Automated synthesis of interface adapters for reusable classes

摘要

The need to fit together reusable components and system designs in spite of differences in protocol and representation choices occurs often in object-oriented software construction. It is therefore necessary to use adapters to achieve an exact fit between the available "socket" for a reusable part and the actual part. In this paper we discuss an approach to the construction of tools that largely automate the synthesis of adapter code. Such tools are important in reducing the effort involved in reuse since adapter synthesis can be challenging and error-prone in the complex type environment of an object-oriented language. Our approach is applicable to statically typed languages like C++ and Eiffel, and is based on a formal notion of adaptability which is related to but distinct from both subtyping and inheritance.