iArch: an IDE for supporting fluid abstraction

Abstract

Abstraction plays an important role in software development. Although it is preferable to firmly separate design from its implementation, this separation is not easy because an abstraction level tends to change during the progress of software development. It is not avoidable to fluidly go back and forth between design and implementation. An abstraction level of a design specification may change as a result of reconsidering the balance between design and code - which concern should be described in design and which concern should be written in code. The iArch IDE (Integrated Development Environment) supports the notion of fluid abstraction, a design approach in which an appropriate abstraction level can be captured by the convergence of fluid moving between design and implementation.