Software Product Line Engineering Basics - Model-Driven and Software Product Line Engineering - page 36

done by Philips in the mid-1990s. Philips was developing a
large range of televisions worldwide. While the hardware was
modular, the software parts were developed through a classic
approach using mainly compiler switches, runtime options,
and code duplication with changes. However, the new products
needed more and more functionalities and combinations of
these functionalities. The company had to integrate different
piecesofsoftwarecomingfromdifferentareasanddevelopedat
different times. The existing component technology available
at this time was not suited to the existing constraints; thus,
Philips designed the Koala component language [OMM 00].
It was inspired by the Darwin language [MAG 96] dedicated
to distributed system architectures. Component languages
are really akin to implementing software product lines.
However, it can raise some unexpected issues as demonstrated
in [PAV 04] with the implementation in ArchJava. In this
case,thecommunicationintegritypropertymakesthedynamic
configuration of composite components difficult. Nevertheless,
some solutions exist; for instance, the use of component
generators.
2.6. Variability management
Variability management in SPL engineering is the set of
activities related to the identification, expression, and binding
of common and variable features included in the scope of the
product line. The management of variability is of primary
importance for product line development. The effectiveness of
a product line approach depends on how well it manages the
variability throughout the development lifecycle, from early
analysis to the final derivation of products [STA 06]. The
management of variability in SPLs is the most general and
important topic, and it is at the core of the approach we
presentinChapter5.Differentdefinitionsrelatedtovariability
management can be found in the literature. Here,we list two of
them, which refer to variability and variability management .