Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.pdf

This work is partially supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (project number A2030902), the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (project number 201/99/0244), and MLC Systeme, Ratingen, Germany. Bounding Component Behavior via Protocols Frantisek Plasil 1,2 , Stanislav Visnovsky 1 , Miloslav Besta 1,2 1 Charles University Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Department of Software Engineering Malostranske namesti 25 118 00 Prague 1 Czech Republic {plasil,visnovsky,besta}@nenya.ms.mff.cuni.cz http://nenya.ms.mff.cuni.cz 2 Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Institute of Computer Science Pod vodarenskou vezi 2 180 00 Prague 8 Czech Republic {plasil, besta}@uivt.cas.cz http://www.uivt.cas.cz Abstract In this paper we enhance the SOFA Component Description Language with a semantic description of a components functionality. There are two key requirements this description aims to address: First, for the design purpose, it should ensure correct composition of the nested architectural abstractions; second, it should be easy-to-read so that an average user can identify a component with the correct semantics for the purposes of component trading. The semantic description in SOFA expresses the behavior of the component in terms of behavior protocols using a notation similar to regular expressions which is easy-to-read, and which grants guarantees about required and provided services. The behavior protocols are used on three levels: interface, frame, and architecture. One of the key achievements of this paper is that it defines a protocol conformance relation where the component designer can statically verify that the frame protocol adheres to requirements of the interface protocols, and that the architecture protocol adheres to the requirements of the frame and interface protocols. Keywords: behavior protocols, protocol conformance, architecture description language, component- based programming Category: research paper Subject a