abstract.tex

\begin{abstract}
The Business Object Notation (\bon{}) is a method and notation for writing software specifications. The notation consists of two parts, a graphical and a textual. The purpose of this project is to bridge the gap between the textual \bon{} world and the world of Eiffel. Support for the graphical aspect of \bon{} already exist in the main Eiffel \textsc{ide}, EiffelStudio, and as such involving the textual aspect seems like a natural step. Support for textual \bon{} in EiffelStudio should make it easier to get an overview over an Eiffel system, and should provide a higher level description of a system than the code itself.

To achieve this, support for textual \bon{} has been implemented directly into EiffelStudio. It allows for seamless switching between Eiffel source code and extracted textual \bon. To  provide a way to verify the validity of the extracted \bon{} a general-purpose type checker was developed. The idea is that this type checker at some point can be implemented into EiffelStudio and be an aid in \bon{} development in an Eiffel environment.

This has resulted in a tool in EiffelStudio that extract textual \bon{} from a class written in Eiffel. To provide an overview over a system, textual \bon{} for all descendants of the class is also extracted. In addition, a general purpose type checker has been built upon an already existing parser and lexer. This type checker is not yet integrated into EiffelStudio.

Having the option of extracting textual \bon{} in EiffelStudio makes it possible to get an overview of a system using \bon{}. However, this does not mean that this area is fully explored. There are many interesting features to be added, for example fully implement the type checker into EiffelStudio and extraction of a full system into textual \bon{} in EiffelStudio. This project hopefully provides a starting point for hopefully many other projects that can continue the work on integrating textual \bon{} into EiffelStudio and fully bridge the gap between these two worlds.
\end{abstract}