7653698
Reversing Abstract Interpretations
Program analyses are often presented as one of two brands: forwards or backwards. In this paper we explore the significance of the direction of analysis, and show how arbitrary abstract interpretations may be reversed.
8161135
Binding-Time Analysis for Polymorphic Types
Offline partial evaluators specialise programs with annotations which distinguish specialisation-time (or static) computations from run-time ones. These annotations are generated by a binding-time analyser, via type inference in a suitable type-system. Henglein and Mossin developed a type system which allows polymorphism in binding-times, so that the same code can be specialised with different computations being static at different uses. We extend their work to permit polymorphism in types as well. This is particularly important for separately compiled libraries.Following Henglein and Mossin, binding-times are passed as parameters during specialisation, but types are not. Instead, we pass coercion functions when necessary, which makes specialisation less "interpretive" than it would otherwise be. We keep track of the coercions needed by assigning qualified types to polymorphic functions.We also consider hand-annotations to provide limited user control over the binding-time analysis, which our prototype implementation showed to be necessary.
27745403
Type Specialisation for the lambda-Calculus; or, A New Paradigm for Partial Evaluation Based on Type Inference
14958709
Making choices lazily
We present a natural semantics that models the untyped, normal order A-calculus plus McCarthy’s amb in the context of call-by-need parameter passing. This results in a singular semantics for amb. Previous work on singular choice has concentrated on erratic choice, a less interesting nondeterministic choice operator, and only in relation to callby-value parameter passing, or call-by-name restricted to deterministic terms. The natural semantics contains rules for both convergent and divergent behaviour, allowing it to distinguish programs that differ only in their divergent behaviour. As a result, it is more discriminating than current domain-theoretic models. This, and the fact that it models singular amb, makes the natural semantics suitable for reasoning about lazy, functional languages containing McCarthy’s amb.
218895568
How to give a good research talk
Giving a good research talk is not easy. We try to identify some things which we have found helpful, in the hope that they may be useful to you.
14804186
Proving the correctness of reactive systems using sized types
We have designed and implemented a type-based analysis for proving some basic properties of reactive systems. The analysis manipulates rich type expressions that contain information about the sizes of recursively defined data structures. Sized types are useful for detecting deadlocks, nontermination, and other errors in embedded programs. To establish the soundness of the analysis we have developed an appropriate semantic model of sized types.
12392598
Reflections on the use of grounded theory in interpretive information systems research
In Information Systems research there are a growing number of studies that must necessarily draw upon the contexts, experiences and narratives of practitioners. This calls for research approaches that are qualitative and may also be interpretive. These may include case studies or action research projects. For some researchers, particularly those with limited experience of interpretive qualitative research, there may be a lack of confidence when faced with the prospect of collecting and analysing the data from studies of this kind. In this paper we reflect on the lessons learned from using Grounded Theory in an interpretive case study based piece of research. The paper discusses the lessons and provides guidance for the use of the method in interpretive studies.
655369
Free-form sketching with variational implicit surfaces
With the advent of sketch-based methods for shape construction, there’s a new degree of power available in the rapid creation of approximate shapes. Sketch [Zeleznik, 1996] showed how a gesture-based modeler could be used to simplify conventional CSG-like shape creation. Teddy [Igarashi, 1999] extended this to more free-form models, getting much of its power from its "inflation" operation (which converted a simple closed curve in the plane into a 3D shape whose silhouette, from the current point of view, was that curve on the view plane) and from an elegant collection of gestures for attaching additional parts to a shape, cutting a shape, and deforming it. But despite the powerful collection of tools in Teddy, the underlying polygonal representation of shapes intrudes on the results in many places. In this paper, we discuss our preliminary efforts at using variational implicit surfaces [Turk, 2000] as a representation in a free-form modeler. We also discuss the implementation of several operations within this context, and a collection of user-interaction elements that work well together to make modeling interesting hierarchies simple. These include “stroke inflation” via implicit functions, blob-merging, automatic hierarchy construction, and local surface modification via silhouette oversketching. We demonstrate our results by creating several models.
42315632
Volume warping
Volume warping, a technique for deforming sampled volumetric data using B-splines that is related to image warping and to the free-form deformations of T.W. Sederberg and S.R. Parry (1986) and S. Coquillart (1990), is presented. The process is accelerated to near-real-time speed, and the compromises that are made to effect such speeds are explained. This technique expands the repertoire of volumetric modeling techniques and can be applied to any form of volumetric data.<<ETX>>
7017581
Multi-finger cursor techniques
The mouse cursor acts as a digital proxy for a finger on graphical displays. Our hands, however, have ten fingers and many degrees of freedom that we use to interact with the world. We posit that by creating graphical cursors that reflect more of the hand's physical properties, we can allow for richer and more fluid interaction. We demonstrate this idea with three new cursors that are controlled by the user's fingers using a multi-point touchpad. The first two techniques allow for simultaneous control of several properties of graphical objects, while the third technique makes several enhancements to object selection.
27941486
Distributed probabilistic diagnosis of MCMs on large area substrates
This paper addresses the issue of testing MCMs on large-area substrates. The cost of testing each MCM may be as high as 40% of the total manufacturing cost. It is critical that the test process be parallelized in order that multiple MCMs may be tested for the cost of testing one MCM. With this objective in mind, we propose a distributed probabilistic diagnosis algorithm for MCMs on large-area substrates. Our algorithm performs better than the existing diagnosis algorithms and can correctly identify almost all MCMs even when the yield is very low (35%). Further it provides upto an order of magnitude reduction in test application time as opposed to serial MCM probe test.