Recursive and Dynamic Software Composition with Sharing

Abstract

this paper, we introduce a component model which fares better along the two above dimensions than its predecessors. In particular, it includes a combination of sharing, hierarchy, and an open approach to component composition and binding which we believe to be novel. The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 gathers crucial requirements we identify on a general component model for distributed configurable systems. Section 3 introduces the Fractal model, our proposal for such a general component model. Section 4 introduces a software that we have developed to support the Fractal model and support the programming of Fractal components and systems in Java. Section 5 briefly reports on a first implementation of the Fractal framework. Section 6 concludes the paper