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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Programming Languages and Compilers

Portland State University

2007

Computer software -- Development

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Directflow: A Domain-Specific Language For Information-Flow Systems, Andrew P. Black, Chuan-Kai Lin Jan 2007

Directflow: A Domain-Specific Language For Information-Flow Systems, Andrew P. Black, Chuan-Kai Lin

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Programs that process streams of information are commonly built by assembling reusable information-flow components. In some systems the components must be chosen from a pre-defined set of primitives; in others the programmer can create new custom components using a general-purpose programming language. Neither approach is ideal: restricting programmers to a set of primitive components limits the expressivity of the system, while allowing programmers to define new components in a general-purpose language makes it difficult or impossible to reason about the composite system. We advocate defining information-flow components in a domain-specific language (DSL) that enables us to infer the properties of …


Why Don’T People Use Refactoring Tools?, Andrew P. Black, Emerson Murphy-Hill Jan 2007

Why Don’T People Use Refactoring Tools?, Andrew P. Black, Emerson Murphy-Hill

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tools that perform refactoring are currently under-utilized by programmers. As more advanced refactoring tools are designed, a great chasm widens between how the tools must be used and how programmers want to use them. In this position paper, we characterize the dominant process of refactoring, demonstrate that many research tools do not support this process, and initiate a call to action for designers of future refactoring tools.