SOFTWARE REUSE USING C- THE QUESTION OF INHERITANCE(+ CLASSES )

The purpose of this research is to explore the productivity benefits g ained by software reuse in the object-oriented paradigm. There are two types of object-oriented software reuse: black box reuse (class reuse without modification) and white box reuse (class reuse by deriving a new class from and existing one (inheritance)). Each type is examined for its effect on programmer productivity using two related experiment s. The results of these experiments show that black box reuse increase s programmer productivity, but the benefits of white box reuse are les s clear. In order to derive new classes effectively, the parent (libra ry) class must be understood. This research suggests that black box re use in the object-oriented paradigm should be encouraged in all progra mmers, but white box reuse should be performed by a library specialist (manager) to remove the overhead of understanding the library's imple mentation in order to reuse it effectively. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.