A logical interface description language for components

Motivated by our earlier work on the IWIM model and the Manifold language, in this paper, we attend to some of the basic issues in component-based software. We present a formal model for such systems, a formal-logic-based component interface description language that conveys the observable semantics of components, a formal system for deriving the semantics of a composite system out of the semantics of its constituent components, and the conditions under which this derivation system is sound and complete. Our main results in this paper are the theorems that formulate the notion of compositionality and the completeness of the derivation system that supports this property in a component-based system.