The Aesop System

The Aesop System Provides:

Aesop Helps You:

The Aesop Model:

Aesop provides a generic toolkit and communication infrastructure that users can customize with architectural style descriptions and a set of tools that they would like to use for architectural analysis. Example tools that we have integrated with our Aesop styles include: cycle detectors, type consistency verifiers, formal communication protocol analyzers, C-code generators, compilers, structured language editors, and rate-monotonic analysis tools.

An architectural style description includes items such as a vocabulary of design elements (components, connectors, and patterns) along with their associated semantics, global design rules, customized visualizations, and other information, if desired.

From these inputs, Aesop creates a software architecture design environment that is specialized to support design in the styles that it has taken as input. A diagram of the Aesop model appears below:

The following picture displays a software architecture design environment for the "pipe-and-filter" style. The strip of buttons on the right side of the picture allow the user to select from a palette of primitive design elements in this style. The boxes in the drawing area represent components of the system (filters in this case), and the lines with circles in the middle represent the connectors (pipes). Selecting the image will bring up a full size screen dump for closer inspection.

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For More Information about Aesop:

For more detailed information about the current version of Aesop, the following documents are available

Ordering Aesop:

If you are interested in ordering the Aesop, it is available for free by anonymous ftp from CMU. See Ordering The Aesop System for information to order register with us and order a copy.

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Aesop Maintainer (aesop-help+@cs.cmu.edu)

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