Towards pattern-based design recovery

A method and a corresponding tool is described which assist design recovery and program understanding by recognising instances of design patterns semi-automatically. The approach taken is specifically designed to overcome the existing scalability problems caused by many design and implementation variants of design pattern instances. Our approach is based on a new recognition algorithm which works incrementally rather than trying to analyse a possibly large software system in one pass without any human intervention. The new algorithm exploits domain and context knowledge given by a reverse engineer and by a special underlying data structure, namely a special form of an annotated abstract syntax graph. A comparative and quantitative evaluation of applying the approach to the Java AWT and JGL libraries is also given.

OntoRama: Browsing RDF ontologies using a hyperbolic-style browser

This paper presents a Java-based hyperbolic-style browser designed to render RDF files as structured ontological maps. The program was motivated by the need to browse the content of a web-accessible ontology server: WEB KB-2. The ontology server contains descriptions of over 74,500 object types derived from the WordNet 1.7 lexical database and can be accessed using RDF syntax. Such a structure creates complications for hyperbolic-style displays. In WEB KB-2 there are 140 stable ontology link types and a hyperbolic display needs to filter and iconify the view so different link relations can be distinguished in multi-link views. Our browsing tool, OntoRama, is therefore motivated by two possibly interfering aims: the first to display up to 10 times the number of nodes in a hyperbolic-style view than using a conventional graphics display; secondly, to render the ontology with multiple links comprehensible in that view.

MQL: A powerful extension to OCL for MOF queries

The Meta-Object Facility (MOF) provides a standardized framework for object-oriented models. An instance of a MOF model contains objects and links whose interfaces are entirely derived from that model. Information contained in these objects can be accessed directly, however, in order to realize the Model-Driven Architecture@trade; (MDA), we must have a mechanism for representing and evaluating structured queries on these instances. The MOF Query Language (MQL) is a language that extends the UML's Object Constraint Language (OCL) to provide more expressive power, such as higher-order queries, parametric polymorphism and argument polymorphism. Not only do these features allow more powerful queries, but they also encourage a greater degree of modularization and re-use, resulting in faster prototyping and facilitating automated integrity analysis. This paper presents an overview of the motivations for developing MQL and also discusses its abstract syntax, presented as a MOF model, and its semantics

Interfacing ASM with the MDG tool

In this paper we describe an approach to interface Abstract State Machines (ASM) with Multiway Decision Graphs (MDG) to enable tool support for the formal verification of ASM descriptions. ASM is a specification method for software and hardware providing a powerful means of modeling various kinds of systems. MDGs are decision diagrams based on abstract representation of data and axe used primarily for modeling hardware systems. The notions of ASM and MDG axe hence closely related to each other, making it appealing to link these two concepts. The proposed interface between ASM and MDG uses two steps: first, the ASM model is transformed into a flat, simple transition system as an intermediate model. Second, this intermediate model is transformed into the syntax of the input language of the MDG tool, MDG-HDL. We have successfully applied this transformation scheme on a case study, the Island Tunnel Controller, where we automatically generated the corresponding MDG-HDL models from ASM specifications.

Linguistic determinism and theory of mind in deaf children

DeVilliers and DeVilliers (2000, 2005) propose that deaf and hearing children acquire a theory of mind (or the understanding that human behaviour is the product of psychological states like true and false beliefs) as a consequence of their linguistic mastery of a rule of syntax. Specifically, they argue that the syntactic rule for sentential complementation with verbs of speech (e.g., “say”) precedes syntactic mastery of complementation for cognition (e.g., “think”) and both of these developmentally precede and promote conceptual mastery of a theory of mind (ToM), as indexed via success on standard false belief tests. The present study examined this proposition in groups of primary-school-aged deaf children and hearing preschoolers who took false belief tests and a modified memory for complements test that included control questions. Guttman scaling techniques indicated no support either for the prediction that syntactic skill precedes ToM understanding or for the earlier emergence of complementation for “say” than for “think”. Methodological issues and implications for deaf children's ToM development are discussed.

JUSTIÇA NO PORTÃO! CONSIDERAÇÕES EXEGÉTICAS A RESPEITO DAS EXIGÊNCIAS ÉTICAS DE ÊXODO 23,1-9

Êxodo 23,1-9 se insere no universo jurídico do antigo Israel não como lei a maneira das formulações em estilo casuístico e apodítico, mas como instrução ética. A estrutura, sintaxe e estilo desse texto revelam que não estamos diante de leis, mas de parênese. Sendo assim, a pergunta pelo seu lugar vivencial, data e conteúdos é significativa. Também o é a pergunta pelos processos sociais que viabilizaram os conflitos indicados indiretamente entre homens livres proprietários de terra e fora do estado de empobrecimento e homens livres donos de terra, mas a caminho de perdê-la por conta das dívidas in natura adquiridas. Para verificarmos a plausibilidade sociológica de Êxodo 23,1-9, verificamos, através da história social, que tipo de sociedade era Israel no tempo do tribalismo e depois na monarquia, e as consequências sociais que cada um desses sistemas promoveu na sociedade israelita. Com isso, pretendemos conhecer o pano de fundo histórico-sociológico que tece o nosso texto.(AU)

Le paradoxe de l'interprétation:À propos du calcul du sens de certains indéfinis

The meaning is involved all levels of language analysis. Located in the heart of phenomena such as the polysemy, the grammaticalisation, the role for interpretation of the syntax, the organisation of the metonymy, the structuring of the metaphor. It is subject to synchroniques and historical typological and social variations. These events allow you to reveal when they are considered under the representations that they involve, the Organization of the linguistic meaning report. It is this organisation that attach themselves to identify the contributions in this book. From the empirical study of problems typical semantics and prag-matique offer answers provide the most current approaches to questions the nature of the sense of the patterns they render account representations and constraints that shape.

Représentation, topologie et sémantique linguistique

The different aspects of language are, we know structured by systematic relationships and recent research suggests that the meaning is no exception to this rule. Languages let talking topics to return to their experience of the universe, this reference in is no less the result of the value that characterizes the signs as an integral part of a system of representation. This article contains representations which substantiates the grammatical value of words define in topological terms. This conceptual topology to realise the noun syntax and interpretation. It is therefore suggested that spatialisantes representations intervene as a condition of the Organization referential and structural language sequences.

Contribution à un bilan méthodologique de la syntaxe de l'émergence diachronique du sujet obligatoire en français::e paramètre du sujet nul et le statut des clitiques

As any language French transformed over time. The evolution of French is marked by many phenomena at all organization levels. For syntax, these phenomena include from the medieval State to current state the assertive sentence of second verb schema change (where the verb should be preceded by a constituent, XVY) to SVO (where it is the subject that precedes the verb) and the passage of the optional expression required expression of the subject. The mandatory presence of the subject in current French is all the more remarkable that it distinguishes it from most other major contemporary romance languages that require explicit subject. This last group includes catalan, Spanish, Italian literary, some occitans, Portuguese, Romanian, and Sardinian, dialects French hugging with the florentin franco-provençal, some other occitans dialects Mediterranean Italian dialects and the ladin following Vanelli, Renzi and Beninca (1985/1985).

Morphology in autism spectrum disorders:local processing bias and language

We conducted a detailed study of a case of linguistic talent in the context of autism spectrum disorder, specifically Asperger syndrome. I.A. displays language strengths at the level of morphology and syntax. Yet, despite this grammar advantage, processing of figurative language and inferencing based on context presents a problem for him. The morphology advantage for I.A. is consistent with the weak central coherence (WCC) account of autism. From this account, the presence of a local processing bias is evident in the ways in which autistic individuals solve common problems, such as assessing similarities between objects and finding common patterns, and may therefore provide an advantage in some cognitive tasks compared to typical individuals. We extend the WCC account to language and provide evidence for a connection between the local processing bias and the acquisition of morphology and grammar.

The effective use of implicit parallelism through the use of an object-oriented programming language

This thesis explores translating well-written sequential programs in a subset of the Eiffel programming language - without syntactic or semantic extensions - into parallelised programs for execution on a distributed architecture. The main focus is on constructing two object-oriented models: a theoretical self-contained model of concurrency which enables a simplified second model for implementing the compiling process. There is a further presentation of principles that, if followed, maximise the potential levels of parallelism. Model of Concurrency. The concurrency model is designed to be a straightforward target for mapping sequential programs onto, thus making them parallel. It aids the compilation process by providing a high level of abstraction, including a useful model of parallel behaviour which enables easy incorporation of message interchange, locking, and synchronization of objects. Further, the model is sufficient such that a compiler can and has been practically built. Model of Compilation. The compilation-model's structure is based upon an object-oriented view of grammar descriptions and capitalises on both a recursive-descent style of processing and abstract syntax trees to perform the parsing. A composite-object view with an attribute grammar style of processing is used to extract sufficient semantic information for the parallelisation (i.e. code-generation) phase. Programming Principles. The set of principles presented are based upon information hiding, sharing and containment of objects and the dividing up of methods on the basis of a command/query division. When followed, the level of potential parallelism within the presented concurrency model is maximised. Further, these principles naturally arise from good programming practice. Summary. In summary this thesis shows that it is possible to compile well-written programs, written in a subset of Eiffel, into parallel programs without any syntactic additions or semantic alterations to Eiffel: i.e. no parallel primitives are added, and the parallel program is modelled to execute with equivalent semantics to the sequential version. If the programming principles are followed, a parallelised program achieves the maximum level of potential parallelisation within the concurrency model.

The development of a new compiler-compiler front-end

The increasing cost of developing complex software systems has created a need for tools which aid software construction. One area in which significant progress has been made is with the so-called Compiler Writing Tools (CWTs); these aim at automated generation of various components of a compiler and hence at expediting the construction of complete programming language translators. A number of CWTs are already in quite general use, but investigation reveals significant drawbacks with current CWTs, such as lex and yacc. The effective use of a CWT typically requires a detailed technical understanding of its operation and involves tedious and error-prone input preparation. Moreover, CWTs such as lex and yacc address only a limited aspect of the compilation process; for example, actions necessary to perform lexical symbol valuation and abstract syntax tree construction must be explicitly coded by the user. This thesis presents a new CWT called CORGI (COmpiler-compiler from Reference Grammar Input) which deals with the entire `front-end' component of a compiler; this includes the provision of necessary data structures and routines to manipulate them, both generated from a single input specification. Compared with earlier CWTs, CORGI has a higher-level and hence more convenient user interface, operating on a specification derived directly from a `reference manual' grammar for the source language. Rather than developing a compiler-compiler from first principles, CORGI has been implemented by building a further shell around two existing compiler construction tools, namely lex and yacc. CORGI has been demonstrated to perform efficiently in realistic tests, both in terms of speed and the effectiveness of its user interface and error-recovery mechanisms.

A unification-based natural language interface to a database.

An implementation of a Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) natural language front-end to a database is presented, and its capabilities demonstrated by reference to a set of queries used in the Chat-80 system. The potential of LFG for such applications is explored. Other grammars previously used for this purpose are briefly reviewed and contrasted with LFG. The basic LFG formalism is fully described, both as to its syntax and semantics, and the deficiencies of the latter for database access application shown. Other current LFG implementations are reviewed and contrasted with the LFG implementation developed here specifically for database access. The implementation described here allows a natural language interface to a specific Prolog database to be produced from a set of grammar rule and lexical specifications in an LFG-like notation. In addition to this the interface system uses a simple database description to compile metadata about the database for later use in planning the execution of queries. Extensions to LFG's semantic component are shown to be necessary to produce a satisfactory functional analysis and semantic output for querying a database. A diverse set of natural language constructs are analysed using LFG and the derivation of Prolog queries from the F-structure output of LFG is illustrated. The functional description produced from LFG is proposed as sufficient for resolving many problems of quantification and attachment.