In this paper, the authors describe a visual language XYZ/ADL (XYZ/architecture description language) for software architecture description based on XYZ/E to su pport a new approach of architecture-based programming. XYZ/ADL is composed of components, connectors and ports, by which it can describe many commonly used ki nds of software architectures. Since XYZ/E can represent both statistic and dyna mic semantics in a unified form, XYZ/ADL which is built on it can finish smoothl y the transformation between architectures at different abstract levels in a uni form frame.