Evolution and Composition of Object-Oriented Frameworks Michael Mattsson University of Karlskrona/Ronneby Department of Software Engineering and Computer Science ISBN 91-628-3856-3 © Michael Mattsson, 2000 Cover background: Digital imagery® copyright 1999 PhotoDisc, Inc. Printed in Sweden Kaserntryckeriet AB Karlskrona, 2000 To Nisse, my father-in-law - who never had the opportunity to study as much as he would have liked to This thesis is submitted to the Faculty of Technology, University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering. Contact Information: Michael Mattsson Department of Software Engineering and Computer Science University of Karlskrona/Ronneby Soft Center SE-372 25 RONNEBY SWEDEN Tel.: +46 457 38 50 00 Fax.: +46 457 27 125 Email:
[email protected] URL: http://www.ipd.hk-r.se/rise Abstract This thesis comprises studies of evolution and composition of object-oriented frameworks, a certain kind of reusable asset. An object-oriented framework is a set of classes that embodies an abstract design for solutions to a family of related prob- lems. The work presented is based on and has its origin in industrial contexts where object-oriented frameworks have been developed, used, evolved and managed. Thus, the results are based on empirical observations. Both qualitative and quanti- tative approaches have been used in the studies performed which cover both tech- nical and managerial aspects of object-oriented framework technology. Historically, object-oriented frameworks are large monolithic assets which require several design iterations and are therefore costly to develop. With the requirement of building larger applications, software engineers have started to compose multiple frameworks, thereby encountering a number of problems.