Meta-programming grey-box connectors

In the recent past, architectural languages have begun to introduce so-called connectors. Connectors separate communication code from the application-specific components, so that it can be easily exchanged. Unfortunately, however, communication code is usually deeply woven into the components and often has to be replaced when the component is reused in a different context. We show that standard connectors alone are often not sufficient, since they are too limited in their adaptation and architectural support. As a solution to this problem, we propose meta-programming grey-box-connectors. They combine the architectural support of black-box connectors and the adaptation capabilities of white-box reuse. They allow for powerful manipulations such as removal of interfaces or changing inheritance relations, combined with the exchange of communications.