SECTION: Features

"View source"

View source code is a statement about open access to knowledge. Even though you are not able to modify it, or even understand code, it is an invitation to learn and the key for balancing control and power among users and developers. In this article, we explore the potential of software to enable new practices and transform old ones.

By Lila Pagola, July 2020

PDF | HTML | In the Digital Library

A formative evaluation of scenario-based tools for learning object-oriented design

Advances in computing have awakened a century old teaching philosophy: learner-centered education. This philosophy is founded on the premise that people learn best when engrossed in the topic, participating in activities that motivate learning and help them to synthesize their own understanding. We consider how the object-oriented design (OOD) learning tools developed by Rosson and Carroll [5] facilitate active learning of this sort. We observed sixteen students as they worked through a set of user interaction scenarios about a blackjack game. We discuss how the features of these learning tools influenced the students' efforts to learn the basic constructs of OOD.

By Hope D. Harley, Cheryl D. Seals, Mary Beth Rosson, September 1998

PDF | HTML | In the Digital Library

Extending Java to support shared resource protection and deadlock detection in threads programming

Java threads enable programmers to write parallel programs very easily and conveniently. However, the current Java specification does not adequately provide for the protection of shared resources or for deadlock detection, two of the most common problems arising from parallel programs. The ability to solve these problems is crucial for Java concurrent programming. In this paper, we introduce and implement a model that can aid in writing parallel programs by providing shared resource protection and deadlock detection.

By Anita J. Van Engen, Michael K. Bradshaw, Nathan Oostendorp, November 1997

PDF | HTML | In the Digital Library