ACME

What is an Architecture Description Language?

•      modelling notation to support architecture-based development

•       used to define and model system architecture prior to detailed design and implementation

•       little consensus as to what is an ADL, what aspects of an architecture should be modelled in an ADL, and which of several possible ADLs is best

•       Related to OO Modelling Languages and Module interconnection languages (MILs)

ACME

•      ACME was developed  jointly by Monroe, Garlan (CMU) and Wile (USC)

•      ACME is a general purpose ADL originally designed to be a lowest common denominator interchange language

•      ACME as a language is extremely simple (befitting its origin as an interchange language)

•      ACME has no native behavioral specification facility so only syntactic linguistic analysis is possible

–     there are currently efforts under consideration to define a behavioral semantics for ACME, possibly along the Wright/CSP line

•      ACME has no native generation capability

•      ACME has seen some native tool development, and there are indications of more, as well as use of other language tools via interchange

ACME Overview

•      Provides constructs for describing systems as graphs of components interacting via connectors, a representation mechanism for hierarchical decomposition of components and connectors into subsystems.

•       Does not provide a specific model for describing system behaviour, instead elements may be annotated with properties that represent this Information.

•       Rather than providing a fixed set of models for formulating solutions, Acme provides general, domain-neutral foundation for developing new tools and notations.

•       Structures provided by Acme are based on the informal box and line diagrams traditionally used to depict the architecture of the system. Acme helps a designer document design decisions and reason about the implications of those decisions.

An ADL Example (in ACME)