Modeling Design Patterns for Semi-Automatic Reuse in System Design

Abstract

Design patterns provide reusable solutions for recurring design problems. They constitute an important tool for improving software quality. However, correct usage of design patterns depends to a large extent on the designer. Design patterns often include models that describe the suggested solutions, while other aspects of the patterns are neglected or described informally only in text. Furthermore, design pattern solutions are usually described in an object-oriented fashion that is too close to the implementation, masking the essence of and motivation behind a particular design pattern. We suggest an approach to modeling the different aspects of design patterns and semi-automatically utilizing these models to improve software design. Evaluating our approach on commonly used design patterns and a case study of an automatic application for composing, taking, checking, and grading analysis and design exams, we found that the suggested approach successfully locates the main design problems modeled by the selected design patterns.

A Meta-Analysis Comparing Relational and Semantic Models

“…Studies on object oriented approaches (e.g., Siau & Cao, DOI: 10.4018/jdm.2011100103 2001; Siau & Loo, 2006;Taha & Elmasri, 2009;Gemino & Parker, 2009;VanderMeer & Dutta, 2009;Evermann & Wand, 2009;Siau & Tian, 2009;Shank et al, 2010;Siau, 2010;Tan et al, 2011) started to appear in academic publications in the 2000s. Despite the emergence of object oriented modeling techniques, relational and ER/EER models and their query languages continue to be important and widely studied (e.g., Sengupta & Ramesh, 2009;Niu et al, 2009;Sakr, 2009;Ayanso et al, 2009;Huh et al, 2010;An et al, 2010;Bera et al, 2010;Shlezinger et al, 2010). Further, relational database management systems are widely used and relational data model is still the dominant model in industry.…”