Using Object-Oriented Frameworks
Garry Froehlich, H. James Hoover, Ling Liu, Paul G. Sorenson · 1998
ion is useful for forming abstractions when developing frameworks. Reuse contracts can help to specify what methods need to be specialized in an abstract class, and define operators for creating new classes from an abstract class. In that way, they define how the class can be used. However, they primarily document how a subclass relates to its parent class, defining and documenting the changes between the classes. Reuse contracts are useful when frameworks evolve. The effects of changes to a parent class can be propagated down to all of its child classes through the reuse contracts. Using the relationships between reuse contracts defined by the operators, the contracts can indicate how much work is needed to update child classes, including those in previously built applications, when a framework changes. 7.3.6 Behavioral Contracts Behavioral contracts [Helm et al., 1990], are used to help design a framework and are also valuable for learning the framework and ensuring that the framewo...