Visualizing external inter-component interfaces

Abstract

Despite the advances in software technology, there are still problems that need to be solved. They are related to understanding components, modifying them and their interfaces, etc., as well as to the practical use of component-based development for large-scale applications. Our approach is based on developing multiple view components of multimedia types. These multiple views can be divided into a few groups to represent different features of a component: (1) computational schemes of a corresponding component algorithm, (2) variables and formulas used in the algorithm, and (3) input/output (I/O) operations of the component. Such approach simplifies the understanding and manipulation of components. This paper discusses examples of visualizing I/O specifications which include the definition of data source and the corresponding target, scanning schemes applied to structures, conditions imposed upon different operations, etc. In other words, a visual language to define external inter-component interfaces is presented.