Supporting Software Reuse Within an Integrated Software Development Environment

Significant gains in programmer productivity have been achieved through the use of simple abstraction mechanisms that enhance the reuse of code. There are other useful forms of abstraction (over arbitrary identifier bindings, for example) which could further increase reuse rates, but are not well supported by programming languages; such forms may be better expressed by exploiting mechansisms provided by an integrated programming environment. This paper outlines ongoing work which aims to provide programming environment mechanisms that support the reuse of code via various forms of abstraction that complement those traditionally provided by programming languages. The concept of derivation-based reuse is also defined, and a generic framework for its support is outlined. In addition, a collection of environment mechanisms, intended to fit within this framework, are outlined. 1 Introduction In an effort to achieve leverage in software development, a variety of kinds of artefacts have be..