Fashioning conceptual constructs in Ada

• Authors: Robert C. Shock
• Venue: TRI-Ada '90 Proceedings of the conference on TRI-ADA '90
• Year: 1990

It is believed that future progress of software productivity depends upon capturing the essence of software in a unit called conceptual construct [BRO87]. The objective of this investigation is to characterize the conceptual construct in Ada code. The objective is met when the control/interfacing structures of the software product can be housed in a unit of code that separates itself from the specific instances of the data productions. This control unit can be reused without alterations for all instances of the data productions. The effect of this separation is analogous to a hardware chip that houses the logic and control structure in a black box, yet allows various sets of data to pass through it. The scope of the investigation characterizes the conceptual construct, details several examples of it, and outlines a design methodology that uses it. This methodology and a well-known, established one are both applied to the same problem. The resulting designs are compared. This investigation leads to these conclusions. To capture the notion of software essence requires two distinct steps. Step one abstracts the problem to a higher level of domain independence. Step two separates this level into a control unit and a unit of data productions. The control unit is reused without alterations for all instances of the data productions. The success of design reuse is directly proportional to the separation of the control flow of the program from the data productions.