Mirrors of meaning: supporting inspectable runtime models

Hierarchical graphs provide a data structure to support a programming model that aims to improve understandability by creating an architectural basis for building inspectable systems.We engage developers in constructing and exposing a runtime model of a system in a clear and structured way, thereby enabling them to build inspectable systems. This approach rests on the intuition that by supporting inspection at the developers´ level of detail, for their own use and benefit, the system provides a sufficient basis for differently targeted accounts. The basic runtime model we rely on can be used to create system representations tailored to serve specialized application-specific purposes.Our approach centers on a reflective data structure we call an H-graph (short for hierarchical graph) and the programming model focused around it. Equally important, the data structure supplies part of the programming model to build reflective software in general.