Multi-Platform Generative Development of Component & Connector Systems using Model and Code Libraries

TL;DR

This paper presents a model-driven approach that transforms platform-independent component architectures into platform-specific implementations by integrating model and code libraries, enhancing reuse and reducing development effort.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism that postpones platform commitment, enabling flexible reuse of software architectures through systematic model-to-code transformations.

Findings

Enables platform-independent design reuse

Facilitates systematic transformation to platform-specific implementations

Increases flexibility and reduces development effort

Abstract

Component-based software engineering aims to reduce software development effort by reusing established components as building blocks of complex systems. Defining components in general-purpose programming languages restricts their reuse to platforms supporting these languages and complicates component composition with implementation details. The vision of model-driven engineering is to reduce the gap between developer intention and implementation details by lifting abstract models to primary development artifacts and systematically transforming these into executable systems. For sufficiently complex systems the transformation from abstract models to platform-specific implementations requires augmentation with platform-specific components. We propose a model-driven mechanism to transform platform-independent logical component & connector architectures into platform-specific implementations combining model and code libraries. This mechanism allows to postpone commitment to a specific platform and thus increases reuse of software architectures and components.