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names—means, however, that an additional dictio-
nary would be needed, mapping the names of Java
classes to those of the equivalent C++ classes. This
aspect of the C++ version of Smart Archive has not
yet been fully developed, so testing the portability of
configurations has not been possible.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This paper addressed the problem of managing the
data types of parameters and variables in a data min-
ing application framework. This problem is inter-
esting and nontrivial because, on the one hand, ar-
tificially limiting the set of types a programmer can
choose from is undesirable, but on the other hand, not
controlling types at all may lead to problems in inter-
operability. Smart Archive, a data mining framework
for Java and C++, employs a solution based on a type
dictionary and one or more type renderers, allowing
developers to extend the selection of available types
while ensuring that the framework knows how to han-
dle each type in various situations relating to conver-
sion of values between representations.
The type dictionary is an XML document contain-
ing information on each data type, including the name
of the type renderer that handles the type. A type ren-
derer, in turn, is a class that implements a special ren-
dering interface through which the framework uses its
services. New types are created by editing the dictio-
nary and coding a renderer. The dictionary and ren-
derers allow the framework to keep track of any num-
ber of concrete types and representations associated
with a given type, while the application programmer
only needs to be aware of a single abstract type name
and a single representation, namely the one used in
the implementation language of the framework.
The main principles of Smart Archive application
development were first introduced, along with other
systems intended for the same purpose. The Smart
Archive solution to data type management was then
examined in detail. The practical implications of this
type engine were explored by walking through a hy-
pothetical case study. Finally, some notable strengths,
weaknesses and open issues were identified and an-
alyzed. The type engine has proved useful for im-
plementing framework features that make application
coding considerably quicker and more convenient.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Finnish
Funding Agency for Technology and In-
novation (http://www.tekes.fi), Rautaruukki
(http://www.ruukki.com) and Polar Electro
(http://www.polar.fi) for funding the research on
Smart Archive in the SAMURAI project. L.
Tuovinen wishes to thank the Graduate School in
Electronics, Telecommunications and Automation
(http://signal.hut.fi/geta/) for fundinghis postgraduate
work.
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