Software Creation: An SDL-Based Expert System for Automatic Software Design

A goal of this project is reproducing human design process by accumulating knowledge and experience of human designers. Particularly, this paper presents an SDL-based software design tool, the experimental expert system CREATOR2, featuring: 1) integration of SDL-based CASE tools with knowledge-based reasoning techniques; 2) object-oriented (O-O) representation of the design process knowledge, composed of design rules for detailing, and tacit knowledge; 3) O-O representation of the SDL/GR symbols in the knowledge-base; 4) using multiple strategies in applying the design process knowledge; and 5) O-O implementation of the system. This leads to having a uniform modeling and advanced reasoning environment for software design. Experiments on designing switching software are reported. Presently, the CREATOR2 system together with an SDL CASE tool oers 60-100 times code expansion rate.