Ada Reusability and System Design Assessment using the Data Binding Tool

This paper reports on the development of the data binding tool and its use in Ada source code reusability and software system design assessment. The tool was built around the metric of data bindings. Data bindings fall in the category of data visibility metrics and are used to measure inter--component interactions. Software system components are defined in the context of the Ada language using a flexible scheme. They are used, along with cluster analysis, to present structural configurations of a software system. The clustering technique as well as the tool design and its problems are discussed. The analysis of dendrograms (trees of components produced by the tool) reveals several classes of systems dendrograms and provides a simple mechanism for Ada source code reusability. Finally, the implications of different design methodologies used to develop the test software are discussed and explanations for the several types of dendrogram formulations are given. Keywords: Data Bin..