Part III -- Parameters and Placeholders

Michael Chen
August 28, 1996
Rewritten: H. Hildreth, 9-19-96.
Revised: H. Hildreth, 9-30-96.

PART III: PARAMETERS AND PLACEHOLDERS

Rapide concepts introduced: placeholders and raptor "show parameters" option.

Note: It may be helpful to view the file, parameters-change.diff, which contains differences between parameters.rpd in this directory and ail.rpd in the part2 directory.

A variety of parameter types were defined; e.g., IPAddress and DatabaseAdvice. Parameters of these types were added to a number of actions declared in interface-type definitions. Placeholder declarations, e.g. (?I in IPAddress), were then added to behavior rules (in the interface types) and connection rules (in the architecture generators). It is placeholders (e.g. ?I) that enable a parameter value of the left-side triggering (or observed) event to be used in computations (processes) or generated patterns appearing on the right side of rules. Parameter values are "lost" in intercomponent communications if they are not explicitly declared and used in architecture connection rules.

To run raptor and view parameters being "passed around," type the following command and then select "Show Parameters" in the "Options" menu.

raptor -a ail.arch parameters.log

Alternatively, type the following command with the parameters (-p) option.

 
   raptor -a ail.arch -p parameters.log

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