Polelo 2005

1. Polelo 2005 School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

2. The Polelo Group Prof Judith Bishop and students August 2005 School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

3. Our vision - Communication • Between computers and computers • Between computers and people • With each other and our colleagues • With overseas and industrial collaborators School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

4. Success to date - Science • Java web skeleton • spin-off company and for the International AIDS Conference in 2002 (with TU-Berlin and E-Volution) • Views system • first Microsoft competitive RFP grant 2002 • began research in GUIs, XML extension, reflection, and interoperability • RoSCtor • Software construction in Rotor, emphasising new programming techniques such as aspect-oriented development (Microsoft) • SLI@UP • industry-related research in service-based architectures, and product line practice (Microsoft, Jay van Zyl – SystemLogic and Dirk Muthig, Fraunhofer Kaiserslautern) • Linca • Cryptographic skeleton for mobile phones School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

5. Success - Service • Java Gently and C# Concisely • support for readers worldwide: exercises, answers, quizzes and websites, also new language investigation e.g. Spec# (Microsoft) • Component Deployment 2002, 2004, 2005 • Initiated and assisted with these conferences • Reviewing for 7 major conferences annually • ACM Software System Award • nominated James Gosling for Java • now chairman of the award (2005-2006) • Scholarships • DAAD - Judith Bishop to TU Berlin 2003 • University - Kathrin Berg to F’H Kaiserslautern 2005 • Scarce Skills - Basil Worrall 2004-2005 • Humboldt - Kurt Geihs, from U Kassel 2006 School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

6. Current collaborative projects • Algon • a framework for distributed algorithm interchange (Karen Renaud, Univ. Glasgow) • Views 2.0 • an XML-based GUI engine for platform interoperability (Nigel Horspool, Univ. Victoria and Microsoft Research) • Cosmos • the composition and monitoring of services in unstable and evolving contexts (Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano) • Nomad • a distributed information sharing system for casually connected communities (Microsoft, Albie von Gordon, E-Logics) • Algon-P • applying Algon framework to parallel algorithms (ELogics) School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

7. Framework for interchangeable distributed algorithms Can also interchange middlewares e.gRMI to Corba Includes a performance monitoring display Used for mutual exclusion, deadlock, termination Now adapting it to parallel algorithms for use in supply chain management Karen Renaud, Judith Bishop, Johnny Lo, Basil Worrall, Algon: from interchangeable distributed algorithms to interchangeable middleware, Software Composition ’04, EENCS, Vol 127 (1) pp59-78, Barcelona, April 2004 Karen Renaud, Johnny Lo, Judith Bishop, Pieter van Zyl and Basil Worrall, Algon: A Framework for Supporting Comparison of Distributed Algorithm Performance. PDP’03 11th Euromicro Conf on Parallel Distributed and Network based Processing. ed. Andrea Clematis, pp 425-432, Genoa, Italy, Feb 2003 Bishop J, Renaud K and Worrall B, Composition of distributed software with Algon – prospects and possibilities, Software Composition ‘02, EENCS Vol 114 pp 65-85, Grenoble, April 2002   Application ALGON Scheduler Interface Algorithm Middleware Algon School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

8. XML-based vendor independent GUI engine Retargetable from Windows to any platform with minimum effort Used in teaching, basis for language research, e.g. reflection Predates Vista and Avalon (next Windows) XML C# Views.Form f = new Views.Form(@"<Form> <vertical> <horizontal> <Button Name=Show/> <Button Name=Hide/> </horizontal> <PictureBox Name=pic Image=’pic.jpg' Height=175/> </vertical> </Form>" ); while (true) { string c = f.GetControl(); PictureBox p = f["pic"]; switch (c) { case ”Show" : p.Show(); break; } case ”Hide" : p.Hide(); break; }}} P R S E TK OS’ Views Judith Bishop and Basil Worrall, Towards platform independence: retargeting GUI libraries on .NET, 3rd Conf .NET Technologies, Plzen May 2005. Judith Bishop, R Nigel Horspool and Basil Worrall, Experience in integrating Java with C# and .NET, To appear, Concurrency: Computation and Experience, June 2005 Judith Bishop and Nigel Horspool, Developing Principles of GUI Programming Using Views, Proceedings of SIGCSE'04, ACM Press, pp. 373-377, Norfolk, VA, March 2004. Judith Bishop and Nigel Horspool, C# Concisely, Addison-Wesley, pp442 ISBN 0-321-15418-5, 2004. School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

9. Funding - income 5 School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

10. Research outcomes 2001-2005 4.5 per annum School of Information Technology University of Pretoria

11. Challenges for the future • Scientific • High performance computing growth in the Northern provinces • Aspect orientation into the main stream (and with HPC) • Completing the Nomad project • Programming with verification (Spec#) • Service • More IFIP involvement incl. Summer School 2006 • Upcoming SAICSIT conference • Rotor Workshop at Microsoft Redmond in the same week! • First SA-Italian Workshop in Jan 2006 • Hosting our Humboldt Scholar (Prof Geihs) 2006 • First C# first year courses in 2006 • Sustenance • New THRIP grants for 2006 School of Information Technology University of Pretoria