An empirical study of representation methods for reusable software components

Author

Frakes, William B. ; Pole, Thomas P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Falls Church, VA, USA

Volume

20

Issue

8

fYear

1994

fDate

8/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

617

Lastpage

630

Abstract

An empirical study of methods for representing reusable software components is described. Thirty-five subjects searched for reusable components in a database of UNIX tools using four different representation methods: attribute-value, enumerated, faceted, and keyword. The study used Proteus, a reuse library system that supports multiple representation methods. Searching effectiveness was measured with recall, precision, and overlap. Search time for the four methods was also compared. Subjects rated the methods in terms of preference and helpfulness in understanding components. Some principles for constructing reuse libraries. Based on the results of this study, are discussed

Keywords

knowledge representation; software reusability; subroutines; Proteus; UNIX tools; attribute-value; component indexing; component understanding; database; empirical methods; enumerated classification; experimentation; faceted classification; information storage and retrieval; keyword; keyword searching; multiple representation; representation methods; reusable software components; reuse libraries; reuse library system; software reuse; Application software; Buildings; Computer languages; Databases; Indexing; Information retrieval; Keyword search; Software libraries; Software quality; Software reusability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/32.310671

Filename

310671