Computer Science Dept. Seminar 
Software Factories: Some examples of prototype development
Prof. Robert Lechner
Wed. March 1 2006 (3PM in OS311) 
RJLRef: RJLCSseminar060301.txt

This visionary text from Microsoft authors (Wiley 2004) 
[http://www.softwarefactories.com/] has the subtitle
"The Industrialization of Software Development".
Its scope is far too broad to relate in one talk. 
It extends the work of the Object Management Group 
on Model-Driven Development in new directions
using Domain-Specific Languages. 

Rather than cover it superficially I will try to 
motivate you to read it, by presenting concrete examples
of using a prototype development framework, called 
COOL for Collaborative Object-Oriented Laboratory. 
[http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-FAQ/COOL_FAQv6.PPT].
I believe such examples fit well within 
the Software Factory's broader vision.

The goal of COOL is a testbed for ways to raise
programming to a higher levels of abstraction,
as  advocated in the Software Factories text.
This includes the use of COOL for designing and 
boot-strapping itself.

COOL consists of three components: 
an automatic code generator GENCPP for persistent 
object-relational data structures, a state model 
interpreter LCP to control the sequential execution 
of class methods to execute complex transactions,
and a Block Diagram Editor BDE that can be used 
to visualize and to create various diagram types.

The input to GENCPP is a text file describing relational 
tables; the input to LCP is a database of state model
definitions. The equivalent graphic models are called 
Extended Entity-Relationship Diagrams and State Transition 
Diagrams respectively. Filters convert between these text
and graphic representations. 

GEN provides both BDE and LCP with a persistent database,
The peresistent database format is flat relational tables 
containing ASCII text, which can be stored in a source code 
revision control system like CVS.

I believe this narrowly-scoped goal of realizing a 
framework for automating the repetitive aspects of 
software prototype development fits well within 
the Software Factory's broader vision.

Bio:
Dr. Lechner retired from the Computer Science Dept at UML
in 2001, whre he developed and continues to teach the 
91.522/523/524 OOAD and Software Engineering course sequence.
He has BS and MSEE degrees from Carnegie[Tech] and 
a PhD in Applied Math from Harvard[Computation Lab]. 
Prior to joining UML in 1982 he spent 20 years in 
computer-based system analysis at GTE/Sylvania,
Honeywell IS and CSDraper Lab, and six years in the 
EE Dept at Northeastern U.