Parameterized specifications for software reuse

Abstract

Software reusability is believed to be the key to improving software development productivity, while specification plays an important part in software reuse. From a modern object oriented view, the reusable software components can be grouped into three categories. Procedural components, abstract data types and concrete data objects. Both procedural components and abstract data types can be parameterized in many Object-Oriented languages. Specifications for reuse of these components are discussed in detail in this paper. The reusable software components and their specifications will form a reusable software library, and the information extracted from the specifications forms a knowledge base. Based on the knowledge base and the reusable software library, a new software development paradigm with software reusability can be realized.