properties are deleted. A next finding is that there exists a homeomorphism between the topological network and a sequence of symbols representing a program by which the original nodal network can be reconstructed. Providing Akton-Algebra with functionality turns it into a flow-controlled general data processing language, which by introducing clock control and addressing can be further transformed into a classical programming language. Providing Akton-Algebra with metrics, i.e. the shape and size of the components, turns it into a novel hardware system construction language.

Will we think in programming languages?

Modern science commonly uses computer modelling. Thousands of scientific model are daily transformed to computers programs and tested. The transformation must overcome the gap between abstract human formal notation and low level semantics of contemporary programming languages. The simultaneous knowledge of specific scientific models and programming languages is an unpleasant necessity for a significant proportion of scientists and practitioners (engineers, economist, etc.). But a solution exists - accommodation of programming languages to mental models of their users. The article discuss one partial solution - implementation of domain specific languages in the heart of existing universal languages by mechanisms of metaprogramming. This mechanism overcomes limitations of classical programming languages and complexity of creation new languages from scratch. However, the support of metaprogramming in contemporary languages is limited to isolated and peripheral constructs in very few languages. These constructs are demonstrated by simplified but real examples (metaobject system of Python, monads in F# and macro-based metaprogramming of Boo language) together with discussion of their advantages and disadvantages. The discussion of examples is aimed to finding requirements for new languages and their implementation in a original (parent) language.

Task-oriented motion planning for multi-arm robotic systems

In this paper a task-oriented motion planning approach for general cooperative multi-robot systems is proposed. In order to derive a meaningful task formulation, a taxonomy of cooperative multi-arm systems of industrial interest is devised. Then, a workpiece-oriented general formulation for cooperative tasks is proposed, where the user is asked to specify the motion of the system only at the workpiece level, while the motion of the single arms in the system is computed via kinematic transformations between the relevant coordinate frames. Based on this task formulation, an instructions set is derived to extend classical programming languages for industrial robots to general multi-robot systems. In order to test the approach, a software environment has been built, composed of an interpreter of the language and the motion planning software.

웹기반 프로그래밍 언어 강의 지원 시스템의 설계 및 구현

In this paper, we propose a web-based programming class support system to help a lecturer to teach a programming language to students effectively. The proposed system is composed of a error analysis step and a verification step. The error analysis step checks whether there are compile time errors or run time errors in each student`s submitted program. Given some errors, the system provides helpful feedback for the student to fix the errors. On the contrary, the system provides quick feedback after checking the source code style, comments, and plagiarism in the submitted program. As soon as the student submits the program, the student can see the check results. According to the result of utilizing the proposed system in a C programming language class, students tend to submit program assignments actively.