An object-oriented knowledge model for KBMS-supported evolutionary prototyping of software systems

Abstract

In this chapter, we take a knowledge base modeling approach to evolutionary prototyping of software systems by introducing a unified and reflexive object-oriented knowledge model as an extensible framework for (i) capturing both the structural and behavioral properties of any target system at any level of details, and (ii) reflexively modeling the knowledge model itself as a kernel model so that all the meta information (structural and behavioral properties of objects) can also be modeled as object classes. Five types of control associations (sequential, parallel, synchronization, testing, and context_looping) are introduced for explicitly modeling the behavior properties of methods in terms of control flow and message passing relationships between object classes. We have developed a prototype of the knowledge base programming language K [522, 523] on top of ONTOS 2.1 [278] as the first step toward a full-fledged KBMS-supported software development environment for supporting evolutionary prototyping. We are currently extending the graphic user interface of OSAM^*. KBMS [346] to support the definition and processing of control associations. Any user-defined structural/behavior schema will be translated into K code for execution and also mapped into the kernel model for storage. A prototype processor which can dynamically interpret K code and control association objects is also under development at the Database Systems Research and Development Center of the University of Florida.