Dr Christopher Exton

 PhD (Monash University)

 

 

Contact Details

 

Address

Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

Nationalities

Irish, Australian

Phone

(W) 061-213108

Email

Chris.Exton@ul.ie 

 

Education Details

 

PhD

Monash University, Australia

Grad Dip IT

Monash University, Australia

BSc (Hon)

Open University, UK

 

 

Research Interests

 

 

Comprehending programs is one of the core software engineering activities from early implementation to long-term software evolution. Software reuse, inspection, reverse engineering, migration, and reengineering of software systems all critically depend on program comprehension. I am interested in the software tools, theories, cognitive models and strategies used by software engineers for software comprehension and how software tools can facilitate their understanding of software systems. One of the most challenging aspects of this research is the creation of suitable research methodologies that facilitate the comparison and evaluation of these tools and techniques.

 

 

Service to the University and the Wider Community

 

Graduated

Doctorate

Students

Dr Pamela O’Shea

Dr Brendan Cleary

Dr Mark Quinlan

Doctorate\Masters Examination

PhD Thesis Examination

Dr Tara Kelly, Limerick Institute of Technology

Dr Adrian Ryan, Monash University Melbourne

Dr David Stratton, University of Ballarat, Victoria

Dr Trent Mifsud, Monash University Melbourne

Dr Mikhail Blinov, University College Dubin

Dr Daniel Cutting, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

Masters

Nicola Quinn, University of Limerick

Conor Huges, University of Limerick

Mel Gorman, University of Limerick

Niall Gallagher,University of Limerick

Andrew Lunog,Monash University Melbourne

 

 

 

 

International Conference/ Workshop

Committee Membership

PPIG2009

ISD2008

PPIG2008

CASCON 07

ISD 2007

ICPC 2006

STEP 2005

ICPC 2005

PPPJ 2005

PPPJ 2004

STEP 2004

CASCON 2004

ICPC 2004

IWPC 2003

 

Programme Chair

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Workshop Organizer, Programme committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Workshop Organizer, Programme committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

Programme Committee

 

 

 

Publications 

 

Papers

 

2009

Brendan Cleary, Chris Exton, Jim Buckley, Michael English: An empirical analysis of information retrieval based concept location techniques in software comprehension. Empirical Software Engineering 14(1): 93-130 (2009)

2009

C. Exton‌ and M. Leonard‌, Eye tracking technology: A fresh approach in delirium assessment?, International Review of Psychiatry, 2009, Vol. 21, No. 1, Pages 8-14

2009

English, M., Exton, C., Rigon, I., and Cleary, B. 2009. Fault detection and prediction in an open-source software project. InProceedings of the 5th international Conference on Predictor Models in Software Engineering (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 18 - 19, 2009). PROMISE '09. ACM, New York, NY,

2009

Chris Exton, Good Programmers: Nature or Nurture? (The bed of Procrustes), , Proc. PPIG 09, Limerick, Ireland

2008

Jim Buckley, Andrew P. LeGear, Chris Exton, Ross Cadogan, Trevor Johnston, Bill Looby, Rainer Koschke, (2008), Encapsulating targeted component abstractions using software Reflexion Modelling, Journal of Software Maintenance: Research and Practice, Mar, Volume 20 Issue 2, Pages 107 - 134

2008

Chris Exton Thinking about Thinking in Objects: Methods, Findings and Implications from a Psychological Perspective, Proc. PPIG 08, Lancaster UK

2007

Chris Exton, Gabriela Avram, Jim Buckley & Andrew LeGear , “An Experiential Report on the Limitations of Experimentation as a Means of Empirical Investigation”, PPIG 2007, 19th Annual Workshop, 2nd - 6th July 2007, University of Joensuu, Finland

2007

Jim Buckley & Chris Exton, (HCI) “VisiCog: Visualization and Cognition”, ,Proceedings of iHCI07 - The Irish Human-Computer Interaction Conference", Editors: Luigina Ciolfi and Liam J. Bannon

ISBN/S =    1-905952-02-3     978-1-905952-02-1, University of Limerick, Ireland.

2007

Brendan Cleary & Chris Exton , “Assisting Concept Location in Software Comprehension”,PPIG 2007, 19th Annual Workshop, 2nd - 6th July 2007, University of Joensuu, Finland

2007

Jim Buckley, Chris Exton, Aaron Quigley & Andrew LeGear, “ESCAPE Meta Modelling in Software Engineering: When Premature Commitment is Useful in Representations“, PPIG 2007, 19th Annual Workshop, 2nd - 6th July 2007, University of Joensuu, Finland

2006

Brendan Cleary, Chris Exton: The Cognitive Assignment Eclipse Plug-in. ICPC 2006: 241-244

2006

Aiden Grandfield, Chris Exton: INFORM: A Framework for Performance Informed Software Development. ICPC 2006: 245-247

2006

Michael Desmond, Margaret-Anne D. Storey, Chris Exton: Fluid Source Code Views. ICPC 2006: 260-263

2006

B. Cleary and C. Exton, "Assisting Concept Assignment using Probabilistic Classification and Cognitive Mapping," presented at 2nd International Workshop on Supporting Knowledge Collaboration in Software Development (KSCD2006), pp 25-32, Tokyo, Japan, 2006.

2006

Desmond, M., Storey, M., and Exton, C. 2006. Fluid Source Code Views. In Proceedings of the 14th IEEE international Conference on Program Comprehension (Icpc'06) - Volume 00 (June 14 - 16, 2006). ICPC. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, 260-263

2006

Michael Desmond, Margaret-Anne Storey, Chris Exton, "Fluid Source Code Views for Just In-Time Comprehension", SPLAT 2006, Bonn, Germany, March 20-24, 2006

2005

Eugene Glynn, Brian Fitzgerald, Chris Exton: Commercial adoption of open source software: an empirical study. ISESE 2005: 225-234

2005

Hughes, Connor, Jim Buckley, Chris Exton, Des O'Carroll and SVCR Group. 2005. Towards a Framework for Characterising Concurrent Comprehension. Journal Computer Science Education. 15(1):7-24.

2005

Michael P. O'Brien, Jim Buckley, Christopher Exton, "Empirically Studying Software Practitioners - Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice", ICSM 2005: 433-442

2005

Andrew Le Gear, Jim Buckley, Brendan Cleary, J. J. Collins, Kieran O'Dea, "Achieving a Reuse Perspective within a Component Recovery Process: An Industrial Scale Case Study", IWPC 2005: 279-288

2005

A. Le Gear, B. Cleary, J. Buckley, J. J. Collins, and C. Exton, "Making a Reuse Aspectual View Explicit in Existing Software," presented at Linking Aspect Technology and Evolution Co hosted with Aspect Orientated Software Development (LATE 05), Chicago, USA, 2005.

2005

Pamela O’Shea and Chris Exton, "The Role of Source Code within Program Summaries describing Maintenance Activities", In P. Romero, J. Good, E. Acosta Chaparro & S. Bryant (Eds). Proc. PPIG 05, Brighton UK

2005

Deirdre Carew, Dr. Chris Exton, Dr. Jim Buckley, "Preliminary Study to Empirically Investigate the Comprehensibility of Requirements Specifications", In P. Romero, J. Good, E. Acosta Chaparro & S. Bryant (Eds). Proc. PPIG 05, Brighton UK

2005

Brendan Cleary, Andrew Le Gear, Christopher Exton, Jim Buckley:, "A Combined Software Reconnaissance & Static Analysis Eclipse Visualisation Plug-in", VISSOFT 2005: 121-122

2005

Pamela O'Shea, Chris Exton, "An Investigation of Java Abstraction Usage for Program Modifications", 13th International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC'05) pp. 65-74

2004

John McKeogh, Chris Exton, "Eclipse plug-in to monitor the programmer behaviour", OOPSLA workshop on eclipse technology eXchange archive, Proceedings of the 2004 OOPSLA workshop on eclipse technology eXchange, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Pages: 93 - 97 ,2004

2004

J. Joshi, B. Cleary, and C. Exton, "Application of Helix Cone Tree Visualizations to Dynamic Call Graph Illustration," presented at Third Program Visualization Workshop, University of Warwick, UK, 2004.

2004

O'Shea, P., Exton, C., "Investigating Patterns and Task Type correlations in Open Source Online Mailing Lists". In the Proceedings of the 16th Annual PPIG Workshop, pp 185-192, 5th - 7th April 2004.

2004

Seamus Galvin, J.J. Collins, Chris Exton, Finbar McGurren. "Enhancing the Role of Interfaces in Software Architecture Description Languages (ADLs)", Proceedings of Workshop of Architecture Description Languages, IFIP World Computer Congress 2004, Toulouse, France, p93-102, Kluwer Academic Press.

2004

Eoin McCarthy and Chris Exton. "THORR - A Focus + Context Method for Visualizing Large Software Systems". Third ITiCSE (ACM) Program Visualization Workshop (PVW'04), Warwick, UK, July 2004 

2004

Ryan, D., Exton, C., "CORBAview : A visualisation tool to aid in the understanding of CORBA-based distributed applications". In the Proceedings of the 16th Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, Institute of Technology, Carlow, pp 57-65, 5th - 7th April 2004.

2004

Doyle, T., Exton, C., "PicoVis: A Dynamic Visualisation Tool for Simulating a Bluetooth Communication Environment Enhancing Student Understanding". In Proceedings of the 16th Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, Institute of Technology, Carlow, pp 33- 42, 5th - 7th April 2004.

2004

O'Shea, P., Exton, C., "The Application of Content Analysis to Programmer Mailing Lists as a Requirements Method for a Software Visualisation Tool". To appear in the Proceedings of the IEEE STEP 2004 Workshop, 17th - 19th September 2004.

2004

Brendan Cleary and Chris Exton, "CHIVE - A Program Source Visualisation Framework", in Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC04), Bari, Italy, June 24-26, 2004, (Demonstration paper).

2003

O'Shea, P., Exton, C., "Describing Software Visualisation Abstractions".
Appeared in the Autumn PPIG Newletter, 2003.

2003

Ken Casey and Chris Exton, "A Java 3D Implementation of a Geon Based Visualization Tool for UML", in Proceedings of the 2nd International ACM Conference on the Principles and Practice of Programming in Java", Kilkenny City, Ireland June 16-18, 2003, pp. (63-65).

2003

Jim Buckley and Chris Exton, "Blooms’ Taxonomy: A Framework for Assessing Programmers’ Knowledge of Software Systems", in Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC03), Portland, OR, May 10-11, 2003, pp. (to appear).

2003

Pamela O'Shea and Chris Exton, "Does the empirical evidence support visualisation?", PPIG03, 15th Annual Workshop on Psychology of Programming Interest Group,Keele University, Keele, UK, April 8-10, pp435-452, 2003. 

2002

Exton, C, "Constructivism and Program Comprehension Strategies", (IWPC2002) 10th International Workshop on Program Comprehension, La Sorbonne, Paris, France, June 26-29, pp281-284, 2002.

2002

A. Hunter and C. Exton, "Elucidate: Employing information visualisation to aid pedagogy for students", (AVI '02) Advanced visual Interfaces, Trento, ITALY, May 22-24, 2002.

2001

A Hunter and C Exton, "Pedagogic benefits of dynamic visualisation of concurrent Software", Tertiary Teaching and Learning Conference - Darwin, Australia July 9 -12 2001

2001

Leroux, H. and Exton, C. "Visualising the execution of concurrent object oriented programs dynamically using UML", The 9-th International Conference in on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision, Czech Republic, February 5 - 9, 2001.

2001

Leroux, H. and Exton, C. "COOPE: A Tool for Representing Concurrent Object-Oriented Program Execution through Visualisation", 9th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Processing PDP 2001, proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society, will be held in Mantova, Italy, February 7 - 9, 2001.

2000

Exton, C. and Kölling, M., "Concurrency, objects and visualisation", Australian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2000), ACM, Melbourne, December 2000.

2000

C, Exton., "Dynamic Visualization of Concurrent Object-Oriented Systems", IWALT2000, Published by the IEEE Computer Society, will be held in New Zealand, December 4-6 2000.

2000

R, Polan., C. Exton., K. O'Yang., J Han., L, Seldon., (Feb 2000), "Academic Java and Industrial Java: Up Close and at a Distance", Evolve 2000, Sydney, Australia

2000

Exton, C. (July 2000), "Elucidate : A Tool to Aid Comprehension of Concurrent Object Oriented Execution", in Proceedings of the fifth International Conference ITiCSE 2000, Helsinki, Finland, July 11-13, 2000

1998

Chapter co-author, "Advanced Software Development Series: Information Systems Interoperability", John Wiley & Sons Inc. February 1998, ISBN 0 471 98124 9 

1998

PhD Thesis, Title: "An Interface Language for the Development of Reliable and Dynamic Distributed Object Systems", Monash University, Australia

1997

Exton, C., Watkins D. Thompson, D. (Nov 1997), "Comparisons between CORBA IDL & COM/DCOM MIDL: Interfaces for Distributed Computing", in Proceedings of the twenty-fifth International Conference TOOLS Pacific, Published by the IEEE Computer Society, Melbourne, Australia. pg 19-33. 

1997

Exton, C. (Oct 1997), "Distributed Fault Tolerance Specification Through the use of Interface Definitions", in Proceedings of the twenty-fourth International Conference TOOLS Asia, Published by the IEEE Computer Society, Beijing, China. pg 311-316.

1997

Chris Exton, Ivan Rayner, Jian Chen (May 1997) "RIDL: An Interface Language for the Design and Development of Reliable Distributed Object Oriented systems", in Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Quality Engineering (SQE97), Published by Computational Mechanics Publications. Udine, Italy. pg 323-332.

1996

Chris Exton, Ivan Rayner (Nov 1996) "Exception Semantics in a Parallel Distributed Object Oriented Environment", in Proceedings of the twenty first International Conference TOOLS Pacific, Melbourne, Australia. pg 51. 

1996

Chris Exton, Jian Chen, (Sept 1996) "Programming by Contract in a Distributed Object Environment", in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Future Software Technology (ISFST-96), Published by the Software Engineers Association (Japan), Xi'an, China. pg 272-278. 

1996

H.W. Schmidt, A.S.M. Sajeev and C. Exton (Feb 1996) "Towards an Object-Oriented Distributed Programming Environment for Mobile Computing", in Proceedings of the MCDA'96 Australian Workshop on Mobile Computing & Databases & Applications, Melbourne, Australia. pg 53-59.