DOCSLIB.ORG

Interface-Based Programming Assignments and Automatic Grading of Java Programs

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Interface-Based Programming Assignments and Automatic Grading of Java Programs Computer Science and Systems Analysis Computer Science and Systems Analysis Technical Reports Miami University Year Interface-based Programming Assignments and Automatic Grading of Java Programs Michael T. Helmick Miami University This paper is posted at Scholarly Commons at Miami University. http://sc.lib.muohio.edu/csa techreports/2 Interface-based Programming Assignments and Automatic Grading of Java Programs Michael T Helmick Miami University Department of Computer Science and Systems Analysis Oxford, Ohio USA [email protected] ABSTRACT Preliminary analysis of Java coding style can be handled AutoGrader is a framework developed at Miami University automatically using either the open source Checkstyle [1] or for the automatic grading of student programming assign- PMD [4] packages (AutoGrader is integrated with PMD). ments written in the Java programming language. Auto- While it might be possible to handle the evaluation of pro- Grader leverages the abstract concept of interfaces, brought gram design in an automated fashion, we feel that this task out by the Java interface language construct, in both the is best left to an experienced instructor or teaching assis- assignment and grading of programming assignments. The tant. There is a large body of program design knowledge use of interfaces reinforces the role of procedural abstraction that comes from experience, and this experience can not in object-oriented programming and allows for a common easily be programmed into an automated system. API to all student code. This common API then enables Functional testing, on the other hand, is a task that pro- automatic grading of program functionality. AutoGrader duces a boolean answer. A program either works and pro- provides a simple instructor API and enables the automatic vides the correct answer based on predetermined inputs, or testing of student code through the Java language features of it does not. Since software systems tend to be built in lay- interfaces and reflection1. AutoGrader also supports static ers, we can further sub-divide assignments and target spe- code analysis using PMD [4] to detect possible bugs, dead cific functionalities for testing. Our goal in automatically code, suboptimal, and overcomplicated code. While Auto- testing student code is two-fold: (1) to adequately exercise Grader is written in and only handles Java programs, this student code; and (2) to segment the tests such that pieces style of automated grading is adaptable to any language that of functionality are isolated and tested as independently as supports (or can mimic) named interfaces and/or abstract possible. This not only makes automatic assessment eas- functions and that also supports runtime reflection. ier, it is also a valuable teaching technique for instruction of software construction. We have introduced a pedagogy for our data structures 1. INTRODUCTION course that enables and utilizes automatic grading for pro- Automatic grading of student programs has been of in- gramming assignment functionality. Interface-based pro- terest to computer science educators for some time [8] and gramming can raise the level of abstraction within a program continues to gain attention today [7, 5, 9, 12, 14, 10]. There and is often underutilized [15]. The use of interfaces with have been various approaches with most leaning towards an- the Java programming languages enforces an extra level of alyzing the output of the entire program with some mention indirection and allows the instructors to set a certain level of of techniques and tools such as JUnit [16]. However, there commonality in a what is to be done manner, without regard seems to be no established consensus on the best way to to the individualized implementation details. While seem- automatically grade student code. ing restrictive on the surface, this still leaves implementa- We take the position that there are two tasks involved in tion considerations up to individual students and does not grading of student assignments: impose a common design, just a common interface. This 1. Functional testing also unifies grading of student work since each individual solution adheres to a prescribed interface, allowing the in- 2. Evaluation of design and style structor to save time by constructing the tests a single time 1The Java reflection API allows the runtime system to be and applying them to all students in the course. inspected and manipulated dynamically. http://java.sun. This paper describes how we use interfaces in our data com/docs/books/tutorial/reflect/index.html structures class, how this enables discrete functional testing of student code, and how this is integrated into the Auto- Grader framework. Section 2 describes how interfaces are used in the data structures curriculum. Section 3 gives Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for an overview of the AutoGrader framework, how it is con- personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are structed, and how grading packages are written by an in- not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies structor. Section 4 places this framework in the context of bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific related work in this field. permission and/or a fee. Copyright 2006 Miami University Technical Report: MU-SEAS-CSA- 2006-002 . 2. INTERFACE-BASED ASSIGNMENTS For programming assignments in the context of a data 13 getList( String. class ); structures course, there is a certain level of commonality between all student projects. When talking about abstract 15 assertNotNull( strList ); data structures there is a natural tendency towards using assertEquals( 0, strList.size() ); a common interface. For instance, data structures for lists 17 } can have multiple implementations: array-backed list, singly linked list, and doubly linked list. It doesn’t make sense that 19 } each of these implementations would present a different in- terface to the clients of list services. In fact, the usefulness of these data structures increases if they implement common Listing 2: ArrayListTest.java interface[11], emphasizing the flexibility of switching imple- 1 import java.util.List; mentations as long as the client only utilizes the interface. import java. util .Random; Presenting data structures in this fashion is a worthwhile 3 educational objective [15]. public class ArrayListTest We emphasize the use of the Java language construct of 5 extends GeneralListTest { interface in order to increase student awareness of compo- nent software and to show that we can test software with- 7 @Override out knowing the implementation details. Black box testing public <T> List <T> g e t L i s t ( is the process of testing software where we craft tests based 9 Class<T> c l a z z ) { solely on the interface of the software, ignoring what we return new studentid .ArrayList<T>(); know about the implementation details. For the list assign- 11 //return new java.util.ArrayList<T>(); ment in our data structures course, we assign students the } task of implementing the standard java.util.List<E> in- 13 } terface [2] by providing both array-backed and linked list implementations. Because of the complexity involved, the The code from Listing 1 is then completed by the student, subList method is excluded. fully testing the list interface. Listing 2 shows how easy Students are also required to write unit tests using JUnit it is to then either test the student developed code (new [3] for all aspects of their programs (White box testing). This studentid.ArrayList<T>()) or test the built in Java im- serves two purposes: (1) to get students to test their code; plementation (new java.util.ArrayList<T>()). This en- (2) again, to emphasize the use of interfaces in procedural ables students to run their tests against an implementation abstraction, getting them to focus on what is being done, of an object that implements the same interface and is pre- rather than how it is being done. If tests are properly written viously known to be in full working order. While the abil- against the List<E> interface and not directed towards a ity to do this is extremely helpful to someone who is new specific implementation, they are able to reuse their tests to unit testing, it is not always possible to test an exist- for both list implementations, reducing their overall time ing implementation. For assignments where there is not a spent on the assignment. built in data structure, an instructor provided implementa- Configuring a JUnit test class to be able to use multiple tion can be used as the reference implementation. On more implementations can be enabled through the use of an ab- advanced assignments, students are generally not provided stract class containing all of the tests, and two sub-classes with a working implementation to compare against. containing the code to instantiate the list classes. This sepa- Interfaced-based assignments have been used successfully ration further emphasizes good unit testing in that it makes in our data structures course for lists, binary trees, heaps, it more difficult to make one test dependent on another test sets, maps, and graphs. We emphasize the portability of in the test package. Students are provided with some starter client code using an interface and thus the ability for a stu- code to demonstrate constructing tests in this way. An ex- dent to write one test suite which can then test multiple cerpt of this starter code is shown in Listings 1 and 2. This implementations. The use of assignments of this type and example setup works well when students are to provide more subsequent automatic grading of student code is not limited than one implementation of the same interface and also pro- to the scope of a data structures course.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Interface Types for Haskell
    Interface Types for Haskell Peter Thiemann and Stefan Wehr Institut f¨urInformatik, Universit¨atFreiburg, Germany {thiemann,wehr}@informatik.uni-freiburg.de Abstract. Interface types are a useful concept in object-oriented pro- gramming languages like Java or C#. A clean programming style advo- cates relying on interfaces without revealing their implementation. Haskell’s type classes provide a closely related facility for stating an in- terface separately from its implementation. However, there are situations in which no simple mechanism exists to hide the identity of the imple- mentation type of a type class. This work provides such a mechanism through the integration of lightweight interface types into Haskell. The extension is non-intrusive as no additional syntax is needed and no existing programs are affected. The implementation extends the treat- ment of higher-rank polymorphism in production Haskell compilers. 1 Introduction Interfaces in object-oriented programming languages and type classes in Haskell are closely related: both define the types of certain operations without revealing their implementations. In Java, the name of an interface also acts as an interface type, whereas the name of a type class can only be used to constrain types. Interface types are a proven tool for ensuring data abstraction and information hiding. In many cases, Haskell type classes can serve the same purpose, but there are situations for which the solutions available in Haskell have severe drawbacks. Interface types provide a simple and elegant solution in these situations. A modest extension to Haskell provides the simplicity and elegance of interface types: simply allow programmers to use the name of a type class as a first- class type.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 8. Deploying an Osgi Service
    Chapter 8. Deploying an OSGi Service The OSGi core framework defines the OSGi Service Layer, which provides a simple mechanism for bundles to interact by registering Java objects as services in the OSGi service registry. One of the strengths of the OSGi service model is that any Java object can be offered as a service: there are no particular constraints, inheritance rules, or annotations that must be applied to the service class. This chapter describes how to deploy an OSGi service using the OSGi blueprint container. The Blueprint Container ........................................................................................................... 92 Blueprint Configuration ................................................................................................... 93 Defining a Service Bean .................................................................................................. 95 Exporting a Service ........................................................................................................ 98 Importing a Service ...................................................................................................... 104 Publishing an OSGi Service .................................................................................................... 113 Accessing an OSGi Service ..................................................................................................... 118 FUSE ESB Deploying into the OSGi Container Version 4.2 91 Chapter 8. Deploying an OSGi Service The Blueprint Container Blueprint Configuration
    [Show full text]
  • Mixin-Based Programming in C++1
    Mixin-Based Programming in C++1 Yannis Smaragdakis Don Batory College of Computing Department of Computer Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology The University of Texas at Austin Atlanta, GA 30332 Austin, Texas 78712 [email protected] [email protected] Abstract. Combinations of C++ features, like inheritance, templates, and class nesting, allow for the expression of powerful component patterns. In particular, research has demonstrated that, using C++ mixin classes, one can express lay- ered component-based designs concisely with efficient implementations. In this paper, we discuss pragmatic issues related to component-based programming using C++ mixins. We explain surprising interactions of C++ features and poli- cies that sometimes complicate mixin implementations, while other times enable additional functionality without extra effort. 1 Introduction Large software artifacts are arguably among the most complex products of human intellect. The complexity of software has led to implementation methodologies that divide a problem into manageable parts and compose the parts to form the final prod- uct. Several research efforts have argued that C++ templates (a powerful parameteriza- tion mechanism) can be used to perform this division elegantly. In particular, the work of VanHilst and Notkin [29][30][31] showed how one can implement collaboration-based (or role-based) designs using a certain templatized class pattern, known as a mixin class (or just mixin). Compared to other techniques (e.g., a straightforward use of application frameworks [17]) the VanHilst and Notkin method yields less redundancy and reusable components that reflect the structure of the design. At the same time, unnecessary dynamic binding can be eliminated, result- ing into more efficient implementations.
    [Show full text]
  • Interface Evolution Via Virtual Extension Methods Brian Goetz Fourth Draft, June 2011
    Interface evolution via virtual extension methods Brian Goetz Fourth draft, June 2011 1. Problem statement Once published, it is impossible to add methods to an interface without breaking existing implementations. (Specifically, adding a method to an interface is not a source- compatible change.) The longer the time since a library has been published, the more likely it is that this restriction will cause grief for its maintainers. The addition of closures to the Java language in JDK 7 place additional stress on the aging Collection interfaces; one of the most significant benefits of closures is that it enables the development of more powerful libraries. It would be disappointing to add a language feature that enables better libraries while at the same time not extending the core libraries to take advantage of that feature1. V1 of the Lambda Strawman proposed C#-style static extension methods as a means of creating the illusion of adding methods to existing classes and interfaces, but they have significant limitations – for example, they cannot be overridden by classes that implement the interface being extended, so implementations are stuck with the “one size fits all” implementation provided as an extension2, and they are not reflectively discoverable. 2. Virtual extension methods3 In this document, we outline a mechanism for adding new methods to existing interfaces, which we call virtual extension methods. Existing interfaces can be augmented without compromising backward compatibility4 by adding extension methods to the interface, whose declaration would contain instructions for finding the default implementation in the event that implementers do not provide a method body.
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamic Interfaces
    Dynamic Interfaces Vasco T. Vasconcelos Simon J. Gay Antonio´ Ravara Departamento de Informatica´ Department of Computing Science SQIG at Instituto de Telecomunicac¸oes˜ Faculdade de Cienciasˆ da University of Glasgow, UK Department of Mathematics, IST, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] [email protected] Nils Gesbert Alexandre Z. Caldeira Department of Computing Science Departamento de Informatica´ University of Glasgow, UK Faculdade de Cienciasˆ da [email protected] Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] Abstract 1. Introduction We define a small class-based object-oriented language in which Standard class-based object-oriented languages present the pro- the availability of methods depends on an object’s abstract state: grammer with the following view: an object is declared to belong to objects’ interfaces are dynamic. Each class has a session type which a certain type, and the type defines various methods; it is therefore provides a global specification of the availability of methods in possible at any time to call any of the methods described in the type. each state. A key feature is that the abstract state of an object However, there are often semantic reasons why it is not appropriate may depend on the result of a method whose return type is an to call a particular method when the object is in a particular inter- enumeration. Static typing guarantees that methods are only called nal state. For example: with a stack, one should not attempt to pop when they are available.
    [Show full text]
  • Create Mixins with Interfaces and Extension Methods by Bill Wagner
    Create Mixins with Interfaces and Extension Methods by Bill Wagner Mixins are small utility classes that define some useful functionality that will usually become part of something larger. For example, a class that implements a serial number to uniquely identify an object, or a timestamp that reports when an object was created. In C++, these mixin classes would be created using regular class definitions, and larger classes that wanted to use the mixin behavior would simply inherit from the mixin, in addition to any base classes it needed. Because the .NET Framework does not support multiple inheritance, we’ve typically used interface to define mixins. That works, but it’s not as powerful. One of the limitations of using interfaces to define mixin behavior is that every class that implements an interface must reimplement every method defined in that interface. That leads many developers to creating minimal interface definitions. (IEqualityComparer<T> has one method, IComparable<T> has only method). In those instances, the interface’s full functionality is completely defined in those small methods. But, what about cases where your interface can, or should, contain many more methods in order to support the developers that want to use the interface? That’s a perfect use case for extension methods. By creating extension methods using the interface, you can inject many more methods into the public definition of the interface, without forcing every developer to re-create those methods whenever he or she implements that interface. I’ve created a simple example based on strings that represent file paths. I often write classes that contain files or directories, usually for offline caches, or similar needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Variable-Arity Generic Interfaces
    Variable-Arity Generic Interfaces T. Stephen Strickland, Richard Cobbe, and Matthias Felleisen College of Computer and Information Science Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 [email protected] Abstract. Many programming languages provide variable-arity func- tions. Such functions consume a fixed number of required arguments plus an unspecified number of \rest arguments." The C++ standardiza- tion committee has recently lifted this flexibility from terms to types with the adoption of a proposal for variable-arity templates. In this paper we propose an extension of Java with variable-arity interfaces. We present some programming examples that can benefit from variable-arity generic interfaces in Java; a type-safe model of such a language; and a reduction to the core language. 1 Introduction In April of 2007 the C++ standardization committee adopted Gregor and J¨arvi's proposal [1] for variable-length type arguments in class templates, which pre- sented the idea and its implementation but did not include a formal model or soundness proof. As a result, the relevant constructs will appear in the upcom- ing C++09 draft. Demand for this feature is not limited to C++, however. David Hall submitted a request for variable-arity type parameters for classes to Sun in 2005 [2]. For an illustration of the idea, consider the remarks on first-class functions in Scala [3] from the language's homepage. There it says that \every function is a value. Scala provides a lightweight syntax for defining anonymous functions, it supports higher-order functions, it allows functions to be nested, and supports currying." To achieve this integration of objects and closures, Scala's standard library pre-defines ten interfaces (traits) for function types, which we show here in Java-like syntax: interface Function0<Result> { Result apply(); } interface Function1<Arg1,Result> { Result apply(Arg1 a1); } interface Function2<Arg1,Arg2,Result> { Result apply(Arg1 a1, Arg2 a2); } ..
    [Show full text]
  • Using the Bridge Design Pattern for Osgi Service Update
    Using the Bridge Design Pattern for OSGi Service Update Hans Werner Pohl Jens Gerlach {hans,jens}@first.fraunhofer.de Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (FIRST) Berlin Germany Abstract In the OSGi framework, components cooperate by sharing service objects. The suggested way to replace a service by a newer version consists of updat- ing its containing components which requires a temporary shutdown of the component. Special care must be taken to avoid dangling references to old service instances. As this appears to be an overly expensive strategy, we describe the use of the well-known Bridge design pattern to decouple service replacement from component updates. Instead of registering services only references to instances of automatically generated bridge classes are registered. This solves not only the problem of dangling references but also avoids stopping and starting de- pendent bundles. 1 Introduction The Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi)[1] is a consortium that has specified a JavaTM component framework[2] for delivering, activating, and replacing services over wide-area networks to local-area networks and devices. Since OSGi server im- plementations can be quite small, it is a good candidate when looking for supporting runtime evolution in embedded systems. OSGi components interact by sharing so-called service objects. Services are reg- istered by one component and referenced by others. A major problem of OSGi com- ponent exchange at runtime is the replacement of service objects. Shutting down all dependent components and restarting the replaced sub-system, as recommended by OSGi, seems overly expensive. In this paper, we describe the use of the well-known Bridge design pattern to decouple service replacement from bundle updates.
    [Show full text]
  • Objectives: Interfaces [From Sun's Java Tutorial] Interfaces in Java
    Chulalongkorn University Name _____________________ International School of Engineering Student ID _________________ Department of Computer Engineering Station No. _________________ 2140105 Computer Programming Lab. Date ______________________ Lab 9 – OO Concept (Episode III) Objectives: • Understand the concept of interface • Understand interfaces in Java • Be able to define a class that implements an interface. Interfaces [from Sun’s Java Tutorial] There are a number of situations in software engineering when it is important for disparate groups of programmers to agree to a "contract" that spells out how their software interacts. Each group should be able to write their code without any knowledge of how the other group's code is written. Generally speaking, interfaces are such contracts. For example, imagine a futuristic society where computer‐controlled robotic cars transport passengers through city streets without a human operator. Automobile manufacturers write software (Java, of course) that operates the automobile—stop, start, accelerate, turn left, and so forth. Another industrial group, electronic guidance instrument manufacturers, makes computer systems that receive GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) position data and wireless transmission of traffic conditions and use that information to drive the car. The auto manufacturers must publish an industry‐standard interface that spells out in detail what methods can be invoked to make the car move (any car, from any manufacturer). The guidance manufacturers can then write software that invokes the methods described in the interface to command the car. Neither industrial group needs to know how the other group's software is implemented. In fact, each group considers its software highly proprietary and reserves the right to modify it at any time, as long as it continues to adhere to the published interface.
    [Show full text]
  • Collections and Inheritance
    COMP 401 Prasun Dewan1 Collections and Inheritance In the previous chapter, we defined logical structures with fixed number of nodes. In this chapter, we will see how we can use arrays to define types with a dynamic number of components. The collectiom examples will motivate the main topic of this chapter – inheritance. Inheritance in an object-oriented language is not much different than inheritance in the real world. Just it is possible to automatically inherit money from a benefactor or genes from ancestors, it is possible to inherit code from an object type – specifically the methods and variables defined by that type. The idea of inheritance is related to the IS-A relation. Again, this relation is used in the non-computer world. A human is a mammal; a salmon is a fish; and each of you is a student. Similarly, we say that ACartesianPointy is a Point because it implements Point. We will see that inheritance, like interface implementation, is also an is-a relation. We will show how type checking of object variables is based on this relation. Example Problem To motivate collections, let us consider the problem of implementing the console-based application shown in Figure ???. (replace the figures with actual text for mobile reading) 1 Copyright Prasun Dewan, 2015. Users of this application can enter names, print the set of entered names, and quit the application. A line beginning with q or P is considered a command to quit the application or print the names, respectively. Any other line is considered the entry of a new name.
    [Show full text]
  • Patterns of Interface-Based Programming
    JOURNAL OF OBJECT TECHNOLOGY Online at http://www.jot.fm. Published by ETH Zurich, Chair of Software Engineering ©JOT, 2005 Vol. 4, No. 5, July-August 2005 Patterns of Interface-Based Programming Friedrich Steimann, Universität Hannover Philip Mayer, Universität Hannover Abstract Modern software architectures heavily promote the use of interfaces. Originally conceived as a means to separate specification from implementation, popular programming languages toady accommodate interfaces as special kinds of types that can be used – in place of classes – in variable declarations. While it is clear that these interfaces offer polymorphism independent of the inheritance hierarchy, little has been said about the systematic use of interfaces, or how they are actually used in practice. By providing a set of basic patterns of interface use together with numbers of their frequency we provide insights that should be of interest not only to the practising programmer, but also to the designers and analysts of large code bases. 1 INTRODUCTION After the hype has gone, what remains from a new technology is often not what it has originally been acclaimed for. In the case of object-oriented programming, it seems that the praise for its potential of code reuse through implementation inheritance has vanished in favour of an appreciation of what is sometimes called interface inheritance or, more generally, interface-based programming [Pattison00]. This programming style derives from the fact that instances of different classes are allowed to take the same place (i.e., can be assigned to the same variable) as long as they guarantee to conform to the same interface specification, and that this substitutability is independent from whether or not the classes share implementation.
    [Show full text]
  • Serialization?
    SSeerriiaalliizzaattiioonn 1 Topics ● What is Serialization? ● What is preserved when an object is serialized? ● Transient keyword ● Process of serialization ● Process of deserialization ● Version control ● Changing the default protocol ● Creating your own protocol via Externalizable 2 WWhhaatt iiss SSeerriiaalliizzaattiioonn?? 3 What is Serialization? ● Ability to read or write an object to a stream – Process of "flattening" an object ● Used to save object to some permanent storage – Its state should be written in a serialized form to a file such that the object can be reconstructed at a later time from that file ● Used to pass on to another object via the OutputStream class – Can be sent over the network 4 Streams Used for Serialization ● ObjectOutputStream – For serializing (flattening an object) ● ObjectInputStream – For deserializing (reconstructing an object) 5 Requirement for Serialization ● To allow an object to be serializable: – Its class should implement the Serializable interface ● Serializable interface is marker interface – Its class should also provide a default constructor (a constructor with no arguments) ● Serializability is inherited – Don't have to implement Serializable on every class – Can just implement Serializable once along the class hierarchy 6 Non-Serializable Objects ● Most Java classes are serializable ● Objects of some system-level classes are not serializable – Because the data they represent constantly changes ● Reconstructed object will contain different value anyway ● For example, thread running in my
    [Show full text]