CORDET Glossary
This glossary defines the most important technical terms and abbreviations used in the CORDET Project.
| Term | Short Definition |
|---|---|
| Abstract Interface | A definition of the signature and semantics of a set of related operations without any implementation details. |
| AOCS | The Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem of satellites. |
| AOCS Framework | An old name for the 'Control Framework' (one of the two software frameworks defined in the CORDET Project). |
| Application | A software program that can be deployed and run as a single executable. |
| Application Instantiation | The process whereby a component-based application is constructed by configuring and linking individual components. |
| Component | Same as 'software component' below. |
| Component-Based Framework | A software framework that has software components as its building blocks. |
| Computational Node | A computational resource that has memory and processing capabilities. |
| Control Framework | A software framework covering on-board control systems, and in particular the Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem. This is one of the two software frameworks defined in the CORDET Project. |
| CORBA | A widely used middleware infrastructure. |
| Design Pattern | A description of an abstract design solution for a recurrent design problem. |
| DH | The Data Handling Subsystem of satellites. |
| DH Framework | A software framework for the DH subsystem (one of the two software frameworks defined in the CORDET Project). |
| Domain | A shorthand for either 'family domain' or 'framework domain'. |
| DSL | Domain Specific Language (a language that is created to describe applications or components in a very narrow domain). |
| DTD | Document Type Definition. The DTD defines the legal building blocks of an XML document by defining the document structure with a list of legal elements and their legal combinations. Its purpose is similar to that of an XML Schema, although it is not as feature rich and the syntax is different. |
| EMF | A modeling framework and code generation facility for building tools and other applications based on a structured data model. |
| Family Domain | The set of systems whose implementation is supported by a system family. |
| Feature | A characteristic of a system that is relevant to its users. |
| Feature Model | A description of a set of features and their legal combinations. |
| Framework Domain | The set of applications whose implementation is supported by a software framework. |
| Framework Instantiation | The process whereby a software framework is adapted to the needs of a specific application within its domain. |
| Functional Property | A property that can be expressed as a logical relationship among the variables that define the state of an application or system. |
| Generative Programming | A software engineering paradigm that promotes the automatic generation of an implementation from a set of specifications. |
| Generic Architecture | A set of reusable and adaptable software assets to support the instantiation of systems within a certain target domain. In the CORDET project, a generic architecture consists of a system family, to model the non-functional aspects of systems in the architecture's target domain, and a set of software frameworks, to model their functional aspects. The objective of the CORDET Project is to define a generic architecture for satellite on-board systems. |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface. |
| Interface | An abstract specification of services to be provided by any concrete realisation of it. |
| JNI | Java Native Interface, a mechanism for interfacing Java code with non-Java code. |
| JVM | Java Virtual Machine. |
| Non-Functional Property | A property other than a functional property. |
| Object Oriented Software Framework | A software framework that uses inheritance and object composition as its chief adaptation mechanisms. |
| OBS | The On-Board Software. |
| OtM Adaptability | Outside-the-Model Adaptability. An adaptability mechanism that is defined outside the UML2 model. |
| Product Family | A set of applications or systems that can be built from a pool of shared assets. |
| Property | Same as feature above. |
| Software Component | A unit of binary reuse that exposes one or more interfaces and that is seen by its clients only in terms of these interfaces. |
| Software Framework | A kind of product family where the shared assets are software components embedded within an architecture optimized for a certain domain. |
| System | A group of independent but interrelated hardware and software elements comprising a unified whole. |
| System Family | A kind of product family where the 'product' to be built using the reusable assets provided by the family is the architectural infrastructure (the 'middleware') of a complex system. |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language. XML documents consist (mainly) of text and tags, and the tags imply a tree structure upon the document. An XML document is said to be valid if it conforms to an XML Schema or a DTD. |
| XML Schema | A means for defining the structure, contents and semantics of XML documents. XML Schemas are written in an XML-based language called XSD. |
| WtM Adaptability | Within-the-Model Adaptability Mechanism. An adaptability mechanism that is defined within the UML2 model. |