A calculus of program modifications
R. Zalila Mili, Marc Frappier, Josée Desharnais, Amira Mili · 1997
It is common to distinguish between two paradigms of software reuse: black box reuse, which consists in reusing components verba- tim, without modifying them; and whit e boz reuse, which provides for making modifications to retrieved components before using them.Because software components are very information-rich (i.e. it takes a great deal of information to characterize a component), the chances of an exact match between an available component and a query are in general very slim; hence it is necessary to make provisions for adapting retrieved components to user requirements.This paper discusses a mathematical foundation for carrying out this modification process in a correctnear+preaerving manner.