Software (Re-)Engineering with PSF

TL;DR

This paper explores the application of PSF, based on process algebra, in software engineering and reengineering, demonstrating its use at different abstraction levels through a case study of reengineering a compiler.

Contribution

It investigates the applicability of PSF for software architecture and reengineering, providing insights into its practical use at various abstraction levels.

Findings

PSF can be effectively used at multiple abstraction levels.

Reengineering a compiler demonstrates PSF's practical utility.

PSF's basis in ACP supports architectural description and analysis.

Abstract

This paper investigates the usefulness of PSF in software engineering and reengineering. PSF is based on ACP (Algebra of Communicating Processes) and as some architectural description languages are based on process algebra, we investigate whether PSF can be used at the software architecture level, but we also use PSF at lower abstract levels. As a case study we reengineer the compiler from the Toolkit of PSF.