[comp.sw.components] Automated components databases

billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe,2847,) (05/07/89)

From article <6718@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, by rjh@cs.purdue.EDU (Bob Hathaway):
> I've seen a lot of talk about storing and retrieving components and it 
> seems that Booch's naming scheme is appropriate for keywords in a database
> search.  Are there any plans for an automated components database that may
> arise soon out of this newsgroup?


   The U.S. Government has already funded major research in this area.
   Unisys, IBM, and (I think) Boeing are the prime contractors.  Unisys,
   in particular, has two very interesting STARS Foundations systems
   (taking up several booths at last October's Tri-Ada '88 conference):


     REUSEABILITY LIBRARY FRAMEWORK (RLF)

       o The Reuseability Library Framework is a set of building
         blocks and tools for building, maintaining, and accessing
         knowledge-based libraries of Ada software components.

       o The base set of tools supports the creation and maintenance
         of "intelligent software librarians": repositories of reuseable
         Ada components organized around particular application domains.

       o Relevant knowledge about the domain of the software to be
         reused in embedded within the library itself through 
         knowledge-based techniques.

       o Library tools access this embedded knowledge to provide
         active "intelligent" guidance to users in focused search
         and retrieval of library components.

       o Testing and qualification of candidate components for 
         inclusion into the reuse library are performed prior to
         cataloging the component in the library.


                       Qualifying Librarian
                          /       \   \   \
                         /         \   \   \
                    Test Plan      Librarian Systems
                    Assistant           / 
                         \             /
                          \           /
                      Hybrid Knowledge Representation Systems
                          /           \
                         /             \
                     AdaKNET          AdaTAU
                     Semantic         Rule-Based
                     Network          System


     ADA COMMAND ENVIRONMENT (ACE)
    
        o The Ada Command Environment is an interactive,
          object-oriented command language environment for
          Ada software development.

        o Ada is both the programming language and the        
          command language used within ACE.  The paradigm
          and philosophy used by the Ada programmer for
          program development are extended into the environment
          in which program development takes place.

        o ACE is modeled after the interactive programming 
          environments known for individual programmer productivity.

        o ACE supports programming-in-the-large techniques that
          are key elements of the Ada language.

        o ACE has been implemented on Sun Workstations (R) running
          the Unix (R) operating system.  ACE has also been ported
          to the Unisys PC/IT running the MS-DOS (R) operating system.

               -------------------------------------------
               |    Ada Interpreter                      |    <= ACE
               |          ^                              |
               |          |                              |
               |          v                              |
               |    Environment Abstract Data Types      |
               |    ^  ^         ^       ^        ^      | 
               -----|--|---------|-------|--------|------- 
                    |  v         v       v        v
                    |
                    |  Ada       X      File    Application
                    | Compiler  Window  System  Systems 
                    |           System            
                    |
                    |  ^         ^       ^        ^
                    |  |         |       |        |
                    v  v         v       v        v
               ------------------------------------------
               |         Host Operating System          |
               ------------------------------------------ 


     For additional information, contact the Paoli Research Center,
     Unisys Corporation, Defense Systems, P.O. Box 517, Paoli, PA 19301.
     Or call (215) 648-7624.


     Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu