Using information retrieval for software reuse

Software reuse is composed of two phases: a phase to select software products corresponding to the given need and a phase to adapt those projects. The first phase may be suitably fulfilled by an Information Retrieval System, but since semantics play an essential role in software reuse applications, the central notion of keyword of classic Information Retrieval Systems needs to be replaced. This paper presents a new approach to Information Retrieval based on semantics which is particularly appropriate for software reuse. An automated method is described to derive a semantic representation of the products from their documentation, and an intelligent retrieval process based on the use of knowledge is designed to broaden the retrieval scope