ADLs and dynamic architecture changes
Nenad Medvidović · 1996
Existing ADLs typically support only static architecture specification and do not provide facilities for the support of dynamically changing architectures.This paper presents a possible solution to this problem: in order to adequately support dynamic architecture changes, ADLs can leverage techniques used in dynamic programming languages.In particular, changes to ADL specifications should be interpreted.To enable interpretation, an ADL should have an architecture construction component that supports explicit and incremental specification of architectural changes, in addition to the traditional architecture description facilities.This will allow software architects to specify the changes to an architecture after it has been built.The paper expands upon the results from an ongoing project --building a development environment for CZstyle architectures.' I. Introduction Architecture description languages (ADLs) are the means by which software architectures are defined.ADLs enable software architects to express high level system structure by describing its coarse-grained components and connections among them.Such specifications reduce the cognitive load on designers and enable system-level analysis and code generation.At the same time, current ADLs are static.They support a linear process in which an architecture is specified and then "compiled" into a running system.In general, existing ADLs do not provide any support for dynamically changing architectures.This paper briefly motivates the need for dynamic architectural changes.It then provides a closer examination of the current inability of existing ADLs to support such changes.Finally, it proposes a possible solution to this problem.This solution is based on both past experiences and lessons learned from an ongoing project. II. Dynamism in Software ArchitecturesThe promise of software architectures is that they will reduce the costs and improve the quality of software development by enabling 1.This material is based upon work sponsored by the Air Force Materiel Command, Rome Laboratory, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency under contmct number F30602-94-C-0218.The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Government and no official endorsement should be inferred.