Grammatically driven class derivation (extended abstract)

Abstract

This effort sets out to outline a research domain of academic and commercial relevance as well as the establishment of a possible research trend in the field of software engineering. The OO approach has established itself as a widespread and effective paradigm for modern software development. Many aspects of OO development are methodologically supported and procedural and representation standards are clearly defined. Certain activities within OO development remain suited for both automated and manual interpretations. It is also a fact that many system descriptions start off as natural language accounts of business processes, rather than semi-formalised data-flow or use-case models. It is therefore being proposed that a direct-from-text reliable and complete conversion method with governing standards can be defined to automate as necessary the class derivation activity, therefore decreasing the overall development effort and error-introduction probability without effecting objectivity within the OO development process. Such a conversion method would also allow more accurate rapid prototype generation at the earliest development stages. In theory, this would enable developers to automatically generate better quality “first-cut” GUI prototypes directly from textual system descriptions.