Reflection-Patterns im Kontext von Objekt- und Komponententechnologie

The thesis deals with reflection in the context of object technology andin the context of component technology. With object technology we intendthe object paradigm and object-oriented concepts such as designpatterns and frameworks; with component technology we intend thedevelopment and employment of software components. The expressionin the title, reflection patterns , describes the two central goals ofthe thesis and thus has two different meanings: first it means the enhancementof existing patterns (the design patterns) with reflectionand second it means the development of new patterns for reflection tofacilitate the reuse of components.The first part of the thesis discusses the theoretical foundations ofreflection and sets the focus to Java and its reflective extensions.The second part makes pragmatic considerations for the above denotedissues by hands of concrete case studies. For the first issuewhich consists of the examination of the employment of reflection fordesign patterns and frameworks we obtain the following results: it canbe proven that depending on the type of patterns that are used and onthe way in which they are used, certain reflective techniques can besystematically employed.The second issue which describes the employment of reflection inthe realm of component technology is examined by hands of concretecase studies from projects of our group as well as existing applicationsin Java. The results are twofold: first we obtain general reflectionguidelines which should guarantee the adequate employment of reflectionfor concrete applications. They are developed by hands of thereflective implementation of the case studies using a checklist. Second,we obtain general reflection patterns which schematically describe thebenefits of a reflective implementation of three relevant interactiontypes between components, mainly using semantic conventions