Using RDL to Facilitate Customization of Variability Points

Reusable software assets have variability points, which are locations for customization. Reusable asset consumers, i.e. reusers, must become knowledgeable about the techniques used to implement variability, and the activities required to customize the variability points. Moreover reuse activities must be constrained to a specific sequence to avoid a lengthy error-prone reuse process and inconsistencies in the final application. Specifying reuse activities required to customize variability points using a programming language is a valuable contribution to the reuse process, given the way reuse is clearly exposed. Moreover reuse scripts described in such a language can be input to a reuse environment for automatic or semi-automatic assistance to the reuse process. In this work we discuss software reuse activities and illustrate how RDL (Reuse Description Language) can be used to facilitate variability point¿s customization.