Reusable roles, a test with patterns

Although roles have been around for a long time they have not yet reached mainstream programming languages. The variety of existing role models may be a limiting factor. We believe that for roles to be widely accepted they must enhance code reuse. An outcome would be a library of roles. We present and discuss what we feel are the characteristics that a role model must have to enable reusable and player independent roles. In this paper we present our role model and JavaStage, a role language that extends Java, with examples of reusable roles. Finally, we present our steps towards the building of a role library, by presenting the roles developed from the analysis of the GoF Design Patterns. The results obtained, we developed roles for 10 of the 23 GoF patterns, are promising