A reuse oriented Development Database: the HELIOS Object Information System.

Abstract

This paper describes the Development Database of a Software Engineering Environment (SEE), that couples reuse and object-oriented technologies. We propose a classification model for the repository of reusable components that is a support for an efficient retrieval mechanism, and a reusable component model that considers components of large and low-granularity levels (e.g., application frameworks and methods of a given class). The reusable component model is based on the underlying idea that development components are not operational components since they do not have the same purpose. This model first represents each component as an aggregation of other sub-components, together with all information needed for its retrieval (e.g., classification and facets), its under-standing (e.g., informal functional description) and its dependencies with other development components, in particular the applications in which it occurs, since applications are considered also as abstract development components. This approach was tested thanks to an existing application which was loaded into the SEE. From that moment, it was possible to regenerate a new application in a reasonably short time. Moreover, the existence of a retrieval tool permits to validate the development components classification, but also put forward the importance of the qualification step. In particular, the versioning should be carefully processed. Furthermore the fact that all the development objects are built on an homogeneous model allows easier tools management and interapplication reusability.