Cedric Thomas, OW2 CEO, presentation of DECODER Project during the 2nd Hamburg Requirements Engineering Symposium. He provides details about the project objectives, several initial results and the software roadmap

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The DECODER project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824231.
DECODER Project Overview
Virgile Prevosto (CEA List), Cedric Thomas (OW2)
with DECODER's partners
2nd Hamburg Requirements Engineering Symposium
4 September 2019

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Project Objectives
Initial Results
Roadmap and Conclusion

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DEveloper COmpanion for Documented and annotatEd
code Reference
Code
Code
Code, Formal
Specification
Code, Documentation,
Models, Analysis results
Informal documentation
tied to a piece of code
Abstract model
representation
Generate formal
annotations for formal
verification tools
automatically
Formal specification
Explore UML
models with
Moskitt
Derive formal verification
from informal information
at code or specification
level
Analyse raw code
information
Test interaction
scenarios with
Testar and semi-
formal models
Verify C and Java
code with FramaC
and OpenJML
Query
documentation and
report generation
Informal documentation,
abstract model
Test results,
abstract models
Formal specifications,
Verification objectives,
documentation
Code, Model,
Specification
Refined specifications,
Auxiliary annotations
(invariants)
Verification results
Report
Persistent
Knowledge
Monitor
Reporting
Verification
Testing
Syntactic
Analysis
NLP
Analysis
Modelling
Specification
Synthesis
Extended IDE

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Encompassing the Whole Development Lifecycle

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From Informal to Formal Documents
Natural Language Processing
Knowledge extraction from informal documents → correspondence with relevant code pieces
Knowledge extraction from formal documents → semi-automated documentation generation
Abstract Semi-Formal Models (ASFM)
Graphical description of the effects of a function on the data structures involved
Language for semi-automated generation of ASFM diagrams
Interactive diagrams that can be manipulated by developers (graphical debugging)

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Use Cases: Evaluation and Improvement of DECODER Toolset
Linux Drivers
Quickly and accurately assess the quality of an external Linux driver for inclusion in embedded
systems
OpenCV
Build a better knowledge of OpenCV API and its usage in some applications
MyThaiStar
UI/UX design and verification
Java
Usage of Decoder toolset on selected Open Source Java projects

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PKM Meta Model

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PKM Server Design
JSON as Main Interchange Format
Start working on a JSON Schema
Take advantage of existing proposals:
SARIF
JCDB
Others?
Back-end: Document-Oriented DB
MongoDB: license issues
CouchDB: quite well known
OrientDB: graph model used by Testar
Others?

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Information Extraction
Dataset Collection
Existing code and documents sets provided by use cases
Existing third-party datasets (code and documents, on GitHub)
DeepAPI training corpus for natural language (correspondences with Java call sequences)
Initial Experiments
Code to NL:
Features extraction and grouping tokens
NL to Code:
Consider programming language as a foreign language
Standard neural machine translation: NL to programming language
Objective: compute semantic similarity between source code and informal description

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UX Workshops
General Workshop (Valencia, June, 26th)
Prepare design of PKM client(s)
Define core roles
Define usage scenarios
Dedicated UC Workshops
Define UC scenarios
Identify specific needs

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Dissemination Activities
Public website at https://decoder-project.eu
Presence on LinkedIn and Twitter
Decoder poster, presented at OW2 Conf
Contact with other projects
https://openreq.eu/
https://www.chariotproject.eu/

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Current Status
Progressing according to plan
PKM implementation still the main challenge
Schema design (critical)
DB engine final choice (less stringent)
NLP and code processing experimentation ramping up
Work on ASFM has started
Use cases investigation and methodology discussions ramping up

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Open Questions
What should fit in the PKM schema?
Suggestion on a particular document DB implementation?
Projects with which we could / should interact?

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Thank You!
The DECODER project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement number 824231.
If you need further information, please contact the coordinator: TECHNIKON Forschungs- und Planungsgesellschaft mbH, Burgplatz
3a, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA, Tel: +43 4242 233 55, Fax: +43 4242 233 55 77, E-Mail: coordination@DECODER.eu
The information in this document is provided “as is”, and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The content
of this document reflects only the author`s view – the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
The users use the information at their sole risk and liability.