Abstract—Framework-specific modeling languages (FSMLs) help developers build applications based on object-oriented frameworks. FSMLs model abstractions and rules of application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by frameworks and can express models of how applications use APIs. Such models aid developers in understanding, creating, and evolving application code. We present four exemplar FSMLs and a method for engineering new FSMLs. The method was created post-mortem by generalizing the experience of building the exemplars and by specializing existing approaches to domain analysis, software development, and quality evaluation of models and languages. The method is driven by the use cases that the FSML under development should support and the evaluation of the constructed FSML is guided by two existing quality frameworks. The method description provides concrete examples for the engineering steps, outcomes, and challenges. It also provides strategies for making engineering decisions.

Abstract. An active area of research in computer science is the prevention of violations of object protocols, i.e., restrictions on temporal orderings of method calls on an object. However, little is understood about object protocols in practice. This paper describes an empirical study of object protocols in some popular open-source Java programs. In our study, we have attempted to determine how often object protocols are defined, and how often they are used, while also developing a taxonomy of similar protocols. In the open-source projects in our study, comprising almost two million lines of code, approximately 7.2 % of all types defined protocols, while 13 % of classes were clients of types defining protocols. (For comparison, 2.5 % of the types in the Java library define type parameters usingJava Generics.) This suggests thatprotocol checkingtools are widely applicable. 1

Abstract. Empirical evidence indicates that developers face significant hurdles when the API elements necessary to implement a task are not accessible from the types they are working with. We propose an approach that leverages the structural relationships between API elements to make API methods or types not accessible from a given API type more discoverable. We implemented our approach as an extension to the content assist feature of the Eclipse IDE, in a tool called API Explorer. API Explorer facilitates discoverability in APIs by recommending methods or types, which although not directly reachable from the type a developer is currently working with, may be relevant to solving a programming task. In a case study evaluation, participants experienced little difficulty selecting relevant API elements from the recommendations made by API Explorer, and found the assistance provided by API Explorer helpful in surmounting discoverability hurdles in multiple tasks and various contexts. The results provide evidence that relevant API elements not accessible from the type a developer is working with could be efficiently located through guidance based on structural relationships. 1

rhinoresearch.com Software frameworks have changed significantly since they were described by researchers more than a decade ago. They have entered mainstream use in most domains of software development, and their structure and interaction mechanisms have evolved. This paper provides a revised definition of frameworks and surveys commonly used frameworks to extract two categorizations: a categorization of the different kinds of frameworks found in the wild and a summary of common interaction mechanisms employed by frameworks. Four popular frameworks are described in detail to illustrate these findings. The paper also discusses unique framework challenges and avenues for future research on frameworks.