Component-Oriented Programming in ArchJava

Component-oriented programming supports constructing software systems by composing independent components into a software architecture. However, existing approaches decouple implementation code from architecture, allowing inconsistencies, causing confusion, violating architectural properties, and inhibiting software evolution. ArchJava is an extension to Java that seamlessly unifies software architecture with implementation, ensuring that the implementation conforms to architectural constraints. A case study applying ArchJava to a circuit-design application suggests that ArchJava can express architectural structure effectively within an implementation, and that it can aid in program understanding and software evolution.