Object-oriented application frameworks are becoming an increasingly popular part of software development but there has been little work on studying how they are actually used. An object-oriented application framework comprises a design and an object-oriented implementation of that design meant to apply to a broad range of applications, or subsystems within a single domain, such as graphical user interfaces. FrameScan is an ongoing study with the goal of understanding how developers can effectively and efficiently understand and deploy framework technology to construct and evolve their applications. In order to study how frameworks are used, 34 students of a senior year software engineering course were divided up into six teams of five or six students each. Each team had three months to design and implement a small client-server application of their choosing with the requirement that a framework for client-server computing called CSF (Client-Server Framework) be used as part of the project. The conclusions of the study are presented.

An object-oriented application framework provides a generic design within a given domain and a reusable implementation of that design.Frameworks have great potential for reuse, but that potential can only be achieved if the framework can be understood and used effectively by application developers.The complexity of the design and implementation of a framework can make understanding the framework difficult, and so good documentation and guidance to the framework user is needed.Several methods exist for documenting the design of the framework, but less work has been done on documenting the purpose of the framework and how it is intended to be used.In this paper, we introduce the concept of hooks as a means of documenting and providing guidance on the intended use of a framework.Each hook provides a concise solution to a focused requirement or problem within the context of the framework.Solutions for more complex requirements can be provided by combining several hooks.A discussion and means of describing hooks is given, with a focus on the method of adaption used to fulfill the requirement and the level of support provided for the solution within the framework.