Thing/Machine-s (Thimacs) Applied to Structural Description in Software Engineering
This is an incremental contribution to modeling methodologies in software engineering, offering a novel conceptual framework for structural description.
The paper tackles the problem of modeling in software engineering by proposing a new methodology called thing/machine (thimac) that unifies things and machines, replacing traditional elements like categorization and behavior with processes such as creating and processing, and applies this to structural description in diagrammatic modeling.
We are pursuing a modeling methodology that views the world as a realm of things. A thing is defined as something that can be created, processed, released, transferred, and received. Additionally, in this modeling approach, a thing is a five-dimensional structure referred to as a thinging (abstract) machine. On the other hand, machines are things that are operated on; that is, they are created, processed, released, transferred, and received. The intertwining with the world is accomplished by integrating these two modes of an entity s being: being a thing that flows through machines and being a machine that processes things. This paper further enriches these notions of things and machines. We present further exploration of the thinging machine model through introducing a new notion called the thing/machine (thimac) as a label of the unity of things/machines. Thimacs replace traditional categorization, properties, and behavior with creating, processing, releasing, transferring, and receiving, as well as the two linking notions of flow and triggering. The paper discusses the concept of thimacs with examples and focuses on the notion of structure as it applies to various diagrammatic modeling methodologies.