Software components and reuse
Patrick A. V. Hall · ITNOW · 1987
Abstract Software components and software reuse have become very fashionable subjects. There have been regular seminars on the subject, and at the end of 1986 the Acard report SOFTWARE A vital key to UK competitiveness [1] weighed in, declaring that reuse and mathematics are critical to the future. Acard proposed that a software components industry should be established, with government action to ensure that this should come about. Why are such moves considered to be so important, and why won’t they come about naturally? From some of these initiatives the overall impression that might be gained is that the software industry has not been concerned with the reuse ot software. But is this really true? I argue here that reuse has been a major theme in the development or software technology, and then go on to consider possible future developments. What might happen, what might stop it happening? Will any of the current conjectures about reuse come about?