• Generative Programming — programs are synthesized by other programs
• Compositional Programming — programs are assembled by composing prefabricated parts
• Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) — domain-specific notations that simplify program specification
• Model Driven Design (MDD) -- programs are specified as and synthesized from models
• Automatic Programming — efficient programs are synthesized from declarative specifications
• Program Analysis — tools that evaluate properties of programs

The integration of the above areas seems daunting. Yet a spectacular example of their integration was realized almost thirty years ago: relational query optimization (RQO). A relational query is specified in SQL, a parser maps it to an inefficient relational algebra expression, a query optimizer optimizes the expression automatically, and an efficient query evaluation program is generated from the optimized expression. SQL is a prototypical declarative DSL. Query evaluation programs are specified as compositions of relational algebra operations; relational algebra is a prototype for compositional programming. Automatic programming is achieved by query optimizers that rewrite an inefficient expression/program to a semantically equivalent but more efficient expression/program. The cost models that drive expression optimization are examples of program analysis. Mapping a relational algebra expression to an efficient program is generative programming and is an elementary example of model driven design. 

A "holy grail" of Software Engineering is to replicate the success of RQO in other domains. Feature Oriented Programming (FOP) is a generalization, and its ideas are at the confluence next-generation research topics in:

• program design and synthesis: OO design, product-lines, aspect-oriented programming, program refactoring, model driven design, program evolution, and program transformations

• mathematics: program algebras, tensors, and category theory

Part 1: Basics (10 Lectures)

• Introduction (1)
  • A Future for Generative Programming
    • Road to Utopia: A Future for Generative Programming
    • Balzer, "A Fifteen-Year Perspective on Automatic Programming"

    • Baxter, "Design Maintenance Systems"

• Basic FOP (4)
  • Origins of Feature Oriented Programming
    • The Design and Implementation of Hierarchical Software Systems with Reusable Components
    • Mixin Layers: An Object-Oriented Implementation Technique for Refinements and Collaboration-Based Designs
  • The AHEAD Tools
    • A Tutorial on Feature Oriented Programming and the AHEAD Tool Suite (ATS)
  • AHEAD: A Second Generation Model of FOP
    • Scaling Step-Wise Refinement
  • Design for Change and the Graph Product Line
    • A Standard Problem for Evaluating Product-Line Methodologies
    • Lee, Siek, Lumsdaine, "The Generic Graph Component Library"
  •   Due Thursday, January 31, 8pm

• Feature Models (2)
• Feature Models
  • Benavides, Trinidad, and Ruiz-Cortes, Automated Reasoning on Feature Models
  • Lustig and Puget, Constraint Programming and its Relationship to Mathematical Programming
  • Feature Models, Grammars, and Propositional Formulas
• Analyses of Feature Models
  • Safe Composition of Product Lines
• Due Wednesday,  Feb 13th, 8pm

• Aspect Oriented Programming (3)
  • AOP Basics (2)
    • AspectJ Manual
    • Kiczales, "An Overview of AspectJ"
    • Wand, Kiczales, Dutchyn, "A Semantics for Advice and Dynamic Join Points in Aspect-Oriented Programming"
  • Guest Lecture Aksit Video
  • Due Wednesday, February 20th, 8pm

Part II: Advanced (12 Lectures)

• Model Driven Design, Product-Lines, and Category Theory (3)
  • Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists, Chapters 1.1-1.8, 2.1, 2.3-2.4
  • Sztipanovits and Karsai, “Generative Programming for Embedded Systems”
  • Feature Oriented Model Driven Development: A Case Study for Portlets
  • Karsai, et al., "Composition and Cloning in Modeling and Meta-Modeling"
  • Gray, et al. "Model-Driven Program Transformation of a Large Avionics Framework"

• Feature Interactions (3)
  • Model Synthesis and Program Cubes (2)
    • Ossher and Tarr, "On the Need for On-Demand Modularization"
    • Torgensen, "The Expression Problem Revisited"
    • Refinements and Multi-Dimensional Separation of Concerns
• Zave, "Distributed Feature Composition: Middleware for Connection Services"
• Prehofer, "Feature Oriented Programming: A Fresh Look at Objects"
• Calder, Kolberg, Magill, Reiff-Marganiec, "Feature Interaction: A Critical Review and Considered Forecast"
• Velthuijsen, "Issues of Non-Monotonicity in Feature-Interaction Detection"
 
• Due Wednesday, March 26th, 8pm.
• Software Derivatives (1)

• Other Topics (3)
  • Refactoring (1)
    • Dig "How do APIs Evolve?:  A Story of Refactoring"

    • Dig "Refactoring-aware Configuration Management for Object-Oriented Programs"

    • Dig Thesis, Chapter 5

  • Modularization of Proofs (1)
    • Boerger, "Design for Reuse via Structuring Techniques for ASMs"
    • Modularizing Theorems for Software Product-Lines
  • Automatic Programming (1) (optional)
    • Design Wizards and Visual Programming Environments

• Guest Lectures(3)
  • Specification-Based Testing of Software Product Lines (1)
    • Testing Software Product Lines Using Incremental Test Generation
  • Program Transformation Systems (1)
  • Programming Languages (1)

Part III: Outlook (4 classes)

• Student Project Presentations (4)