We present the architecture-oriented programming language Objective-S, which goes beyond procedure calls for expressing inter-component connectors (so

Beyond Procedure Calls as Component Glue: Connectors Deserve Metaclass Status (SPLASH 2024 - Onward! Papers) - SPLASH 2024

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2024-09-05 11:00:03

We present the architecture-oriented programming language Objective-S, which goes beyond procedure calls for expressing inter-component connectors (so-called glue code) in order to directly express a wide range of architectural patterns directly in the implementation.

Previous approaches for encoding architecture require either indirection, maintaining separate architectural descriptions, or both. Expressing the architecture directly in the implementation instead of indirectly avoids the problems associated with creating and maintaining duplicate representations.

Objective-S introduces syntactic elements that let us express many architectural connections directly using a simple surface syntax.

The key insight of our approach is that while so-called general-purpose programming languages do lack the ability to express most architectural concerns directly, as shown by previous research, this is not an inherent limitation.