Rethinking software connectors

Existing work on software connectors shows significant disagreement on both their definition and their relationships with components, coordinators and adaptors. We propose a precise characterisation of connectors, discuss how they relate to the other three classes, and contradict the suggestion that connectors and components are disjoint. We discuss the relationship between connectors and coupling, and argue the inseparability of connection models from component programming models. Finally we identify the class of configuration languages, show how it relates to primitive connectors and outline relevant areas for future work.