Secret Ninja Formal Methods

Providing useful feedback to students about both the functional correctness and the internal structure of their submissions is the most labor-intensive part of teaching programming courses. The former can be automated through test scripts and other similar mechanisms; however, the latter typically requires a detailed inspection of the submitted code. This paper introduces AutoGradeMe, a tool that automates much (but not all) of the work required to grade the internal structure of a student submission in the Java programming language. It integrates with the Eclipse IDE and multiple third-party plug-ins to provide instructors with an easy-touse grading environment. More importantly, unlike other automatic grading tools currently in use, it gives students continuous feedback about their work during the development process.

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“…We have previously discussed our use of these plug-ins in software engineering courses [4] and as part of our development process [5].…”

Section: Autogrademe and Eclipsementioning

confidence: 99%

Toward instant gradeification

Zimmerman

Kiniry

Fairmichael

2011

2011 24th IEEE-CS Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T)

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“…Finally, the limited and incomplete API specifications of Java libraries were a problem for Poll's students; in our case, we provided the necessary library classes with detailed specifications so that students could focus on the specifications and code in their project modules. Kiniry and Zimmerman [10] advocate an early and gradual introduction of formal methods into the undergraduate curriculum, in conjunction with design by contract and runtime as well as static checking. They emphasise the importance of tool support and IDE integration; our experience led to similar recommendations in this respect.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The AutoProof Verifier: Usability by Non-Experts and on Standard Code

Furia¹,

Poskitt

Tschannen³

2015

Electron. Proc. Theor. Comput. Sci.

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Formal verification tools are often developed by experts for experts; as a result, their usability by programmers with little formal methods experience may be severely limited. In this paper, we discuss this general phenomenon with reference to AutoProof: a tool that can verify the full functional correctness of object-oriented software. In particular, we present our experiences of using AutoProof in two contrasting contexts representative of non-expert usage. First, we discuss its usability by students in a graduate course on software verification, who were tasked with verifying implementations of various sorting algorithms. Second, we evaluate its usability in verifying code developed for programming assignments of an undergraduate course. The first scenario represents usability by serious non-experts; the second represents usability on "standard code", developed without full functional verification in mind. We report our experiences and lessons learnt, from which we derive some general suggestions for furthering the development of verification tools with respect to improving their usability.

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“…In XCD, the behaviour of components and connectors are specified in an extended form of Design-by-Contract (DbC) approach which is more familiar to developers and easier to learn for them. For example, JML has been taught to undergraduate students for a number of years [Kiniry and Zimmerman, 2008].…”

Section: Automated Formal Verificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Architectural Specification and Analysis with XCD - The Aegis Combat System Case Study

Ozkaya

Kloukinas

2014

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development

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Abstract:Despite promoting precise modelling and analysis, architecture description languages (ADLs) have not yet gained the expected momentum. Indeed, practitioners prefer using far less formal languages like UML, thus hindering formal verification of models. One of the main issues with ADLs derives from process algebras which practitioners view as having a steep learning curve. In this paper, we introduce a new ADL called XCD which enables designers to model their software architectures through a Design-by-Contract approach, as for example in the Java Modelling Language (JML). We illustrate how XCD can be used in architectural modelling and analysis using the Aegis combat software system.

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Secret Ninja Formal Methods

Cited by 23 publications

References 4 publications

Toward instant gradeification

Toward instant gradeification

The AutoProof Verifier: Usability by Non-Experts and on Standard Code

Architectural Specification and Analysis with XCD - The Aegis Combat System Case Study

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