GENERAL CONCEPT OF THE PLATFORM INDEPENDENCY MODEL

Abstract

The main topic of this paper is a platform independent software architecture concept and the importance of this concept for enterprise software systems development and the software engineering as a science. This paper presents the ways and types of interpretation of this concept, as well as the tools and mechanisms of its realization in real world environment. The paper introduces General Concept of the Independency (GCoI) model. The model is derived from most important platform independence mechanisms. The paper identifies four key mechanisms for achieving platform independence, and all of them are described using GCoI model. The GCoI model represents the fundamental concept that lies behind the platform independence. Java and .NET are the most powerful platforms for the enterprise software systems development today. They both have mechanisms well suited for realization of software applications, which are platform independent in respect to operating systems and hardware platforms. These two technologies are compared in order to find out how and to which extent each of them realizes this concept – what are similarities and differences in achieving this task. Attention is also given to MDA, because it is based on a vision of platform independent software architecture, which is achieved with platform independent models.