TY - JOUR

T1 - μ-DSU

T2 - A Micro-Language Based Approach to Dynamic Software Updating

AU - Cazzola, Walter

AU - Chitchyan, Ruzanna

AU - Rashid, Awais

AU - Shaqiri, Albert

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Computer Languages, Systems and Structures . Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Computer Languages, Systems and Structures, 51, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.cl.2017.07.003

PY - 2018/1

Y1 - 2018/1

N2 - Today software systems play a critical role in society’s infrastructures and many are required to provide uninterrupted services in their constantly changing environments. As the problem domain and the operational context of such software changes, the software itself must be updated accordingly. In this paper we propose to support dynamic software updating through language semantic adaptation; this is done through use of micro-languages that confine the effect of the introduced change to specific application features. Micro-languages provide a logical layer over a programming language and associate an application feature with the portion of the programming language used to implement it. Thus, they permit to update the application feature by updating the underlying programming constructs without affecting the behaviour of the other application features. Such a linguistic approach provides the benefit of easy addition/removal of application features (with a special focus on non-functional features) to/from a running application by separating the implementation of the new feature from the original application, allowing for the application to remain unaware of any extensions. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated with two studies; its benefits and drawbacks are also analysed.

AB - Today software systems play a critical role in society’s infrastructures and many are required to provide uninterrupted services in their constantly changing environments. As the problem domain and the operational context of such software changes, the software itself must be updated accordingly. In this paper we propose to support dynamic software updating through language semantic adaptation; this is done through use of micro-languages that confine the effect of the introduced change to specific application features. Micro-languages provide a logical layer over a programming language and associate an application feature with the portion of the programming language used to implement it. Thus, they permit to update the application feature by updating the underlying programming constructs without affecting the behaviour of the other application features. Such a linguistic approach provides the benefit of easy addition/removal of application features (with a special focus on non-functional features) to/from a running application by separating the implementation of the new feature from the original application, allowing for the application to remain unaware of any extensions. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated with two studies; its benefits and drawbacks are also analysed.

U2 - 10.1016/j.cl.2017.07.003

DO - 10.1016/j.cl.2017.07.003

M3 - Journal article

VL - 51

SP - 71

EP - 89

JO - Computer Languages, Systems and Structures

JF - Computer Languages, Systems and Structures

SN - 1477-8424

ER -