Config: A Case Study in Combining Software Engineering Techniques

Config is a software component of the Graphical R‐Matrix Atomic Collision Environment. Its development is documented as a case study combining several software engineering techniques: formal specification, generic programming, object‐oriented programming, and design by contract. It is specified in VDM++; and implemented in C++, a language which is becoming more than a curiosity amongst the scientific programming community. C++supports object orientation, a powerful architectural paradigm in designing the structure of software systems, and genericity, an orthogonal dimension to the inheritance hierarchies facilitated by object oriented languages. Support in C++ for design by contract can be added in library form. The combination of techniques make a substantial contribution to the overall software quality.