Timetable

Term 2, weeks 11-20:

• Lecture: Monday 2pm in CS101
• Lecture: Tuesday 3pm in CS101
• Lab Session: Friday 10am in CS101/CS001 (the IBM lab)

Remember the module forum

Previous material (2005-6) and (2006-7) is available for those interested. The current CS405 page is here.

See also:
• The First Warwick Electronic Bulletin on EM
• The Second Warwick Electronic Bulletin on EM
• The Third Warwick Electronic Bulletin on EM

 

Download the tkeden tool

Coursework

Details of the 2007/8 assignment are now available. (See the tabs on the left-hand panel of the assignment webpage for details of the initial and final submission procedures.) Feedback on the initial submissions is now available, together with guidance about preparing your paper for WEB-EM-04. You may also find it useful to consult the answers to Lab 2, the notes on more advanced features of EDEN, and the additional resources referenced in Seminars 3 and 4 below. {The initial submissions of abstracts are recorded here.]

Examination

The coursework and the examination contribute 50% to the final mark for the module. The format of the CS405 exam for 2008 will be unchanged: Question 1 is a compulsory question, and you must answer two questions out of the other four. You will have 3 hours in which to answer the paper. Whereas in previous years the examination has been marked out of 100, this year's paper will be marked out of 50 (question 1 will carry 20 marks, and questions 2, 3, 4 and 5 will carry 15 marks). More guidance on the format and content of the June 2008 exam can be found here.

 

Online material

Lectures

• Lecture 1 - Introduction and Orientation (7th January)
  Lecture slides: Orientation
  Handout: By way of orientation ... part 1 and part 2
  Handout: Redressing the past: liberating computing as an experimental science
  Handout: An Empirical Modelling perspective on computing

• Lecture 2 - Modelling State (8th January)
  Lecture slides: Modelling with definitive scripts
  EDEN Script: DoNaLD definitions for a room
  Online model: roomYung1989

• Lecture 3 - Observables, dependency and agency (14th January)
  Lecture slides: Situations and Motivations
  Handout: Using definitive notations to represent state

• Lecture 4 - The EDEN interpreter (15th January)
  Lecture slides: About eden, donald and scout
  Handout: Practical exercises illustrating definitive representation of state
  EDEN Script: Definitive script for the room viewer
  Online model: roomviewerYung1991

• Lecture 5 - Illustrating EM principles and tools (21st January)
  Lecture slides: EM artefacts for representing state

• Lecture 6 - Modelling with definitive scripts for general applications (22nd January)
  Lecture slides: Towards a conceptual framework for very general computing applications

• Lecture 7 - Programming from an Empirical Modelling perspective (28th January)
  Lecture slides: How to use EDEN
  Handout: Illustrating modelling and programming in EDEN
  Online model: jugsBeynon2008

• Lecture 8 - Comparing EDEN with other programming tools (29th January)
  Lecture slides: Some comparative studies
  Handout: The room in Logo
  EDEN Script: Specifying the room in basic Logo
  Online model: logoparserRoe2002 (to be interpreted with tkeden-1.49 on Linux or tkeden-1.46 on Windows)

• Lecture 9 - Definitive Programming vs Programming with Dependency (4th February)
  Lecture slides: Dependency by definition in Imagine-d Logo - EDEN presentation
  Online paper: Dependency by definition in Imagine-d Logo: applications and implications

• Lecture 10 - Programming from an Empirical Modelling perspective 2 (5th February)
  Lecture slides: State, behaviour and semantics in programming
  Online model: oxoGardner1999 (See also Lab 3.)

• Lecture 11 - Functional Programming vs Definitive Programming (11th February)
  Lecture slides: Behaviour as programmed state change
  Handout: 3D Noughts and Crosses in Miranda (with some significant corrections!)
  Online model: oxoJoy1994 (select option 2 on start-up)

• Lecture 12 - Definitive scripts as construals and the principle of SIN (12th February)
  Lecture slides: On construals (as presented by SBR in 2005-6)
  Supplementary notes: About construals
  Supplementary notes: Science and art and the principle of SIN

• Lecture 13 - Software development from an EM perspective (18th February)
  Lecture slides: Further motivation and orientation for Empirical Modelling
  Supplementary slides: A new foundation for computing (really?)
  Handout: Harel, Biting the Silver Bullet ....
  Handout: Cantwell Smith, Two lessons of Logic
  Handout: The Interpretation of States: A New Foundation for Computation?

• Lecture 14 - Rethinking Programming (19th February)
  Handout: Rethinking Programming
  Lecture slides: Rethinking programming: modelling heapsort as a case study
  Supplementary slides: Heapsort DMT and WP specification
  Handout: Heapsort model interactions
  Handout: Morals of the heapsorting exercise
  Handout: Relating software development in EM to engineering design
  Handout: Illustrating component analysis using the draughts model

• Lecture 15 - Empirical Modelling for Concurrency (25th February)
  Online notes: EM for Concurrent Systems: an overview
  Online notes: A perspective on concurrent systems
  Lecture slides: Brief summary of A perspective on concurrent systems

• Lecture 16 - The LSD notation (26th February)
  Online notes: The LSD notation for domain analysis and description

• Lecture 17 - LSD in relation to systems development (3rd March)
  Lecture slides: Systems development from an EM perspective
  Handout: LSD for the railway station animation
  (see also ~wmb/public/projects/simulations/train)
  Handout: Tamworth station accident 1870
  Supplementary slides: Tamworth station maps 1870
  Handout: LSD accounts relating to Tamworth accident scenario based on the Board of Trade report (in which text has to be centred to be visible)

• Lecture 18 - The Abstract Definitive Machine (4th March)
  Online notes: The Abstract Definitive Machine
  Lecture slides: An overview of the Abstract Definitive Machine
  (note addition of the JUGS in the ADM slide not presented in the lecture)

• Lecture 19 - Evaluating EM for systems development:
  Agent-oriented software engineering, normal and radical design, visual support (10th March)
  Lecture slides: EM for systems development
  Handout: Lind and McCarthy on "very weak agency"
  Online model: digitalwatchFischer1999
  Relevant online notes: Empirical Modelling Artefacts in Concurrent Systems Modelling

• Lecture 20 - Evaluating EM for systems development:
  Concurrent engineering, conceptual integrity, HCI (11th March)
  Online model: railwayYung1995
  Handout: Conceptual integrity
  Online model: digitalwatchRoe2001
  Handout: Philosophical perspectives
  Relevant online notes: Empirical Modelling for the Single Agent

Labs

Additional resources for the lab sessions can be found in the /dcs/emp/empublic/teaching/cs405-2008 sub-directories.

• Lab 1 - Modelling with definitive scripts preliminaries (11th January)
  Handout: Lab sheet 1 (pdf)

• Lab 2 - Script mechanics - eden, donald and scout (18th & 25th January)
  Handout: Lab sheet 2 (pdf)
  For further guidance on using scout, donald and eden, see the additional reference material on definitive notations (pdf).

• Lab 3 - The OXO laboratory (1st February & 8th February)
  Handout: Lab sheet 3 (pdf)
  Handout: Lab sheet 3 supplementary DMT diagram(pdf)
  Online paper: Computer Programming for Noughts-and-Crosses: New Frontiers

• Lab 4 - The EDDI notation (15th February)
  Handout: Lab sheet 4 = EDDI Worksheet 5(pdf)
  Handout: The Quick Guide to EDDI (pdf)

Seminars

• Seminar 1 - Sudoku models as a case study (22nd February)
  Handout: Notes on Sudoku models (pdf)
  Handout: A collaborative Sudoku solver proposal (pdf) and the puzzle to which it refers
  Supplementary material: Resources and Exercises associated with Sudoku (pdf)

• Seminar 2 - Developing LSD accounts (29th February)
  Handout: LSD basics (pdf)
  Handout: LSD exercises (pdf)
  Online notes: Principles for developing an LSD account

• Seminar 3 - Some practical exercises and resources (7th March)
  Handout: LSD account for bus journey to Coventry (pdf)
  Handout: Lab sheet 2 - some answers (pdf)
  Handout: Lab sheet 2 answers: supplementary DMT diagram (pdf)
  Handout: Notes on more advanced features of EDEN (pdf)

• Seminar 4 - Concluding session (14th March)
  Handout: Advice on WEB-EM-04 paper and model preparation (pdf)
  Handout: Feedback on initial WEB-EM-04 proposals (pdf) (NB See note on Forum.)
  Online notes: Some additional resources