A Language for Composing Program Modules

We describe a linking language (LL) allowing programs to be constructed hierarchically from software components. LL is based on a kind of module algebra similar to process algebra. A module has an interface of imported and exported names, and the main operations are composition, renaming, and restriction. This approach supports reusability of software and is especially suitable for object-based or object oriented programming. A program is created as a structure of interconnected objects, and when elaborating this structure it is possible to make checking and optimizations for correct and efficient execution. Two applications are reported, the object-based programming system PL/LL and a programming environment for the EDA (Extended Dataflow Architecture) multiprocessing model.

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