Design module: A modularity vision beyond code: Not only program code but also a design model is a module

We propose a new modularity vision to integrate design modeling with programming. A system consists of not only program code but also design models. However, design models such as UML diagrams have been treated as not modules but complementary documents. This paper provides a novel idea that treats a design model as a first-class software module termed design module. A system cannot be complied without design modules. A developer has to create and modify not only program modules but also design modules. To realize design modules, we introduce Archface, an architectural interface mechanism. Archface exposes architectural points shared between design and code. Archface plays a role as a design interface for a design module and as a program interface for a program module. Arch-face type system automatically checks the consistency between design and code. Our approach can integrate research on design modeling with research on programming in terms of modularity. Additional costs are not needed to introduce design modules, because Archface descriptions can be generated from a model editor and Archface is just an extension of the notion of program interfaces. That is, we can substitute Archface for traditional program interfaces.