Synthesis of component and connector models from crosscutting structural views

This extended abstract reports on [MRR13]. We presented component and connector (C&C) views, which specify structural properties of component and connector models in an expressive and intuitive way. C&C views provide means to abstract away direct hierarchy, direct connectivity, port names and types, and thus can crosscut the traditional boundaries of the implementation-oriented hierarchical decomposition of systems and sub-systems, and reflect the partiell knowledge available to different stakeholders involved in a system's design. As a primary application for C&C views we investigated the synthesis problem: given a C&C views specification, consisting of mandatory, alternative, and negative views, construct a concrete satisfying C&C model, if one exists. We showed that the problem is NP-hard and solved it, in a bounded scope, using a reduction to SAT, via Alloy. We further extended the basic problem with support for library components, specification patterns, and architectural styles. The result of synthesis can be used for further exploration, simulation, and refinement of the C&C model or, as the complete, final model itself, for direct code generation. A prototype tool and an evaluation over four example systems with multiple specifications show promising results and suggest interesting future research directions towards a comprehensive development environment for the structure of component and connector designs.