Foreword: Let's first look at the general understanding that many programming enthusiasts have of software and related things in recent years. Let's start with the subject—humans. Whether primarily engaged in design or coding, it's impossible to completely detach oneself from programming. The program is the object. Although software developers often talk about the correctness, reliability, efficiency, usability, readability (understandability), scalability, reusability, compatibility, and portability of programs, truly understanding and implementing them is difficult and rare.
Configuration software is no exception. Besides the characteristics mentioned above, it also possesses several new features, such as compilability, fault tolerance, manageability, storability, and configurability. These numerous features are difficult to fully grasp at once. This article explores the understanding of configuration software from a software development perspective.
Keywords: software development; configuration software; object-oriented.
The invention of the steam engine marked humanity's leap into the Industrial Revolution, while the production of machines by machines marked the end of the First Industrial Revolution. Similarly, the use of software tools signifies the rapid advancement of the computer field; does the production of software from software also represent a software revolution?
Yes! Configuration software is exactly that kind of software—a tool for creating software from software. It's like a repository of functions implemented with code, allowing you to freely assemble any function that the configuration software itself can support. The reason for using the word "assemble" comes from the name "Configuration Software."
Traditional configuration software consists of two parts: a development system (CSMaker) and a runtime system (CSViewer). Due to the continuous development of programming technology and the proliferation of compilation tools, the boundaries between CSMaker and CSViewer have become increasingly blurred, evolving from initial static configuration to online configuration, and more recently, runtime configuration.
Static configuration is the most traditional configuration method. Users develop in the development system (CSMaker) and then run it again in the runtime system (CSViewer).
Online configuration involves entering the development system (CSMaker) while the runtime system (CSViewer) is running. Modifications to the project in the development system will be reflected in the runtime system accordingly.
Runtime configuration allows you to modify existing projects and add new features within the runtime system (CSViewer). Runtime configuration combines the functionalities of both the development system (CSMaker) and the runtime system (CSViewer).
The development of any program follows a spiral progression, a process of assembling algorithms into functions. The continuous advancement of algorithms and functions allows software products to leap forward time and again. Initially, we only defined two sub-items, 0 and 1, with a carry-over algorithm at 2—a binary algorithm. Later, we refined the binary addition function (and subsequently extended it to binary subtraction, multiplication, and division). Based on the basic algorithms of the four arithmetic operations, we then provided numerous functions such as square root extraction and logarithm calculation. New functions were then introduced based on fundamental mathematical algorithms, and when these functions were further refined, organized, and elevated to the level of theory and algorithms, they supported the proliferation of the next generation of functions…
The same applies to configuration software. Developers use a specific development platform as a foundation, continuously building upon existing features to provide users with rich and comprehensive functionalities. This process of building upon existing features is cumulative; without a deep understanding of the software's underlying algorithms, it's impossible to create excellent functionality or provide high-quality service.
From a software development perspective, the two most obvious characteristics that distinguish configuration software from other types of software are versatility and code reusability.
First, the biggest difference between configuration software and custom software is that all functions are "pieced together" from basic functions. Many development systems (CSMaker) and runtime systems (CSViewer) use basic and general-purpose controls. The second characteristic is even more obvious: code reusability, and its reusability is unimaginably higher than that of custom software. In software engineering, no matter how rich the codebase, rewriting an entire project requires extensive programming. Configuration software is different. Only the common algorithm functions need to be written; a large amount of coding can be accomplished through graphical configuration.
When discussing code generation via graphics, we must mention graphical programming. Modern programming software supports exporting class attributes and methods, as well as relationships between classes (generalization, association, dependency, aggregation), into class diagrams. Some high-level languages allow modification of class relationships within the class diagram and the generation of related code. Unfortunately, while C++ can export class diagrams, it does not support back-exporting.
In other words, class diagrams can be modified but cannot generate related code. This means that programs developed in C++ will find it difficult to generate graphical code using official methods (such as COM) in the short term. If configuration software is not developed using C++, its performance and efficiency cannot be guaranteed. This necessitates a progressive development approach, requiring a long-term, stable team to abstract procedural functions into object-oriented classes, and then combine instances of these object-oriented classes into procedural functions, thus creating a continuous, spiraling process.
As configuration software product lines become increasingly sophisticated, their functionality will continue to expand. Configuration software will no longer be limited to simple data acquisition, storage, and monitoring; it will extend into areas such as data management, data analysis, data extraction, and process optimization. We eagerly await its development!
