Towards a formal composition language

Markus Lumpe, Jean-Guy Schneider
Oscar Nierstrasz, Franz Achermann

Software Composition Group, University of Berne,
Institute for Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (IAM),
Neubrückstrasse 10, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
Tel: +41 31 631 46 92
Fax: +41 31 631 39 65
Email: {lumpe,schneidr,oscar,acherman}@iam.unibe.ch

Abstract:

When do we call a software development environment a composition environment? A composition environment must be built of three parts: i) a reusable component library, ii) a component framework determining the software architecture, and iii) an open and flexible composition language. Most of the effort in component technology was spent on the first two parts. Now it is crucial to address the last part and find an appropriate model to glue existing components together. In this work, we investigate existing component and glue models, define a set of requirements a composition language must fulfill, and report our first results using a prototype implementation of a general-purpose composition language based on the $\pi$-calculus.

Keywords: components, component frameworks, composition language, formal glue, $\pi$-calculus, modular compiler construction.

Workshop Goals: Analyzing the state-of-the-art of component technology; discussion about composition languages, formal foundations, and implementation techniques.