REUSABILITY OF MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE - A CONTRIBUTION

Mathematical software is devoted to solve problems involving matrix co mputation and manipulation. The main problem limiting the reusability of existing mathematical software is the following: programs are often not initially designed for being reused. Therefore, it is hard to fin d programs that can be easily reused. In the first part or this paper, we give a programming methodology useful for designing and implementi ng reusable code. We name unit a portion of code designed and implemen ted for being reused. Our units are self-contained software components featuring a high degree of information hiding. This way of organizing software facilitates the reuse process and, furthermore, improves the understandability of units. To speed up the implementation process, a system supporting the reusability of units from an existing software library is particularly useful. In the second part of this paper, we r eport about an easy to use system of this kind.