Specification and reasoning in SE projects using a Web IDE

Cook, Charles T.; Drachova-Strang, Svetlana V.; Sun, Youyi; Sitaraman, Murali; Carver, Jeffrey C.; Hollingsworth, Joseph E.

doi:10.1109/cseet.2013.6595254

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…A significant component of the tutorial will be "hands-on" activities with developing verified software [4,5,6,7]. This will allow the Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page.…”

Section: Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Special session

Sitaraman

Weide

2014

Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Program correctness is central to computing, with instructors striving to convey the importance of "getting it right" starting in CS1. Teaching this material carefully demands a uniform framework to specify, implement, and reason about software correctness. To make these ideas accessible to educators and students, the tutorial will use RESOLVE, an integrated specification and programming language with a toolset especially designed for building verified components. The tutorial will also discuss how to get students involved through hands-on activities with software construction and modular verification using a web-integrated environment that requires no software installation and that features a prototype "pushbutton" verifying compiler. The proposers have taught the ideas contained here using engaging pedagogical methods in introductory and advanced CS courses to thousands of students and dozens of educators over the past 20 years, and this SIGCSE tutorial will leverage that experience.

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Section: Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Special session

Sitaraman

Weide

2014

Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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“…A discussion of the use of the web IDE for componentbased software engineering projects at two institutions is the topic of [22]. The modeling and specifications are client-oriented and are totally independent of how stacks might be represented and implemented, such as using arrays, vectors, or linked lists.…”

Section: A Web Ide and In-class Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tool-Assisted Loop Invariant Development and Analysis

Priester

Sun

Sitaraman

2016

2016 IEEE 29th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEET)

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Identification of an adequate invariant is valuablefor reasoning about the correctness of code involving a loop, informally or formally. Almost every modern system for automated verification demands that programmers annotate their code with assertions, such as invariants to facilitate automation. But many learners struggle to grasp how to arrive at an assertion that remains an invariant and is sufficiently strong to prove subsequent assertions reliant on the outcome of the loop. The objective of this research is to present a method to help understand the difficulties students face in developing suitable loop invariants, and assist them in the process. We describe results from an experimentation in a software engineering classroom where students were charged with developing verified component-based code using a web-based front end for a verifying compiler. We collected data in the background as students attempted to produce verified code with loop invariants in in-class activities and take-home projects.Initial results show what kinds of information we can expect to see and what kinds of feedback might be useful.

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“…It has a strong theoretical basis and has been used for nearly a decade at multiple institutions. Thousands of undergraduate students have employed the ideas in CS courses [ [12], [15], [19], [21]] and in software engineering projects [ [11], [33]]. It suffices to say that the engine is far more powerful than demanded by the reasoning activities discussed here.…”

Section: Reasoning Tool Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Steps, Instruction, and Motivation on Learning Symbolic Reasoning Using an Online Tool

Fowler

Cook

Plis

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Several research studies have shown the benefits of code tracing to promote student understanding of program behavior. While code tracing on specific input values is a useful starting point, students ultimately need to be able to reason rigorously and logically about the correctness of their code on all (i.e., arbitrary) inputs. Otherwise, they may make false generalizations and may achieve only a shallow understanding. Results of a multi-semester experiment to answer the following research questions: (1) With or without steps, can students learn the basics of tracing code on symbolic input values using an online tool? And how important is classroom instruction? (2) What is the impact of motivation on student attitudes in learning to reason with such a tool? Data was obtained from 297 subjects who used the online reasoning tool in a second-year software development course for CS majors. Analysis indicates that students can do symbolic reasoning to trace code and that instruction and motivation have significant impact.

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Specification and reasoning in SE projects using a Web IDE

Cited by 14 publications

References 15 publications

Special session

Special session

Tool-Assisted Loop Invariant Development and Analysis

Impact of Steps, Instruction, and Motivation on Learning Symbolic Reasoning Using an Online Tool

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