• Volume 9,Issue 2,2015 Table of Contents
    Select All
    Display Type: |
    • >Special Issue Regarding Prof. Dr. Bernd Krieg-Bruckner 66th Birthday
    • The photo of Prof. Dr. Bernd Krieg-Bruckner with signature

      2015, 9(2):0-0.

      Abstract (3726) HTML (0) PDF 71.16 K (1961) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:

    • A Historical Document, A Piece of Precious Memory Editorial

      2015, 9(2):93-93.

      Abstract (65030) HTML (0) PDF 48.34 K (2551) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:It is our great pleasure to publish a special issue regarding Prof. Dr. Bernd Krieg-Bruckner's 66th birthday, guest-edited kindly by Dr. Berthold Hoffmanm, Prof. Dr. Dieter Hutter and Dr. Hui Shi. Prof. Krieg-Bruckner has been a respectful scholar; a world's leading researcher with cross-border research interests, ranging from language design to software engineering to artificial intelligence to robot design; a warmhearted figure who is ready to help anybody at any instant; a real internationalist who gathers in his group young scholar from all continents of world; an amateur architect who drafted, designed and built his own two-stock palace-like home within a few months; a spare-time chef-cock who can prepare any type of delicious cuisines you want, in particular Chinese Hong'Shao'Rou(pork braised in brown source). For me and for many his Chinese friends, beyond those state above, Bernd has been in the first place a faithful friend of China and Chinese computer scientists. the only problem for the Chinese people is that many of them may confuse Bernd's picture with the portrait of Karl Marx. It would be difficult to count all contributions he made to the Chinese computer science community. We will show only one evidence of these contributions: Bernd's report to the Chinese University Development Project written by him in 1984 which has never been published. It is with his permission that we publish this historical document here. While giving our thanks to the three guest editors once again, we wish Bernd a very happy long life.

    • Chinese University Development Project

      2015, 9(2):95-111.

      Abstract (5960) HTML (0) PDF 123.55 K (2402) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:This report is a historical document from 1985, with some footnotes highlighting the change towards the present. From a quite personal perspective, Computer Science education at the university level in the USA and West Germany are compared, endeavoring to take the best of both educational systems to derive recommendations for the emerging development in China.

    • Preface

      2015, 9(2):113-115.

      Abstract (3188) HTML (0) PDF 66.10 K (1849) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:In May 2014, shortly after Bernd Krieg-Bruckner's 65th birthday, and shortly before he was going to retire as a professor at Universitat Bremen, Prof. Lu Ruqian proposed us to prepare a special issue of the International Journal of Software and Informatics for this occasion. However, this could not be done within just four months. Fortunately, it turned out that there would be a still better occasion to prepare such an issue: In September 2015, Bernd will finish the last international EC-funded project that he directed for three years, and will enter the life of a proper professor emeritus who has no administrative obligation any more, but can still occupy himself with whatever he finds interesting ......

    • Algebraic Constructions: A Simple Framework for Complex Dependencies and Parameterisation

      2015, 9(2):117-139.

      Abstract (3900) HTML (0) PDF 212.81 K (5334) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:We propose a simple framework of algebraic constructions for software specification, modular design and development. Algebraic constructions generalise (parameterised) modules by allowing on one hand a rather arbitrary collection of elements to form the parameter and on the other hand dependencies between the module elements to be spelled out explicitly. Algebraic constructions are specified in a very natural way by means of ordinary algebraic specifications. They are combined using a sum operation which captures as special cases various operations on (parameterised) modules offered by standard specification and development frameworks. We show the expected composability result for the sum of algebraic constructions and of their specifications.

    • On Inconsistency and Unsatisfiability

      2015, 9(2):141-152.

      Abstract (2617) HTML (0) PDF 135.08 K (2321) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:We study inconsistency and unsatis ability and their relation to soundness, completeness, paraconsistency and conservative extension in generic logical systems (formalized as institutions equipped with an entailment system).

    • Automating Test Case Selection in Model-Based Software Product Line Development

      2015, 9(2):153-175.

      Abstract (2739) HTML (0) PDF 1.06 M (2539) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:We address the problem of how to select test cases for products in a controlled model-based software product line development process. CVL, the common variability language, gives a framework for materialisation of product models from a given base model, variability model and resolution model. From such product models, software products can be derived. In practise, test case development for the product line often is independent from the product development. Therefore, the problem arises which test cases can be applied to which products. In particular, the question is whether a test case for one speci c product can be also used for a "similar" product. In this paper, we show how the expected outcome of a test case to a product in a model-based software product line development can be determined. That is, we give a procedure for assigning the outcome of a given test case on an arbitrary member of a software product line. We recall the relevant de nitions for software product line engineering, describe our approach, and demonstrate it with the example of a product line of super-automatic espresso machines.

    • Symbolic Test-generation in HOL-TESTGEN/CirTA A Case Study

      2015, 9(2):177-203.

      Abstract (3361) HTML (0) PDF 555.57 K (2120) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:HOL-TestGen/CirTA is a theorem-prover based test generation environment for speci cations written in Circus, a process-algebraic speci cation language in the tradition of CSP. HOL-TestGen/CirTA is based on a formal embedding of its semantics in Isabelle/HOL, allowing to derive rules over speci cation constructs in a logically safe way. Beyond the derivation of algebraic laws and calculi for process re nement, the originality of HOL-TestGen/ CirTA consists in an entire derived theory for the generation of symbolic test-traces, including optimized rules for test-generation as well as rules for symbolic execution. The deduction process is automated by Isabelle tactics, allowing to protract the state-space explosion resulting from blind enumeration of data. The implementation of test-generation procedures in CirTA is completed by an integrated tool chain that transforms the initial Circus speci cation of a system into a set of equivalence classes (or "symbolic tests"), which were compiled to conventional JUnit test-drivers. This paper describes the novel tool-chain based on prior theoretical work on semantics and test-theory and attempts an evaluation via a medium-sized case study performed on a component of a real-world safety-critical medical monitoring system written in Java. We provide experimental measurements of the kill-capacity of implementation mutants.

    • Knorc Calculus and Its Formal Semantics--To Honor my Friend Prof. Krieg-Brueckner's 66th Birthday

      2015, 9(2):205-231.

      Abstract (2534) HTML (0) PDF 198.47 K (2058) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:This paper introduces the orchestration calculus Knorc, which is a conservative extension of the Orc calculus designed by J. Misra et. al. Orc is a simple but powerful calculus for wide area computing, whose simplicity makes it a solid kernel for orchestration programming. But on the other hand Orc leaves everything else to the programmer, which often makes the programming task complicated. The design idea of Knorc was to provide Orc with a delicately selected set of facilities to greatly increase the expressive power of the calculus and at the same time keep the calculus concise. The distinguished features of Knorc include, but not limited to: combination of process algebra and logic programming, site considered as remote Boolean procedure, Horn-like logic programming and inference, diversity of different parallelism mechanisms, network of abstract knowledge sources, open world assumption as opposed to closed world assumption where OWA means existing sites need not be known to the programmer, symmetric process-to-process communication, batch processing facilities of knowledge and data, as well as broad band message transmission. Besides introducing the general structures of the language Knorc, we present also a formal structural operational semantics. This is one of the major foci of this paper.

    • An Ontology for Secure Web Applications

      2015, 9(2):233-258.

      Abstract (2902) HTML (0) PDF 2.32 M (4404) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:It is commonly known that most applications suffer from security holes that are sooner or later exploited. One reason is that for developers the term "security" is difficult to grasp. Many security properties exist and there are many methods to enforce them or to avoid implementing common vulnerabilities in applications. Ontologies can help to get an overview of web security and to structure this domain by relating relevant assets, methods, tools, security properties, vulnerabilities and threats (referred to as knowledge objects). In this paper, we present a novel ontology with a focus on secure web applications, called SecWAO. It is based on the Context model of SecEval, which is a domain model tailored to describe knowledge objects. By providing an overview, SecWAO supports teaching purposes and web developers when specifying security requirements or making design decisions.

    • Similarity-Based Diff, Three-Way Diff and Merge

      2015, 9(2):259-277.

      Abstract (2836) HTML (0) PDF 160.28 K (2191) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:Semi-structured documents and data pervade modern workflows in all areas. Collaborative work and version management rely on effective, automatic difference analysis and three-way difference analysis tools. In our effort to develop a three-way difference analysis for tree-structured documents we developed a kernel three-way difference algorithm which extends the equality-based procedures, such as GNU diff3, by considering the similarity of documents in the difference analysis as well as to ignore the order of data if that is semantically suitable. As a result we obtain difference analysis algorithms that can be more fine-tuned to the application domain. Moreover, the equality-based counter-parts of our three-way difference analysis algorithms has the idempotency property, which the current three-way diff algorithms lacks.

    • Computational Problem Solving in Spatial Substrates -- A Cognitive Systems Engineering Approach

      2015, 9(2):279-288.

      Abstract (2463) HTML (0) PDF 347.32 K (2041) Comment (0) Favorites

      Abstract:The ability to perform spatial tasks is crucial for everyday life and of great importance to cognitive agents such as humans, animals, and autonomous robots. A common artificial intelligence approach to accomplish spatial tasks is to represent spatial configurations and tasks in form of detailed knowledge about various aspects of space and time. Suitable algorithms then use the representations to compute solutions to spatial problems. In comparison, natural embodied and situated agents often solve spatial tasks without detailed knowledge about geometric, topological, or mechanical laws; they directly relate actions to effects that are due to spatio-temporal affordances in their bodies and environments. Accordingly, we propose a paradigm that makes the spatio-temporal substrate an integral part of the engine that drives spatial problem solving. We argue that spatial and temporal structures in body and environment can substantially support (and even replace) reasoning effort in computational processes: physical manipulation and perception in spatial environments substitute formal computation. While the approach is well known – for example, we employ diagrams as spatial substrate for geometric problem solving and maps for wayfinding – the underlying principle has not been systematically investigated or formally analyzed as a paradigm of cognitive processing. Topology, distance, and orientation constraints are all integrated and interdependent in truly 2- or 3-dimensional space. Exploiting this fact may not only help overcome the need for acquiring detailed knowledge about the interrelationships between different aspects of space; it also can point to a way of avoiding exploding computational complexity that occurs when we deal with these aspects of space in complex real-world scenarios. Our approach employs affordance-based object-level problem solving to complement knowledge-level formal approaches. We will assess strengths and weaknesses of the new cognitive systems paradigm.