Automatic programming research in the 1970s rated their techniques using a power function. The power function of a technique is the ratio of effort required to develop a system using the technique over the effort required to develop the same system using conventional techniques. Software reuse recognizes that large gains in the power function are achieved by reusing system artifacts. Domain analysis recognizes that large gains in reuse are achieved by reusing as much analysis and design as possible. The Draco approach recognizes that large gains from DA are achieved by having the domains reuse each other. The power function fails to recognize the expense of putting the technique in place. The author believes we are on an evolutionary path from cheaply implemented component libraries through one domain generation to very expensive domain hierarchies. As more demands are put on software production and education, the costs will become justified.

The paper discusses constraints on software reuse and suggests a method for eliminating these constraints. Topics such as program compilers, program understanding and interfacing to existing systems are considered.

More than ten years ago the first major workshop on "Reusability in Programming" was held. Since that time some technologies have advanced and come into successful commercial use while others have gone unused. New management and abstraction techniques have aided reuse. Interfacing to huge abstractions, now in common use, has made reuse more difficult. This paper is not a formal survey of reuse technology but instead discusses the evolution of early concepts and the issues they raise. Much of the research of the original workshop participants is just now becoming relevant. In some cases the research of the past points to problems and solutions for the present. As part of this examination the activities in reuse for the next ten years are forecast and a guide of hard questions to ask purveyors of reuse technology is provided.>

The paper presents a lifecycle model that corresponds to a factor of ten improvement in software development productivity. It is argued that this level of productivity may be met today without aiding the general software crisis. Success and failure in software is not just a matter of improving software development productivity. Software flexibility for a changing world must also be maintained.>

More than twenty years ago the idea of producing software systems from reusable software components was proposed. Since that time many changes have taken place in Computer Science and Software Engineering, but software systems are still built as one-of-a-kind craftsman efforts. A method for software construction using components is rationalized using experience from software components, program transformations, system architecture, industrial large systems, automatic programming and program generation. Experience with the method is discussed. The limiting factors of the method that prevent the widespread use of reusable software components are identified.

This paper discusses an approach called Draco to the construction of software systems from reusable software parts. In particular we are concerned with the reuse of analysis and design information in addition to programming language code. The goal of the work on Draco has been to increase the productivity of software specialists in the construction of similar systems. The particular approach we have taken is to organize reusable software components by problem area or domain. Statements of programs in these specialized domains are then optimized by source-to-source program transformations and refined into other domains. The problems of maintaining the representational consistency of the developing program and producing efficient practical programs are discussed. Some examples from a prototype system are also given.