Abstract

This chapter presents a visual language for the description of software architectures. The visual notation of software architecture represents software components as nodes and connectors as arcs between them. There are three kinds of node—square corner rectangles to represent hardware components, round corner rectangles to represent software components that are not active, and rectangles with corners cut off to represent active software components. The visual notation distinguishes control and data features of all architectural elements and indicates data via dotted lines and control via solid lines to depict both architectural elements and their relationships. Relationships between architectural elements are represented as arcs between the nodes. A connection has a control feature, if the connection can pass the control from one component to another and causes its execution. A connection has a data feature, if data is passed from one component to another. When an architectural element is a composition of a number of lower level elements, the node can be extended into a box so that the lower level elements and their interrelationships can be drawn inside the box. In such cases, the node looks more like a box that binds the elements together. The chapter presents several examples of representation of software architecture in the visual notation.

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