iArch - An IDE for supporting abstraction-aware design traceability

Abstract

Abstraction has been an important issue in software engineering. However, it is not easy to design an architec- ture reflecting the intention of developers and implement the result of a design as a program while preserving an adequate abstraction level. To deal with this problem, we provide iArch, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for supporting abstraction-aware traceability between design and code. The iArch IDE is based on Archface, an architectural interface mechanism exposing a set of architectural points that should be shared between design and code. An abstraction level is determined by selecting architectural points.