An empirical study of representation methods for reusable software components

• Published in: IEEE transactions on software engineering Vol. 20; no. 8; pp. 617 - 630
• Main Authors: Frakes, W.B., Pole, T.P.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.08.1994; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: Application software; Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Bibliographic records; Buildings; Classification; Computer languages; Computer programming; Computer science; control theory; systems; Engineers; Exact sciences and technology; Indexing; Information retrieval; Information retrieval. Graph; Information storage; Information systems. Data bases; Keyword search; Keywords; Knowledge representation; Library and information science; Library catalogs; Memory organisation. Data processing; Methods; Software; Software engineering; Software libraries; Software quality; Software reusability; Studies; Systems development; Theoretical computing; UNIX; Database; Information retrieval; Information storage; Software; Classification; Reuse
• ISSN: 0098-5589; 1939-3520
• DOI: 10.1109/32.310671

An empirical study of methods for representing reusable software components is described. Thirty-five subjects searched for reusable components in a database of UNIX tools using four different representation methods: attribute-value, enumerated, faceted, and keyword. The study used Proteus, a reuse library system that supports multiple representation methods. Searching effectiveness was measured with recall, precision, and overlap. Search time for the four methods was also compared. Subjects rated the methods in terms of preference and helpfulness in understanding components. Some principles for constructing reuse libraries. Based on the results of this study, are discussed.< >