In this paper we report on our experiences during a first-year course on digital logic design using the Verilog hardware description language. As part of the course the students were given a series of take-home assignments, which were then marked using an automated assessment system developed by the authors. During the course the instructor was made aware that a set of solutions had been circulated to the students, and was asked to assess the impact that this had on the assessment regime. In order to answer this question, we examined and implemented a number of approaches to calculating similarity between Verilog programs, and we present the results of that study in this paper. An important feature of this work was ensuring that the measurements used were well-understood, properly calibrated and defensible. We report on the results of this study, applied to a class of 115 students who completed up to 11 projects each.

This paper presents an experience report from a third-year undergraduate compiler design course that is taught as part of a four year computer science degree. We analyse data from a study of practical assignments, evaluated in the context of take-home formative assignments and a supervised summative examination. We implement metrics to quantify the degrees of similarity between submissions for programming assignments, as well as measuring the level of activity. We present the results of our study, and discuss the utility of these metrics for our teaching practice.

Abstract In this paper we seek to provide a foundation for the study of the level of use of object‐oriented techniques in Java programs in general, and scientific applications in particular. Specifically, we investigate the profiles of Java programs from a number of perspectives, including the use of class library methods, the size of methods called, the mode of invoke instruction used and the polymorphicity of call sites. We also present a categorization of the nature of small methods used in Java programs. We compare the Java Grande and SPEC JVM98 benchmark suites, and note a significant difference in the nature and composition of these suites, with the programs from the Java Grande suite demonstrating a less object‐oriented approach. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract In this paper we present a platform independent analysis of the dynamic profiles of Java programs when executing on the Java Virtual Machine. The Java programs selected are taken from the Java Grande Forum benchmark suite and five different Java‐to‐bytecode compilers are analysed. The results presented describe the dynamic instruction usage frequencies, as well as the sizes of the local variable, parameter and operand stacks during execution on the JVM. These results, presenting a picture of the actual (rather than presumed) behaviour of the JVM, have implications both for the coverage aspects of the Java Grande benchmark suites, for the performance of the Java‐to‐bytecode compilers and for the design of the JVM. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.