J. Sametinger: Classification on Composition and Interoperation, Poster Session, OOPSLA ´96, San Jose, CA, USA, October 6-10, 1996. PDF
Object-oriented programming has resulted in the reuse of class libraries and application frameworks. This can considerably improve the productivity in software development. Black-box reuse boosts productivity more than white-box reuse. However, white-box reuse is the usual means of dealing with common parts in different applications, assuming that the same developers are building these applications or they somehow know about these commonalties.
With a case study we will demonstrate that both code and documentation can and have to be reused systematically and that there is a need for methods and tools for doing so. Literate programming and software reuse are not in contradiction. However, current literate programming systems do not explicitly support software reuse, even though, as the study will show, there is a high demand for doing so.
We will also present a way for systematic reuse of documentation. Inheritance and information hiding, that ease reusing object-oriented software, will be applied to literate programs and thus, enable their reuse.
Keywords: literate programming, software reuse, software documentation, object-oriented programming, documentation inheritance