Synthesis of component and connector models from crosscutting structural views

We present component and connector (C&C) views, which specify structural properties of component and connector models in an expressive and intuitive way. C&C views pro-vide means to abstract away direct hierarchy, direct con-nectivity, port names and types, and thus can crosscut the traditional boundaries of the implementation-oriented hier-archical decomposition of systems and sub-systems, and re-flect the partial knowledge available to different stakeholders involved in a system’s design. As a primary application for C&C views we investigate the synthesis problem: given a C&C views specification, consist-ing of mandatory, alternative, and negative views, construct a concrete satisfying C&C model, if one exists. We show that the problem is NP-hard and solve it, in a bounded scope, using a reduction to SAT, via Alloy. We further ex-tend 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