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Summary: heatmaply is an R package for easily creating interactive cluster heatmaps that can be shared online as a stand-alone HTML file. Interactivity includes a tooltip display of values when hovering over cells, as well as the ability to zoom in to specific sections of the figure from the data matrix, the side dendrograms, or annotated labels. Thanks to the synergistic relationship between heatmaply and other R packages, the user is empowered by a refined control over the statistical and visual aspects of the heatmap layout. Availability and implementation: The heatmaply package is available under the GPL-2 Open Source license. It comes with a detailed vignette, and is freely available from: http://cran.r-project.org/package=heatmaply. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online., Comment: 3 pages

When developing a software system, there are a number of principles, paradigms, and tools available to choose from. For a specific platform or programming language, a standard way can usually be found to archive the ultimate system; for example, a combination of an incremental development process, object-oriented analysis and design, and a well supported CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) tool. Regardless of the technology to be adopted, the final outcome of the software development is always a working software system. However, when it comes to software reengineering, there is rather less consensus on either approaches or outcomes. Shall we use black-box or white-box reverse engineering for program understanding? Shall we produce data and control flow graphs, or some kind of formal specifications as the output of analysis? Each of these techniques has its pros and cons of tackling various software reengineering problems, and none of them on its own suffices to a whole reengineering project. A proper integration of various techniques capable of solving a specific issue could be an effective way to unravel a complicated software system. This kind of integration has to be done from an architectural point of view. One of the most exciting outcomes of recent efforts on software architecture is the Object Management Group’s (OMG) Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). MDA provides a unified framework for developing middleware-based modern distributed systems, and also a definite goal for software reengineering. This chapter presents a unified software reengineering methodology based on Model-Driven Architecture, which consists of a framework, a process, and related techniques.

Any ordinary panel member on an ordinary panel can sit up front and spout the same old stuff. The panelists for this event must be agile in the strictest sense of the word. Why? Because they will be asked to take a random position in response to questions from both the moderators and the audience. They must present their arguments in a timed two-minute speech or present a rebuttal of the initial points in the same restricted two-minute interval. The assignment to the position will be made by the moderators. Don't miss this one.

This paper presents the theoretical background to Janus, an ongoing project that has been more fully described elsewhere, that explores the use of software patterns organised in a pattern language, to capture and express the normally tacit and configurational knowledge that is the essence of architectural knowledge. Software development, considered as a professional practice is a design discipline which has been, historically, poorly served by the positivist traditions of Computer Science. Architectural knowledge, as understood in the context of other professional disciplines in which it is utilised, drives design at all levels of scale. The creation of software architectures requires some way of expressing this normally tacit knowledge. The experiences, first of ADAPTOR and now of Janus, strongly suggest that pattern languages may provide just such a vehicle.

Functional programming, AI, patterns, OO, structured programming - they were promising, and yet they seem to have failed to deliver. Did we lose interest too soon? Is the best too good for our industry? Is there “a” best for our industry or is our endless search for the silver bullet driving us? Do we want the “best” to (again) be a popular goal? How?

Those who have used patterns are aware that this literary form, and its corresponding process and community support, is providing a way to capture best practices and communicate them throughout organizations and the entire software industry. However, many who have tried to introduce patterns (or any new idea) into their organizations have found it to be a difficult task. Therefore, a pattern language, currently titled Evolving a Patterns Culture, is being written to capture solutions to the challenges in introducing patterns (or any new idea) into an organization.