Components inside a system?

[Roggan]

as i understand it , a component is basicly one or more physical files that realizes something.

eg , we could have a component for invoicing , "invoicing.dll"

but what if the invoicing module lives inside a dll/system together with lots of other functionallity.
eg if we have a huge exe containing everything.

does the invoicing module stop to be a component in that case?


and related:

we are using a legacy system here , where all programs are basicly stored in the systems own database.
so there are no actual files present in that system.
would modules stored in that virtual filesystem still be components?

[thomaskilian]

You can have components consisting of components. More reading:
http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=UMLPRO;action=display;num=1094774376
http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=UMLPRO;action=display;num=1100792543

[Roggan]

I understand that a component can be created of a set of sub components.

what i ment was what to call the module in my sample.

if an invoicing module is a part of an exe meaning the invoicing module has no own physical representation , is the invoicing module still a component?

[thomaskilian]

I would say yes. A component must not have a separate physical representation. It is only some king of abstration (which in most cases indeed goes along with a physical representation though).