A Model for Designing Adaptable Software Components

The widespread construction of software systems from pre-existing, independently developed software components will only occur when application builders can adapt software components to suit their needs. We propose that software components provide two interfaces -- one for behavior and one for adapting that behavior as needed. The ADAPT framework presented in this paper supports both component designers in creating components that can easily be adapted, and application builders in adapting software components. The motivating example, using JavaBeans, shows how adaptation, not customization, is the key to component-based software. 1 INTRODUCTION An important aim of software engineering is to produce reliable and robust software systems. As software systems grow in size, however, it becomes infeasible to implement software systems from scratch. Most software developers are familiar with reusing code from component libraries to speed up tedious programming tasks, such as constructing gra..