Using a product line for creating component systems

ABSTRACT

Component systems have become a wide-spread technology and found their place in several application domains. Each component system has its specifics and particularities that reflect its focus and the application domain it is intended for. Although important, the diversity of component systems leads to a number of problems including having different tools for each systems, unnecessary duplication of functionality and problems with integration when several domains are to be targeted. Based on categorization of component application domains, we propose a "meta-component system", which provides a software product line for creating custom component systems. We focus especially on the deployment and execution environment, which is where most diversities are found. We demonstrate the usage of the "meta-component system" and propose how it is to be realized by two core concepts of SOFA 2, namely connector generator and microcomponents.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.13 Reusable Software
            Subjects: Domain engineering

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.13 Reusable Software
            Subjects: Reuse models

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
component systems, generative programming, product line engineering, runtime environment