A catalog of techniques for resolving packaging mismatch
Robert A DeLine · 1999
1 abstract A problem that often hampers the smooth integration of reused components into a new system is the packaging mis- match problem: when one or more of a component's com- mitments about interaction with other components are not supported in the context of integration. Although system integrators have faced and surmounted this problem for decades, their experience largely exists as unrecorded folk- lore and as specific papers in separate research communities — a situation which makes it difficult to systematically understand and solve an instance of this problem. In order to allow system integrators to attack packaging mismatches systematically, what is known about the problem and its solutions must assembled and organized. To take a step in this direction, this paper first discriminates the chief charac- teristics of component packaging, which are the sources of mismatch. It provides a catalog of techniques to resolve packaging mismatch, organized according to the architec- tural commitments involved: on-line and off-line bridges, wrappers, intermediate representations, mediators, unilat- eral and bilateral negotiation, and component extension. Finally, it describes the issues involved in resolving packag- ing mismatch, aspect by aspect.