TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH TO SOFTWARE-DESIGN

Existing software design methods such as structured design and object-oriented design suffer from two major weaknesses. First, they have difficulty creating and exploring alternative designs. In particular, it is almost impossible for software design methods to derive designs that are algorithmically different from an initial design provided by the programmer. Second, these methods use general and intuitive concepts. The paper shows, through the introduction of transformations that map a given design into an alternative design, that design concepts can become more precise and less intuitive. In addition, certain software abstractions, when expressed as transformations, help explore alternative designs and, in particular, are capable of deriving designs that are algorithmically different from an initial design.