Conference on Domain-Specific Languages, 1997
Domains of Concern in Software Architectures
Nenad Medvidovic and David S. Rosenblum
University of California, Irvine
Abstract
Software architectures shift the focus of developers
from lines-of-code to coarser-grained elements and their interconnection
structure. Architecture description languages (ADLs) have been proposed
as domain-specific languages for the domain of software architecture. There
is still little consensus in the research community on what problems are
most important to address in a study of software architecture, what aspects
of an architecture should be modeled in an ADL, or even what an ADL is.
To shed light on these issues, we provide a framework of architectural
domains, or areas of concern in the study of software architectures. We
evaluate existing ADLs with respect to the framework and study the relationship
between architectural and application domains. One conclusion is that,
while the architectural domains perspective enables one to approach architectures
and ADLs in a new, more structured manner, further understanding of architectural
domains, their tie to application domains, and their specific influence
on ADLs is needed.
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