On the Integration of Configuration and Meta-level Programming Approaches

Configuration Programming, based on Architecture Description Languages, and Meta-Level Programming are considered promising approaches in the software engineering field. This paper shows that there is an immediate correspondence between some key concepts of Configuration and Meta-Level Programming approaches and that some of the main issues to be solved for their deployment in real systems are quite similar. The main result is that the integration of both approaches in a single configuration programming framework can assist in employing meta-level programming in order to achieve separation of concerns and improve software reuse. In addition, the capability of supporting dynamic configuration and flexibility on component programming language choice are potentially improved. A prototype of a configuration programming centered environment and some application examples are presented in order to demonstrate the useful features of the combined approach.