CMU CS 15-675 Architectures for Software Systems Spring 1998
Architectural Concepts and Issues
with answers
Garlan & Kazman Questions on Readings for Lecture
4 Due: Wed Jan 21, 1998The papers:
[GMW97]: ACME: An Architecture Description Interchange Language.
[SG95]: Formulations and Formalisms in Software Architecture
[Mor93]: How Architecture Wins Technology Wars
Hints:
You may find ACME to be a convenient notation with which to express your architectural descriptions as the course progresses. But for now, pay most attention to the common architectural concepts that ACME embodies, not the syntax.
Questions:
1. According to the designers of ACME, why is it a bad idea to force everyone to use the same architectural description language?
The field is not yet mature enough to settle on a single standard description language; further, each ADL provides certain capabilities not found on others.
2.
List the seven core types of entities in ACME, and say briefly what each represents.Components: primary computational entities and data stores
Ports: interfaces for components
Connectors: interactions among components
Roles: interfaces for connectors
Systems: configurations of components and connectors
Representations: a more detailed, lower-level architectural description
Rep-maps: defines the correspondence between the parts of a representation and the entity that it is representing
3. What does Morris and Ferguson mean by an "open proprietary architectural standard"? Isn’t this a contradiction in terms? List two examples of open proprietary products, and two examples of products that aren’t.
An open proprietary architectural standard is a standard that is designed and owned by a single company, but licensed broadly to other vendors, who can use it in their products and build on top of it.
Not a contradiction because, can control the standard (by making it proprietary), while still opening it up so others can take advantage of it (by making it open.
Answers will vary, but some examples are:
Is: IBM’s 360, Adobe Postscript
Isn’t: Apple Operating System Software (not open), DOS (not proprietary for IBM)
Modified: 5/18/98