Toward Exception Handling Infrastructures for Component-Based Software
Chrysanthos N. Dellarocas · 2000
: This paper argues that component-based software development introduces additional sources of risk because (i) independently developed components cannot be fully trusted to conform to their published specifications and (ii) very often, software failures are caused by systemic patterns of interaction that cannot be localized to any individual component. It articulates the need for a separate exception handling infrastructure to address these issues. The proposed approach creates a clean separation between the normative and exception handling functions in component-based software systems. Components focus on executing their own "normal" problem solving behavior, while an exception handling service focuses on detecting and resolving exceptions in the system as a whole. The exception handling service works by applying a knowledge base of generic and highly reusable exception handling expertise to the particular run-time contexts it faces. The "cost of admission" for this approach is only...