An Architecture - Centered Approach to Software Environment Integration

Software architecture research has yielded a variety of powerful techniques for assisting in the design, implementation, and long-term evolution of complex, heterogeneous, distributed , multiuser applications. Since software development environments are themselves applications with these characteristics , it is natural to examine the effectiveness of an architectural approach to constructing and changing them. We report on our experience in creating a family of related environments in this manner. The environments encompass a range of services and include commercial off-the-shelf products as well as custom-built tools. The particular architectural approach adopted is fully reflexive: the environments are used in their own construction and evolution. We also report on some engineering experiences, in particular with our use of XML as the vehicle for supporting a common and extensible representation of architectural models, including the model of the environment itself. Generally applicable lessons from the experience are described.