Reuse by Contract

Bernd Fischer
Gregor Snelting

Abt. Softwaretechnologie, Technische Universität Braunschweig
Bültenweg 88, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Tel: +49-531-391-7579
Fax: +49-531-391-8140
Email: {fisch,snelting}@ips.cs.tu-bs.de

Abstract:

Reuse by contract is the application of formal methods to software reuse: software components are associated with contracts--formal models of their functional behaviour--and administered, retrieved, and reused by these. We argue that reuse by contract is necessary for safe reuse in a formal process model, but is helpful even for more traditional software development. We discuss some obstacles against the use of formal component specifications, and propose some solutions in order to make reuse by contract practical.

Keywords: formal methods, reuse, software component retrieval, specification matching, automated deduction.

Workshop Goals: Discuss the design of reusable component libraries; discuss ways to mitigate acceptance problems; discuss tool architectures; study relation with OO design methods; study combination with structural code reuse mechanism (e.g., patterns or functors.)