Concurrent Object-Oriented Development with Behavioral Design Patterns

The development of concurrent applications is challenging because of the complexity of concurrent designs and the hazards of concurrent programming. Architectural modeling using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) can support the development process, but the problem of mapping the model to a concurrent implementation remains. This paper addresses this problem by defining a scheme to map concurrent UML designs to a concurrent object-oriented program. Using the COMET method for the architectural design of concurrent object-oriented systems, each component and connector is annotated with a stereotype indicating its behavioral design pattern. For each of these patterns, a reference implementation is provided using SCOOP, a concurrent object-oriented programming model. We evaluate this development process using a case study of an ATM system, obtaining a fully functional implementation based on the systematic mapping of the individual patterns. Given the strong execution guarantees of the SCOOP model, which is free of data races by construction, this development method eliminates a source of intricate concurrent programming errors.