CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki2 7 co

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Code Reuse Methods and Mechanisms

  The best way to attack the essence of building software is not to build it at all.
        - Fredrick P. Brooks, Jr.,The Mythical Man-Month

In his 1975 classic, The Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks claimed that the implementation of design (what he called "accidental tasks") was essentially efficient enough that improvements in that area would not result in significant gains in productivity. Twenty years later, in a follow-up edition, he refined and clarified his view. He recognized that the rise of object-oriented languages and methodologies had the potential and promise of easy reuse, although he was still skeptical of dramatic productivity claims. Fundamentally, though, he saw that overall software development productivity can be enhanced through reuse.

This page will review some of the different techniques that are available for code reuse, and then a comparison of the techniques will be presented.

Code Reuse Through Direct Code Use

There are several classic code reuse mechanisms which work at the fundamental source code level. This section will discuss this class of mechanisms.

Cut & Paste

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Macros

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Includes

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Code Reuse through Subroutines

This section explores code reuse mechanisms that involve executing common blocks of code that can provide utility or common operations.

Gosub

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Procedures

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Functions

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Code Reuse through Extension

Many languages allow existing code to be reused through extensions that leave the original code unaltered. This section explores those mechanisms.

Methods

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Inheritance

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Polymorphism

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Generics

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Mixins/Modules

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Aspect

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Comparing the Various Mechanisms

Why Reuse Is Not Always Embraced

With all the various techniques available, code reuse is not universally embraced, either academically or commercially. What are the reasons for not reusing existing code?

  • Speed -
  • Lack of documentation -
  • Complexity -
  • Poor Design -
  • Licensing Issues -
  • Lack of Trust/Fear -

Conclusion

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References

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