Automated Reusable Software component Search and Retrieval

The proposed research seeks to develop an automated method for searching a reuse reposing or and retrieving reusable software components using algebraic specifications. Each component in the repository has an associated algebraic specification that describes both the type signature of its interface and its computational behavior. The OBJ3 language and system is used to do equational reasoning via term rewriting to efficiently support component searching based upon both type matching and behavior matching. This approach is capable of filtering out all components whose interface or computational behavior is incompatible with the query. This greatly improves the selectivity of component retrieval and reduces human effort required to identify the useful components in the set of components retrieved by a query. The new methods enable effective use of large software repositories by improving the useful yield of queries and reducing the amount of knowledge users must have about repository contents and organization. This approach also helps improve repository component quality by enabling more effective automated testing.