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No Name: Just Notes on Software Reuse

No Name: Just Notes on Software Reuse. Robert Biddle, Angela Martin, James Noble.

In the beginning, so our myths and stories tell us, the programmer created the program from the eternal nothingness of the void. In this essay, we recognise that programs these days are like any other assemblage, and suggest that in fact programming has always been about reuse. We also explore the nature of reuse, and claim that Components themselves are not the most important consideration for reuse; it is the end product, the composition. The issues still involve value, investment, and return. But pervasive reuse promotes a change in the method of construction of the program, and in the program itself.

This report isn't new, but seeing as it's awfully quiet around here and it does contain amusing pictures and quotations, I thought I'd share the link.