Software design representation: design object descriptive attribute notation (DODAN)

An approach using frame/constraint for knowledge representation of software design is presented to facilitate software design acquisition and continued usefulness of design information. The representation is independent of the programming language used in software implementation and covers certain basic concepts of software design: control flow, data flow and data abstraction. These basic characteristics of a software design are specified using design object descriptive attribute notation (DODAN) and can be translated into an event-flow diagram based on the Petri-net semantics and a data-dependent diagram based on data-flow semantics. The run-time behavior of the software designed can be interpreted on the basis of the timing constraints. The translation and interpretation are done by sets of production rules. As consumers often change their demands, various dependent flow analyses can help software designers reuse previous designs, figure out the impact of the change, and rectify the design.<>