Adapting Object-Oriented Components

Abstract

component-based software development is one of the more promising approaches to reuse existing software. However, “as-is” reuse seldomly occurs and reusable components generally need to be adapted. Component adaptation techniques should be transparent, black-box, composable, configurable, reusable and efficient to use. Unfortunately, existing component do not these requirements. To address this, this paper discusses superimposition, a black-box adaptation technique that allows one to impose predefined, but configurable types of adaptation functionality on a reusable component. In addition, three categories of typical adaptation types are discussed, related to the component interface, component composition and monitoring.