1997: the year of the component

Component use in application software has been limited by the inability of development environments to integrate components constructed using different tools and languages. At present, the marketplace is undergoing major upheaval in its evolution toward the component paradigm. A new class of development environment is emerging that will become the powerhouses of component-based development. These so-called assembly environments will seamlessly integrate multiple component implementations that incorporate best-of-breed functionality in complex applications. However, before this vision becomes reality, application environments must overcome some tough technical challenges. The paper considers six critical points that organizations should look out for when setting out their blueprint for component-based development