LEADS: Language for Exploiting Architectural and Design Specifications

Abstract

Precise specification of the architecture and design of software is a good practice. Such specifications contain a lot of information about the software that can potentially be exploited by tools, to reduce redundancy in software writing by automating routine tasks, as well as giving valuable feedback on the software. In LEADS, we propose a language and environment that is designed to make writing such tools a lot easier. LEADS is based on the Pattern-Action approach, where one specifies the pattern of information of interest and the actions to be taken when it is found. LEADS decouples itself from the specification environments/ formats thereby ensuring wide applicability. Here we discuss the language features of LEADS that make tool writing a lot more organized and modular.