The present invention relates to a coordination-centric framework for implementing
a software system in a distributed computing environment. In a presently preferred
embodiment the software system is a software design environment having authoring,
synthesis, and debugging tools. The coordination-centric framework is flexible
enough to interconnect tools and robust enough that tool designers can use it for
all aspects of tool interconnection without requiring costly workarounds. The coordination-centric
framework uses modular and reusable software elements and standardized interfaces
to connect the software elements.