Ada code reuse guidelines for design-for-reuse

Abstract

The phenomenal growth in the costs of producing software over the last three decades has forced the computing industry to look for alternative strategies to that implied by the waterfall model of computer system development. One frequently observed solution is that of reusing the code from previously designed systems in the construction of new ones; this technique is known as software reuse. Ada language was developed as a tool to address the above problems and is believed to have many useful language features such as package and generics to produce reusable software. But programming in Ada does not guarantee the production of highly reusable software. Therefore guidelines for users are needed to maximise the benefits from using Ada. In this thesis, Ada code reuse guidelines are proposed, and as an attempt to prove the usefulness of them, reuse metrics are studied. The thesis concludes by stressing the novelty of the approach, the difficulties encountered, and enhancements to the proposed methods to overcome these shortcomings.