A software system has dynamic adaptability if it can adapt itself to dynamically changing runtime environments. As open-ended distributed systems and mobile computing systems have spread widely, the need for software systems with dynamic adaptability increases. We propose a software model with dynamic adaptability called DAS and its description language LEAD++. The basic mechanism for dynamic adaptability is called adaptable procedure. An adaptable procedure is a special kind of generic procedures (functions) whose methods are selected based upon the state of its runtime environment. Furthermore, control mechanisms of adaptable procedures -- including method selection strategies -- are realized using generic procedures. This sort of reflective architecture enables us to write a dynamically adaptable software system in highly flexible, extensible, readable and maintainable way. LEAD++ is an object-oriented reflective language that provides adaptable procedures and their control mechanisms as its basic language functionalities. We are currently implementing a prototype of LEAD++ as a pre-processor of Java. Using LEAD++, we can systematically describe dynamically adaptable applets, mobile objects, etc.

As open-ended distributed systems and mobile computing systems have spread widely, the need for software which can adapt itself to the dynamic change of runtime environments increases. We call the ability of the software dynamic adaptability. We designed and implemented a language LEAD that provides an architecture for dynamic adaptability. The basic idea is to introduce the mechanism which changes procedure invocation dynamically according to the states of runtime environments. Using LEAD, we can easily realize 1) the highly extensible dynamically adaptable applications, and 2) the introduction of the dynamic adaptability into existing applications.

This paper describes the design of the reflective concurrent object-oriented specification language RMondel. RMondel is designed for the specification and modeling of distributed systems. It allows the development of executable specifications which may be modified dynamically. Reflection in RMondel is supported by two fundamental features that are: Structural Reflection (SR) and Behavioral Reflection (BR). Reflection is the capability to monitor and modify dynamically the structure and the behavior of the system. We show how the features of the language are enhanced using specific meta-operations and meta-objects, to allow for the dynamic modification of types (classes) and instances using the same language. RMondel specification can be modified by adding or modifying types and instances to get a new adapted specification. Consistency is checked dynamically at the type level as well as at the specification level. At the type level, structural and behavioral constrations are defined to preserve the conformance of types. At the specification level, a transaction mechanism and a locking protocol are defined to ensure the consistency of the whole specification.