The renaissance of CASE through computer aided reverse engineering (CARE)

CARE´s aim is to improve the maintainability of existing systems. This is achieved by simplification and abstraction and also by restructuring. During restructuring, the programming paradigms are transformed. The abstractions and transformations produced by current or future CARE tools still form a multiple paradigm environment of cooperating standard languages. In future, new tools must be provided within CASE for the design of the communication between various subsystems, each of which is developed using paradigms suited to the particular problem. The repository systems are seen as a decisive contribution to quality improvement in software development. The visualization of architectural relationships and the use of metrics lead to a significant reduction in structural infringements, compared with current-day editing. The term `software design´ is taking shape particularly due to the work in the region of the cognitive sciences. The influence of this science and the techniques of software representation derived from it may lead to a renaissance of CASE