Component-Based Specification of Distributed Systems

We suggest that hidden algebra can provide a setting for component specification and composition that has the advantages of algebraic specification, without the disadvantages of object-oriented approaches where communication between components is mediated solely by method invocation. We propose a basic composition mechanism for hidden algebraic component specifications that is based on communication through shared subcomponents, and show that this composition mechanism on specifications extends naturally to allow models (or implementations) of the component specifications to be amalgamated into a model of the composite system.