Formal Engineering of Software Library Systems

The reuse of complete software developments and the processes used to create them has the potential to significantly ease the process of software engineering, by providing a source of verified software artefacts. Software libraries are collections of software artefacts which have been aggregated to form a resource-rich environment, from which software engineers can reuse the efforts of others during subsequent software development. By storing such information, software libraries serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas and experience between software engineers. It is argued that reuse of software artefacts can be achieved through the utilisation of software libraries. However, software library systems are not yet common or mature phenomena, and as such are themselves candidates for software engineering analysis. The goal of this thesis is to provide a reasoned formal specification of a software library system, to serve as a precise, clear context in which to analyse and discuss gen..