my research interests

my research interests include component techniques, testing, and innovative teaching...
 
 

In the Spotlight

CxxTest is a unit-testing framework for writing compilable, fully automated unit tests for C++ classes. It is like JUnit, but for C++. While it is not quite as popular as CppUnit (another JUnit-like framework for C++), it is much easier for beginners to learn and use. We use it in some of our C++ classes, in conjunction with powerful Eclipse plug-in support.
 
Dereferee: Instrumenting C++ pointers with meaningful runtime diagnostics PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Anthony Allevato and Stephen Edwards. Dereferee: Instrumenting C++ pointers with meaningful runtime diagnostics. Poster presented at the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Portland, OR, USA, March 12-15, 2008.

Proper memory management and pointer usage often prove to be the most difficult concepts for students learning C++ to grasp. Compounding this problem is the fact that the compilers and runtime environments traditionally used to introduce these concepts leave much to be desired with regard to generating meaningful diagnostics to assist students in tracking down and fixing memory-related logical errors. To alleviate this, we have developed Dereferee, an advanced yet thin wrapper around C++ pointers that greatly increases the quality of these runtime diagnostics, but with minimal intrusion into students’ code and the learning process.