Visualizing Code Variabilities for Supporting Reuse Decisions

Software reuse is the practice of using artifacts from existing systems to build new ones. It has been shown effective for improving quality and maintainability and for reducing cost and development time. Human factors have been identified as significant barriers to a wider adoption of reuse practices in industry. In this paper we consider a tool-supported approach for systematic reuse of object-oriented programs (written in Java) based on polymorphism-inspired mechanisms. The suggested tool gets as input implementations of multiple products, and produces a visual representation of the similarities and variabilities between their classes in terms of exhibits behaviors, as well as presents possible reuse options. We discuss the suitability of this approach for educational and training settings, and specifically for supporting reuse decisions of novice developers.