Configuration programming-a framework for the development of distributable systems

A brief description is given of the author´s use of configuration programming in the conic environment, and an assessment is made of the benefits of such an approach. Based on this experience, the author extends the notions of configuration programming to cover many more aspects of the software development process. Emphasis is on the structural decisions and descriptions for each of the phases in the process, and on the need for compositionality. The configuration programming framework has been adopted as the basis of a recent ESPRIT II Project, REX, on reconfigurable and extensible parallel and distributed systems. This major project uses two large demonstrators in the telecommunication and CIM areas to act as a focus for the work and as a means for demonstrating the techniques and tools developed. A brief description of the development of REX work is used to indicate the general research direction in this field and to elucidate some of the issues and possible solutions