This research proposes a new algorithm for mapping Normal Distribution Functions to Heightfields in order to answer its research question: ”Given an NDF, how can we generate a corresponding Heightfield using simple optimization algorithms?”. This research is important, as it helps us to gain a better understanding of how limited statistics-based representations of 3D surfaces are. To this end, we have produced an algorithm using the Simulated Annealing optimization technique, a technique that randomly explores possible solutions of a problem until it finds the optimal solution. The algorithm begins with a flat Heightfield (a 2D representation of a surface that shows the relative altitude of a discrete plane of points), iteratively changes points on the Heightfield and compares its measured NDF (Normal Distribution Function, a function to denote the area distribution along a given direction in a Heightfield) to the target NDF that we want to map. Once the target NDF is reached, or once the pre-determined number of iterations has been reached, the algorithm concludes and the NDF-to-Heightfield mapping has been completed. Three different variations are tried, one na¨ıve implementation which changes points on the Heightfield completely at random, another where the angle of the normal vector of a random surrounding facet of a chosen point is used as guidance for randomization, and finally one where this angle is guided using the relative position of the chosen point to the centre of the Heightfield. The conclusion the proposed algorithm provides is that, while possible, the process of mapping NDFs to Heightfields is a costly and complex operation, and leaves a lot of room for ambiguity. While the research cannot provide a case of an exact match of a target NDF and measured NDF of a Heightfield created through the algorithm, we do show it is without a doubt possible given time.

Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions, BRDFs, describe the reflectance of light on a ma-terial, and are widely used in computer graphics to render materials. Acquiring a full measured BRDF can be costly and time consuming, so this research aims to answer the question ”How can we approx-imate a full BRDF from a single slice (in-plane BRDF)?”. Outlined in this paper is an algorithm that uses solids of revolution to approximate a full BRDF from a single slice. The algorithm finds sub-curves of the slice, creates solids of revolution for each, normalizes the data, and merges the solids while removing overlapping data. The resulting solid, described by a list of points using a Carte-sian coordinate system, represents the full, three-dimensional BRDF.

Conferences are great opportunities for sharing research, debating solutions, and networking. For the organizing committee there is a considerable deal of complexity and effort required to provide attendees and organizers with ways to find and manage programs, sessions, papers, tracks, talks, and authors. Eelco Visser found an opportunity to provide an integrated solution to these problems by designing the Conf Researchr conference management system in 2014 using our own domain-specific web programming language WebDSL. In this paper, we highlight the impact Eelco had on conference management, and how Conf Researchr evolved to become the platform of choice for hosting over 900 conference and workshop editions in SIGPLAN and SIGSOFT, among other areas of computer science research.

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SDF, Stratego and Spoofax provide a platform for development of domain-specific programming languages. On this platform, the WebDSL project started out as a case study in language engineering, and grew into a reliable tool for rapid prototyping and continuous development of web applications. Our team led by Eelco Visser develops and operates several web applications to support academic workflows. EvaTool governs the process of course quality control, importing questionnaire data, and providing lecturers and education directors with a platform to discuss and agree on improvements. WebLab is an online learning management system with a focus on programming education, with support for lab work and digital exams, used by over 40 courses. Conf Researchr is a domain-specific content management system for creating and hosting integrated websites for conferences with multiple co-located events, used by all ACM SIGPLAN and SIGSOFT conferences. MyStudyPlanning is an application for composition of individual study programs by students and verification of those programs by the exam board, used by multiple faculties at the Delft University of Technology. These tools served as practical case studies for applying the research, and ensure the continued development of the underlying platform.

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JSGLR2 is a java implementation of the Scannerless Generalized LR-parsing (SGLR) algorithm. It employs a modular architecture. This architecture comes with a performance overhead for letting multiple components interact with each other. This paper looks into the size of the performance overhead penalty for the recovery parser variant. It does so by creating an 'inlined' version of the recovery parser variant. The inlined recovery variant is a JSGLR2 implementation that ignores the modular architecture, and hard-codes the components. The performance of the inlined variant is measured with a pre-existing evaluation suite. The results show that there is a performance increase between the original, and the inlined variant.

JSGLR2 is a modular Java implementation of the SGLR parsing algorithm that supports systematic benchmarking and improvement of its several parsing variants. By splitting the code into several components, they can be tested in isolation and thus optimized more effortlessly. The modular architecture, although beneficial for efficiently identifying and implementing optimizations, negatively impacts the performance of the parsing algorithm. This paper aims to measure the overhead introduced by the code architecture for one of the variants, more specifically the incremental variant, which combines incremental parsing with SGLR parsing. It does so by comparing the original implementation with a version with the modularity removed. The evaluation is done on programming languages used in practice: Java, WebDSL and SDF3. The results show that the inlined parser outperforms the previous one, achieving speedups of up to 16% in batch parsing and up to 10% in incremental parsing.

A refactoring is a program transformation that improves the design of the source code, while preserving its behavior. Most modern IDEs offer a number of automated refactorings as editor services. The Rename refactoring is the most-commonly applied refactoring and is used to change the identifier of a program entity such as a variable, a function, or a type. Correctly implementing refactorings is notoriously complex and these state-of-the-art implementations are known to be faulty and too restrictive. When developing a new programming language, it is both difficult and time-consuming to implement sound and complete automated refactoring transformations. Language-parametric definitions of refactorings that can be reused by instantiation with the syntax and semantics of a language, allow the development effort of refactorings to be amortized across language implementations. In this thesis, we developed a language-parametric Rename refactoring algorithm that works on an abstract model of a program's name binding structure. We implemented the algorithm in the Spoofax language workbench, building on the language-parametric representation of name binding with scope graphs and using generic traversals in the Stratego transformation language. We evaluated the algorithm with five different languages implemented in Spoofax, which uses both NaBL2 and Statix to declare their static semantics and name binding rules. As a result, Spoofax now provides an automated Rename refactoring that works for any language developed with the language workbench using NaBL2/Statix.