Cracking Software Reuse
Diomidis D. Spinellis · IEEE Software · 2007
The Unix system and its pipelines are a model of software reuse. Although many subsequent developments weren't similarly successful, by looking at Wikipedia and its MediaWiki engine, we find many levels of successful reuse. It seems that software repositories, package-management systems, shared-library technologies, and language platforms have increased reuse's return on investment. The Internet has also catalyzed software reuse by bringing both developer groups and development efforts closer to their users