CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2010/ch2 S20 CR

Introduction to Code Reuse

Categories of Code Reuse

Internal Code Reuse

Suppose a team needs to start a new project.In order to start the project the team can use all possible reusable components that it has built earlier instead of again re-creating them.Such usage of reusable components is referred as Internal Code Reuse.Few such examples of Internal Code reuse are :

Simple Copy and Paste of the Code

Here we simply try to find the source code that perform the required functionality.We copy and paste the source code into our required code area.But in this case people sometimes try to copy from an external source which is discouraged method and it leads to plagiarism.

Using Software Library

It is the most common example of code reuse.Suppose we want certain manipulating functions like date,time,string or functions related to interfacing of an external database with our program we use software libraries.These libraries are either created by us or these comes as external library in the languages.The code reuse in various languages are.

• Examples of code reuse in C/C++

If we want to use all string functionality we can include string header and call the required method in our code area.

#include "stdio.h"
#include "string.h"  //Inclusion of string header file 

int main()
{
 if (strcmp("ncsucsc517","ncsucsc517")== 0) //strcmp is function provided by string library which compares two string.
 {
   printf("the string are same");
 }
return 0;
}

We can also create Macro and reuse it.Following example clearly explains it.

#include "stdio.h"
#define Cubeof(x) x*x*x  //Here at first we define a Macro that calculates the cube of a number
int main()
{
  int input = 6;
  printf("\nCubeof(x)=%i",Cubeof(input)); //Here we reuse the Macro "Cubeof"
  return 0;
}

In addition to above C++ also provides Standard Template Libraries(STL).Few STL libaries are
1.Container Library - Bitset,Dequeue,List,Map,Vector
2.Iterator Library - Iterator

• Examples of code reuse in Java

In java we use Package for code reuse.A Package is a collection of related files with a particular functionality and usability.Generally a package contains classes,interfaces etc.For example if we want to print todays date we can use Date Class provided by java.util package.Sample example illustrates it.

The example of a class inside a package.

 java.util.Date today = new java.util.Date();//java.util is a package which contains Date Class
 System.out.println("Todays Date is "+today);

The example of an Interface inside a package.

interface powerOf
{
	public void squareOf(int number);
	
}
public class calculator implements powerOf
{
	public void squareOf(int number)
	{
		int result;
		result = number * number;
		System.out.println("The square of the number is"+result);
	}
	public static void main(String args[])
	{
		calculator obj = new calculator();
		obj.squareOf(20);
	}
}

• Examples of code reuse in Ruby

In Ruby the code reuse is mainly done through usage of modules and mixins. The example of Module is

module Power
  NUMBER = 5
  def Power.Square(x)
    return x*x
  end
  def Power.Cube(x)
    return x*x*x
  end
end

cube = Power.Cube(Power::NUMBER)
puts cube

The example of Mixin is

class Calculator
  include Power        //We have included the module created above         
  def square_of_number number
    puts Power.Square(number) //Reusing the code
  end
end

obj = Calculator.new
obj.square_of_number 20

External Code reuse

External code reuse refers to the usage of a Third party Licensed Tool ,applications or framework.Either they come with certain cost or they are open source.

Some of the examples of external code reuse are

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is an open Source Web Application framework.It is used for rapid creation of web application and it uses agile methodologies.It provides various packages like
1.ActiveRecord

It is used as object relational mapping with database

2.ActiveResource

It provides webservice

3.Actionpack

It splits the response to a web request into two part.One goes to controller and another goes to view

4.ActiveSupport

It is the collection of utility classes and standard library extensions

5.ActionController

It acts as middle man between model and view.It routes the request of view to model by acting on request like save or update.Also it renders data from model to view.

Dont Repeat Yourself (DRY) Principle

In the field of software engineering we consider every code repetition as evil.So we strictly follow DRY Principle which states that

"Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system."
                                                                                 By: Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas.