On the Representation of Product Lines using Pluggable Software Units: Results from an Exploratory Study

摘要

The effective development of software product lines (SPLs) requires the ability to create a large variety of applications from a repository of assets. These assets provide the basic building blocks for supporting the creation of each specific product. In this paper we exploit the potential of independent and pluggable software units (PUs) for assembling the products of a related family. PUs support application variability through Inheritance of Topology (IT), a construct that reuses the topology of PUs network models. IT enables new applications to be derived from existing ones by just requiring the definition of the differences. We present results from the development of a microwave oven SPL.