ITR/SY(CISE): Compositional Connectors

组合连接器对于由独立开发的部件组成的系统，通常需要专门的交互形式来桥接组件不匹配或实现额外的功能属性（例如，安全性，可靠性），这使得这些交互机制的设计和实现成为关键问题。不幸的是，系统开发人员没有多少选择：他们必须使用可用的、但通常不充分的通用交互支持（比如RPC），或者他们必须花费很大的代价手工制作专门的机制。本研究探讨了一种组合构建相互作用机制的新方法。具体来说，基本连接器（如RPC或数据流）可以通过选择的调整或增强来增强，以产生满足系统需求的更复杂的连接器。这项工作将研究以下假设：(a)存在一组可应用于连接器以产生越来越丰富的交互形式的通用转换，以及(b)可以构建工具以自动将这些转换应用于现有交互机制。如果成功，本研究将通过部分自动化复杂交互机制的生产来降低组件集成的成本，通过使其易于添加安全性和可靠性特征来提高系统质量，并为复杂交互机制的指定和推理开发新的基础。

NSF ITR Proposal #0113810Compositional ConnectorsDavid GarlanFor systems composed from independently developed parts, specialized forms ofinteraction are often needed to bridge component mismatches or to achieveextra-functional properties (e.g., security, reliability), making the design andimplementation of these interaction mechanisms a critical issue. Unfortunately,system developers have few options: they must live with available, but ofteninadequate, generic support for interaction (such as RPC), or they musthandcraft specialized mechanisms at great cost.This research investigates a new approach whereby interaction mechanisms areconstructed compositionally. Specifically, basic connectors (such as RPC ordata streams) can be augmented with selected adaptations or enhancements toproduce a more complex connector that meets the system requirements. Thiswork will investigate the hypothesis that (a) there exists a collection ofgeneral-purpose transformations that can be applied to connectors to produceincreasingly rich forms of interaction, and (b) tools can be built to automatethe application of these transformations to existing interaction mechanisms.If successful, this research will reduce the cost of component integration bypartially automating the production of complex interaction mechanisms, improvethe quality of systems by making it simple to add security and dependabilityfeatures, and develop new foundations for specifying and reasoning about complexinteraction mechanisms.