Reusable software component retrieval via normalized algebraic specifications
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Authors
Steigerwald, Robert Allen
Subjects
Reusability
Reusable software components
Component retrieval
Algebraic specifications
Rapid prototyping
Computer aided prototyping
Reusable software components
Component retrieval
Algebraic specifications
Rapid prototyping
Computer aided prototyping
Advisors
Luqi
Date of Issue
1991-12
Date
December 1991
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
Efforts in the software engineering community to reuse code are hampered by a lack of tools. Reusability is particularly beneficial in a rapid prototyping environment. Rapid prototyping with automated reusable software component retrieval is a software development method to rapidly construct and adapt software, validate and refine requirements, and check the consistency of proposed designs. This dissertation describes a tool used within the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS), developed at the Naval Postgraduate School, which retrieves reusable components from a software base using a formal specification as the search key. The query specification that represents a design requirement is compared to formal specifications of Ada reusable software components stored in an object-oriented database management system. A syntactic search compares specification interfaces, identifying reusable candidates based on types of parameters. The semantic search rank orders a set of candidate components based on semantic similarity to the query. The methods, called query by consistency, compares terms that are reduced in the axioms of each specification. Specifications are normalized to facilitate the matching between query specifications and reusable component specifications in the retrieval. A formal proof verified that query by consistency can retrieve components guaranteed to meet specified requirements.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Department of Computer Science
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
226 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.