Thing/Machine-s (Thimacs) Applied to Structural Description in Software Engineering

TL;DR

This paper introduces the thing/machine (thimac) model, a unified approach to structural description in software engineering that emphasizes flow and interaction of entities as things and machines.

Contribution

It proposes the thimac concept, replacing traditional categories with a unified model based on flow, processing, and interaction of entities in software modeling.

Findings

Thimacs unify categorization, properties, and behavior in modeling.

The model emphasizes flow and triggering in structural descriptions.

Examples illustrate the application of thimacs in diagrammatic modeling.

Abstract

We are pursuing a modeling methodology that views the world as a realm of things. A thing is defined as something that can be created, processed, released, transferred, and received. Additionally, in this modeling approach, a thing is a five-dimensional structure referred to as a thinging (abstract) machine. On the other hand, machines are things that are operated on; that is, they are created, processed, released, transferred, and received. The intertwining with the world is accomplished by integrating these two modes of an entity s being: being a thing that flows through machines and being a machine that processes things. This paper further enriches these notions of things and machines. We present further exploration of the thinging machine model through introducing a new notion called the thing/machine (thimac) as a label of the unity of things/machines. Thimacs replace traditional categorization, properties, and behavior with creating, processing, releasing, transferring, and receiving, as well as the two linking notions of flow and triggering. The paper discusses the concept of thimacs with examples and focuses on the notion of structure as it applies to various diagrammatic modeling methodologies.