Background / History

The project is a convergence of three previous streams of research:

1. Previous ARPA-supported projects at Ohio State on device understanding: functions, structure and causal processes in devices, including software systems,
2. Previous NSF-supported project at Ohio State on an ADL called STILE and on reusable components, and
3. Previous research at University of Texas on programming plans as high-levelarchitectural descriptions for classes of programs.

The driving force is the idea that software composition and software understanding are two sides of a coin, and that the time is ripe for a software composition discipline that ensures reliability and component reuse.