Architectural description languages (ADL) provide a technological platform to write down the architectural specifications of a software system. These languages contain constructs that make it possible to define the various components that are present in a system, together with the dependencies between these components.
One major problem with these ADLs is that they only provide an informal documentation of the architecture. As such, there is no direct link between the specifications and the actual implementation of the system.
The goal of this thesis proposal is to devise a declarative framework that allows for the definition of architectural specifications that are directly linked to the implementation of the system. Based on work that is performed at the Programming Technology Lab concerning the use of logic programming languages to reason about software, the student will extend such a logic programming language with a layer of predicates that can be used to express the architecture of a system.
Using these predicates, it is then possible to query both architecture and implementation as a means to support development tasks such as refactorings, and so on.
During the research training, the student will provide the technological support for the actual work of the Master thesis. Concretely, a literature study of architectural description languages will be done, followed by the implementation of the declarative layer using the SOUL language that was developed at PROG.
Email: vuquilla at vub dot ac dot be
Office: 10F737
Email: akellens at vub dot ac dot be
Office: 10F732