Compositional software reuse with case-based reasoning

Case-based reasoning can be applied to software reuse. The approach presented goes beyond furnishing a library of potentially reusable modules and provides a tool that supports the process of reusing software. It uses case-based reasoning to add flexibility and adaptability to the compositional model of reuse. The authors describe the structure of the case base, emphasizing the case acquisition process during which high level functional information is associated with its components. The system performs advanced data-flow analysis of source code to guide acquisition of the functional specification of a library of software modules. The system then decomposes a user´s problem, retrieves matching cases, and adapts and assembles their code. The data-flow of the result is again analyzed to produce test cases which can be used to evaluate the success of case-based reasoning