A new mathematical notation for describing notion and thought in software design

Abstract

Conventional software description is algorithm-based. However, a large part of things in software description are nonalgorithmic and nonfunctional, such as those of system architectures, dynamic behaviors, performance, and quality. Therefore, contemporary concept in software description has been shifted from algorithms to software architectures and behaviors. Software behaviors can be modeled as a 3D representation comprising mathematical operations, event/process timing, and memory manipulation. This paper introduces the real-time process algebra (RTPA) that serves as an expressive notation system for describing thoughts and notions in software design. RTPA is used to address the 3D problem in component-based software description and specification. Case studies on applications of RTPA in component-based software engineering are demonstrated with real-world examples.