Federal: A tool for federating reuse libraries over the internet

Abstract

A reuse library is an important element of formalizing the practice of reuse. It provides the mechanism to properly manage reusable components and make them available to software systems developers. Software developers welcome to the emergence of a robust marketplace of software components, as a highly competitive marketplace works to the advantage of both producers and consumers of software components. However, two essential requirements for a component marketplace have been slow to emerge: standard, interchangeable parts and the consumers' ability to find the right parts for the job at hand. Fortunately, recent advances and web technology are, at last, providing the means for satisfying these requirements. The goal of FedeRaL is to render the whole Internet as a federated reuse repository for reusable components.