Software, Volume 2, Issue 4 (December 2023) – 3 articles

Background: Issues of lack of consideration for professional responsibility by software engineers (SEs) present major challenges and concerns to software users. Previous studies on the subject of ethical responsibility in software development assessed whether software development key stakeholders should take ethical responsibility for their actions in software development. However, such studies focused on assessing responses from a particular grouping in software development. Objective: Based on the revelation, this study seeks to evaluate the perceived ethical responsibilities in software development by juxtaposing the perceptions of students, educators and industry-based software practitioners on the ethical responsibility of software development key stakeholders in South Africa. Methods: To meet this objective, the study collected data using a survey, which was shared on an online platform. A total of 561 (44 from computing academics; 103 from industry-based software practitioners and 414 from software development students) responses were received. The collected data were analysed using descriptive and variance statistical analysis approaches. Results: The study found that there is no significant statistical difference in how students, educators and software practitioners perceive the ethical responsibility of software development key stakeholders. Conclusions: This finding of the study shows that the prevailing view is that various software development key stakeholders should be held ethically responsible for their contribution to software development. Furthermore, the organisation of ethical responsibilities used in this study provides a useful framework to guide future studies on this subject. Full article

BTR code (originally—“Beam Transmission and Re-ionization”, 1995) is used for Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) design; it is also applied to the injector system of ITER. In 2008, the BTR model was extended to include the beam interaction with plasmas and direct beam losses in tokamak. For many years, BTR has been widely used for various NBI designs for efficient heating and current drive in nuclear fusion devices for plasma scenario control and diagnostics. BTR analysis is especially important for ‘beam-driven’ fusion devices, such as fusion neutron source (FNS) tokamaks, since their operation depends on a high NBI input in non-inductive current drive and fusion yield. BTR calculates detailed power deposition maps and particle losses with an account of ionized beam fractions and background electromagnetic fields; these results are used for the overall NBI performance analysis. BTR code is open for public usage; it is fully interactive and supplied with an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). The input configuration is flexibly adapted to any specific NBI geometry. High running speed and full control over the running options allow the user to perform multiple parametric runs on the fly. The paper describes the detailed physics of BTR, numerical methods, graphical user interface, and examples of BTR application. The code is still in evolution; basic support is available to all BTR users. Full article

Software testing and debugging are standard practices of software quality assurance since they enable the identification and correction of failures. Benchmarks have been used in that context as a group of programs to support the comparison of different techniques according to pre-established parameters. However, the reasons that inspire researchers to propose novel benchmarks are not fully understood. This article reports the investigation, identification, classification, and externalization of the state of the art about the proposition of benchmarks on software testing and debugging domains. The study was carried out using systematic mapping procedures according to the guidelines widely followed by software engineering literature. The search identified 1674 studies, from which, 25 were selected for analysis. A list of benchmarks is provided and descriptively mapped according to their characteristics, motivations, and scope of use for their creation. The lack of data to support the comparison between available and novel software testing and debugging techniques is the main motivation for the proposition of benchmarks. Advancements in the standardization and prescription of benchmark structure and composition are still required. Establishing such a standard could foster benchmark reuse, thereby saving time and effort in the engineering of benchmarks for software testing and debugging. Full article