Towards synergizing the active object, software maintenance, and algorithm synthesis metaphors for integrated modeling environments

Several objectives reflected in recent integrated modeling environment (IME) research include providing support for model reuse, synthesis, and formulation assistance. The authors extend recent object-oriented approaches by establishing a role for active objects in IMEs. They apply recent work in software maintenance support and algorithm synthesis research to establish a foundation for active objects designed to support model synthesis activities. An exploratory study to establish new rule-based class designations for linear programming models was conducted as a first step towards designing such active objects. The study´s methodology relied on exploiting the structure of models to derive rules that specify new structural classes for model objects and model variables