The range of components technology is both wide and diverse, but some common understanding is emerging through the ideas of model-based development. These include the notions of interfaces, contracts, services, connectors and architectures. Key issues in the application of the technology are becoming clearer, including the consistent integration of different views of a component, component composition, component coordination and transformation for platforms. However, we still know little about theories that support analysis and synthesis of component-based systems. The distinct feature of this volume is its focus on mathematical models that identify the “core” concepts as first class modeling elements, and its providing of techniques for integrating and relating them. The volume contains eleven chapters by well-established researchers writing from different perspectives. Each chapter gives explicit definitions of components in terms of a set of key aspects and addresses some of the problems of integration and analysis of various views: component specification, component composition, component coordination, refinement and substitution, and techniques for solving problems. The concepts and techniques are motivated and explained with the help of examples and case studies.

Contents:

• Temporal Specifications of Component Based Systems with Polymorphic Dynamic Reconfiguration (N Aguirrea & T Maibaum)
• Coordinated Composition of Software Components (F Arbab)
• On the Semantics of Componentware: A Coalgebraic Persecutive (L S Barbosa et al.)
• A Theory for Requirements Specification and Architecture Design (M Broy)
• Component: From Mobile to Channels (F S de Boer et al.)
• Formalizing the Transition from Requirements to Design (R G Dromey)
• rCOS: A Relational Calculus of Components (Z Liu et al.)
• Characterizing Object-Based Frameworks in First-Order Predicate Logic (S-M Ho & K-K Lau)
• Formalization in Component Based Development (J P Holmegaard et al.)
• A Model-Driven Approach for Building Business Components (V Kulkarni & S Reddy)
• A Formal Approach to Constructing Well-Behaved Systems Using Components (S Moschoyiannis et al.)