An algebraic foundation for automatic feature-based program synthesis

✍ Scribed by Sven Apel; Christian Lengauer; Bernhard Möller; Christian Kästner

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 872 KB
• Volume: 75
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6423
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2010.02.001

✦ Synopsis

Feature-Oriented Software Development provides a multitude of formalisms, methods, languages, and tools for building variable, customizable, and extensible software. Along different lines of research, different notions of a feature have been developed. Although these notions have similar goals, no common basis for evaluation, comparison, and integration exists. We present a feature algebra that captures the key ideas of feature orientation and that provides a common ground for current and future research in this field, on which also alternative options can be explored. Furthermore, our algebraic framework is meant to serve as a basis for the development of the technology of automatic feature-based program synthesis and architectural metaprogramming.