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Hierarchical modularity

Authors:

Matthias Blume,

Andrew W. AppelAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), Volume 21, Issue 4

Pages 813 - 847

https://doi.org/10.1145/325478.325518

Published: 01 July 1999 Publication History

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Abstract

To cope with the complexity of very large systems, it is not sufficient to divide them into simple pieces because the pieces themselves will either be too numerous or too large. A hierarchical modular structure is the natural solution. In this article we explain how that approach can be applied to software. Our compilation manager provides a language for specifying where individual modules fit into a hierarchy and how they are related semantically. We pay particular attention to the structure of the global name space of program identifiers that are used for module linkage because any potential for name clashes between otherwise unrelated parts of a program can negatively affect modularity. We discuss the theoretical issues in building software hierarchically, and we describe our implementation of CM, the compilation manager for Standard ML of New Jersey.

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Farvardin KReppy J(2020)A New Backend for Standard ML of New JerseyProceedings of the 32nd Symposium on Implementation and Application of Functional Languages10.1145/3462172.3462191(55-66)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2020
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MacQueen DHarper RReppy J(2020)The history of Standard MLProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33863364:HOPL(1-100)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2020
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Index Terms

Hierarchical modularity
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Modules / packages

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Reviews

Reviewer: Michael G. Murphy

A hierarchical modular structure is usually viewed as the natural solution for handling the complexity of very large systems. In this paper, the authors provide a strategy for applying this approach to software. This work makes a significant contribution to the literature on software engineering and programming languages. The approach uses a compilation manager with a language for specifying where individual modules fit into a hierarchy together with semantic relationships. Particular attention is paid to the structure of the global name space. Software development and maintenance usually result in additions, refinements, and replacements of components; therefore, a modification in one component should not require modification in others that are not conceptually related. CM, the compilation manager described, provides a language for describing the semantics of a system divided into separate modules based on a group model. The group model specifies the hierarchy of modules and the scoping rules for references that cross module boundaries. The approach expects related sources to be kept together, unrelated sources to be kept apart, and generally useful components to be consolidated into libraries. Once semantic aspects are specified, CM calculates the compilation dependencies that result. It provides automatic dependency analysis, which eliminates the need for extensive programmer-supplied specifications. CM extends the programming language Standard ML of New Jersey. As the authors point out, general-purpose compilation managers cannot extend only one language. The issues are the tradeoff between versatility and complication, with respect to language-specific details, and the need for an enhanced notation.

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cover image ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems Volume 21, Issue 4

July 1999

192 pages

ISSN:0164-0925

EISSN:1558-4593

DOI:10.1145/325478

Editor:
William Pugh
Univ. of Maryland, College Park

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 01 July 1999

Published in TOPLAS Volume 21, Issue 4

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Abstract

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Index Terms

Recommendations

Hierarchical modulatory and intermodule optimization

On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules

Exploration of modularity and reusability of domain-specific languages

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